Guild Wars 2

don’t forget that the sneak drone gives the engi a fair amount of stealth – so that’s more stealth on classes that don’t get heavy nerfed for it.

Karl McLain.5604:

Ricochet in its previous implementation is not slated to return at this time.
When the trait system was condensed, the standard was set in that each weapon set could only have one trait. Being that a player might want to receive increased damage from pistols, but not necessarily inherit the RNG bounce attacks from the secondary trait, this secondary trait was cut.
I will say though that pistols are something we’ll be looking to improve, being as they feel under-tuned at the moment.

-Karl

while I’m not sure if the removal of ricochet was a good idea or not, I’m pretty chuffed to know that Pistols are being looked at, thanks for the heads up.

Karl McLain.5604:

Hey all,
here’s some other changes that happened today.

note: There was a bit of feedback that the auto-attack wasn’t up to snuff. We took a look today and decided that it was quite the case, being that damage on this weapon set is more localized onto the auto-attack.
Staff Strike: Increased damage by 5%.
Staff Bash: Increased damage by 18%.
Punishing Strikes: Increased damage by 20% per attack. Added a missile reflect skill fact.
Hook Strike: Increased damage by ~250%. note: The damage is still on the lower side for the weapon, but now deals more than practically zero. This ability is intended to set up high damage combos through crowd control, thus we’re trying to keep the damage lower than other from-stealth abilities.

Weakening Charge: This ability is now targeted, with the animation being cleaned up a bit. Distance traveled is slightly less, to increase the ease of landing multiple hits on a target. Reduced aftercast slightly (120ms).

Debilitating Arc: Included an evade fact. This ability continues to evade from the start of the ability.

Impaling Lotus: Removed the hidden initiative cost.

EDIT FOR BOLD!!!!!!

the AA damage changes are really nice to see, and I’m now leaning a little more towards switching to staff daredevil than sticking with my condition thief.

however, I’d just like to reiterate – as many above me have:

• Animations: the basic animations still need work. I realise that it’s not an easy thing to change, but an acknowledgement of the issue would be a massive help.

• Condition Cleansing: the decision to not make Escapist’s Absolution baseline is still massively undermined by the base professions’s poor condition cleanse. if this could be addressed in some way, I think that’d make a big difference (either by switching EA and DF, or by indicating that base thief will see more condition cleanse in upcoming balance patches)

that aside, it’s nice to see the continuing changes to the class, and hopefully we can get this spec to a really good place before launch.

Lonewolf Kai.3682:

Shinjiko.1352:

Meanwhile on the Revenant section….

*random post about maybe adding a unique Dodge animation * – " sure why not, in fact I’ll change a few other animations too because I love you guys".

I only wish all the classes got the same love rev is getting.

Lol, I’m not a random poster. I’ve been quite active in the Revenant community even before it had it’s own forum section.

the point is that once class can have what is – in the grand scheme of things – a minor and superfluous animation added by their dev – and quite quickly too, but when Everyone agrees that almost all of the daredevil’s animations are unfitting and recycled, we hear… nothing.

it’s less about your post and more about the difference in response quality.

Zakka.2153:

The biggest animation that bugs me on both thief staff and Rev is the spinning in mid air using force powers. Just seems silly….

actually, considering that Revenants are magic-users, it makes sense for them.

thieves however…

Cynz.9437:

/15 charrs with apples

TYYYYBBBAAAAAALLLLLLTTTTT!!!

it’s nice to see the changes done so far, and I appreciate the work you’ve put into this.

that said, a few questions/comments on this feedback:

• Dodge Rolls: This is a tad disappointing. while you’ve acknowledged the issues with the animations, there’s a few other issues that haven’t even been mentioned
  - the placement of the supposed profession mechanic in the traitline. you don’t even have to change it, just explain why it’s done like this?
  - some people have raised the question of damage on the lotus training dodge – this hasn’t been mentioned – either as something to fix or something that’s intended.

• Weakening Charge: as has been mentioned above, the number of targets is nice, but the chance of hitting even one target is difficult. (though I appreciate that you mentioned looking into new targetting methods just a thought – maybe a directionally targeting strategy like Whirlwind attack – that’d do what you described)

Staff

• Animations: the only animation you mentioned was the one on weaknening charge, and even then only in passing. animations are far and away the single biggest reported issue with this specialisation, and I’m really confused and disappointed that this wasn’t addressed.

• Dust Strike: while this helps a little, it really would make more sense as an AoE – you could even throw a dark field on for a little more in the way of combo options (let’s be fair, all the combo fields are on the ranged weapons, which are kinda crap)

• Vault: this is a nice skill, but I think it needs something to make it a little more usable. more range, an evade, or an increase in speed would all be a huge help.

• Overall Purpose: as is, there’s not a huge amount of incentive to take Staff over other weapons. as a utility, it’s still not contesting Infiltrator’s Arrow Shortbow, damage wise it’s not beating D/D, and for multiple enemies, Sword’s still as good an option.
  - if this is meant to be a good raw damage weapon, then the basic attack could use some more damage, and vault needs a way to hit reliably.
  - alternatively, keeping the damage as-is, and increasing the number of targets would make it a much more AoE-style weapon, and make it markedly different in purpose when compared to the sword, for example. (vault could still use work in this scenario)
  - if this is meant to be a good utility weapon, give vault some more range and make dust strike an AoE combo field

Utilities:

• Distracting Daggers: this is a nice change, and makes the skill a lot more usable.

• Fist Flurry: while these changes make the skill more rewarding, it still doesn’t change the fact that the skill is very difficult to land, and the increase in damage doesn’t do enough to justify this.

Traits

• Escapist’s Absolution: while this argument you made about this trait would be perfectly valid on any other class, it’s not true for thief. we’ve got terrible condition cleanse to the point where certain specialisations are borderline mandatory to access the few we do have. couple this with our low health pool, and we’re possibly the most vulnerable class to conditions – moreso than revenant – for whom conditions are the designed weakness. unlike revenant however, we have other weaknesses in the form of raw damage, crit damage, being revealed, AoEs, and likely several others I’ve missed.

ultimately, I’d agree – EA being a major makes sense in giving us an choice between damage, survivability, and utility – but the base class is so woefully deficient in condition cleansing that it’s not a choice between these three. it’s a choice of having a decent defence against conditions or not.

• Evasive Empowerment: this change is nice, and gives the daredevil a bit more burst.

the other traits seem to be bugfixes, which are nice to see but don’t leave me with much else to say.

let’s be fair; dungeon selling is tolerated, but Anet have no obligation – and I suspect no
motivation – to support it in any way shape or form.

and I suspect Anet care a whole lot more about F2P players than dungeon sellers.

Medens.4960:

I would like them to renovate Orr.

Can’t speak for Dwayna, Balthazar, Melandru, Lyssa or Grenth, but I don’t recall Kormir ever doing her own work…

that said, I’d like to see both the return of the gods and the renovation of Orr, separately or together.

okay, we seem to be dropping feedback here, so here goes:

• Individual Events Lack Reward – no exp, no karma, no drops from mobs, no gold, no exp on kill. nothing to make individual events rewarding at all.

• Playing an Event Through is Unrewarding – you actually get more from running from event to event tagging, and if everyone did this, they’d all fail.

• Disconnecting Removes all Rewards – not only do you lose all stacks, you also lose any chance of loot for stacks gained after reconnecting.

• Event Difficulty is all Wrong – I’ve had two sorts of event, one in which I get instakilled repeatedly so often I’m getting my downed penalty maxed out before I have time to dodge roll, or the event goes so fast that I’m not getting a chance to hit.

• Event Placement – the odd placement and low duration of the events mean it can be tough to get to them, and usually causes the players to use waypoints often. this causes a great deal of gold to be spent – which is annoying for older players and prohibitive to the newer ones – not to mention that lacking waypoints can cause bigger issues (such as not getting to events)

• Reward Ratios – as it stands, to get some of the more expensive (sought after) items, you’d need to put in what is, frankly, an unrealistic amount of time. given the short time in which the event is available, and the bugs getting in the way, many players will be flat out unable to get the rewards they’re hoping for, which will result in a lot of bitter, disappointed players.

• Previous Advertisement was Inaccurate – previous posts advertising the event implied that guilds would be a significant part of this event – where in truth it’s no more guild related than any other events in the zone, or anywhere for that matter. this is misleading, and led to a false sense of expectation that was not met.

I may have missed stuff, and if so I’ll edit it in later.

Behellagh.1468:

Thanks for admitting that there is a problem. That’s sort of a change from business as usual. You normally crash dive and run silent if a lot of players complain about an unannounced change (ie previously enchanted boosters losing karma as a choice).

question: do you want the constructive feedback here or in another thread?

Pino.5209:

Lol, the negativity on chat can’t be good for the new f2p players. When players are upset, they chat about all negative stuffs anet has pulled off over the years. Not good.
Cancel and push it back till it’s fixed.

an event which is hard to get rewards out of, requires decent map completion and cost a bunch of gold – for both waypoints and rewards – and which will skritt all over you should you have the misfortune to disconnect (which happens often, due to the zerg mentality this event furthers?)

I’d imagine it’s highly popular with new and F2P players… great endorsement of the game right here.

bacon.9461:

Seems to me they should give the blooms based on gold/silver/bronze rating. It would solve two issues, people dc’ing and losing all their stacks, and people running around tagging events.

Gold gives 5 (as you put effort forth),
Silver gives 3
Bronze gives 1

Tagging 30 events would net you 30, but participating in 6 events gets you the same. And its pretty easy to be in 5-10 events. I found it a decent bit harder to run around tagging.

I did one event where I definitely contributed – killed several volatile husks myself, threw the bombs, cleared the trash mobs – I don’t think I could’ve contributed more – and got bronze. it’s a bad system atm.

ShadoDancer.7401:

Gray.9041:

having patched, I just completed another run of this event.

despite a disconnect which lost me 10 stacks, I persevered, and managed to rack up 7 stacks, with the map achieving 48 events completed

I got nothing.

this fix doesn’t feel so great tbh.

I don’t know, everyone who completed the Brisban Wildlands run I was in got chests that rewarded upwards of 5 for everyone who ran it. But the xp gain and loot drop from the events themselves has still not been resolved.

well, I’ve checked and I didn’t get any blooms. many people did, but I saw a number who didn’t.

the issue’s smaller, not gone.

doesn’t help that disconnects have become far more common in recent months.

having patched, I just completed another run of this event.

despite a disconnect which lost me 10 stacks, I persevered, and managed to rack up 7 stacks, with the map achieving 48 events completed

I got nothing.

this fix doesn’t feel so great tbh.

munki.6402:

This events intent was to bring guilds into these low level zones and expose new players who otherwise might never have met them.

ah, that explains the lack of guild integration and waypoint requirement. also the gold requirements on loot.

munki.6402:

The event is bugged.

yes. but a lot of the issues aren’t bugs, they’re design problems.

Behellagh.1468:

I can understand where ANet is coming from with the lack of normal loot, they are looking to avoid what happen with the clockwork invasion where many players said stuff the event, lets just spawn and fight champs.

or… just give each enemy a chance to drop blooms, maybe a little silver/copper?

or, given the addition of the wallet to fix exactly this problem, why are we still using token items at all?

Gaile Gray.6029:

SRoode.7318:

I’m 46. I do not do Reddit. I was so happy to see an unexpected event today, but before I started I saw the posts here about the reward issue. Hey, no big deal, we all make mistakes and I’m sure it will be fixed through a patch very soon. Can you just please post status and update info here more often, instead of Reddit?

BTW, I love the game, it’s the only one I play.

I post here first, always. Unless—-as happened today — our forums have a glitch that prevents it. We are unable to log in for some time, although many of us tried. You may have had the same issue this morning, as well.

This is our official forum and my team and I treat it as such. Apologies for any confusion that the post on Reddit caused, but I weighed waiting for the forums to right themselves against the benefits of giving players needed information, and decided upon the latter. I’m sure, on reflection, you’d agree that’s the way to go when circumstances demand it. Fortunately, the official forums are quite stable and we seldom have to make that choice.

definitely the right choice, and I’m glad you dealt with it the way you did.

and thank you for always doing your best to keep people informed, even when things get hectic.

this is a general rule of thumb. negative comments are always more outspoken than positive ones, because when things are good, people are playing the game, not sitting on forums waiting for a fix because they don’t know what else to do.

and on the flip side to your argument – why did Anet advertise this as being a “good time to be in a guild”? there’s literally no guild involvement in this event.

what happened is simple Anet gave players hope. new content, new rewards, something to keep people entertained. then the content came, was nothing near what was described, and that hope was taken away – of course people are going to be angry. (and i doubt the declining quality of the anniversary sale has helped people maintain positive attitudes).

the simple truth is, Anet can do a lot of things that many in the game would love, but they simply don’t. so if people aren’t as happy or polite, maybe that’s something to consider.

also, this event was waaaaay over-hyped. even ignoring the bug it’s left wanting by a simple comparison to Scarlet’s invasions.

Ayrilana.1396:

They will increase the blooms as it’s been stated that not enough is being awarded.

I’ve heard that the people not getting blooms is a bug – nothing about the number of blooms.

iSwim.3195:

woops it should be 30 minutes times 90 runs. but the math is the same.

not true. that’s the amount of playtime. since the events are once an hour, your numbers are half the time it’ll take.

just wondering – was the 5 bloom reward intended? if so, the event is badly designed, and if not – will those who only got 5 blooms get the number intended?

I’m still holding out on the hope that this is not representative, but I know people who are now extremely doubtful about HoT following this event. it’s really not a good day to be Anet.

Greysonn.3698:

Even if there were no bugs the event is a complete copy paste idea of the scarlet invasion. It is the same event (with maybe a 1% alteration into 3 variants, one with catapults, one with shield generators, and one with bombs) for half an hour. Over and over and over again. Most fun I’ve ever had.

Scarlet’s invasions were more fun, dropped more loot/exp/karma, and were apparently better tested.

redcomyn.4651:

This is just a big zergfest. Not fun at all. I quit after10 minutes and went on to other things. I won’t be doing any more of them.

To be fair, I don’t know what Anet could do to make it more interesting. It just seems to be the nature of big events, big zergfests. Yuk!!

I actaully got the opposite impression. if you want to get the most events done, you should be splitting up (into zergs, yes, but smaller zergs) and tackling events simultaneously.

SkiTz.4590:

Manasa Devi.7958:

SkiTz.4590:

What did you expect? silverwastes 2.0???

I expected nothing.

I was still disappointed.

Sounds like a personal problem….

If you expect nothing, than you should have no emotional response…. yet somehow you are still disappointed….that means you had some kind of expectation…

Malcom in the Middle.

that’s Malcom in the Middle.

that’s what it’s from.

Zention.1849:

Could we calm down a little bit! That’s not the first time ANET failed considerably and it surely won’t be the last time. So keep all your complaints for later disappointments. They are to come and they will come big.

no, it’s not, and that’s the problem they’ve been selling – not taking orders for, but selling their expansion based on faith, and this really isn’t a good endorsment for them.

also, this is the first big event since F2P launched. they’re not exactly sending a great message for people considering investing in the game,

Zention.1849:

This event should have needed some more love and more than just a ludicrous forum post.

if you mean by players as feedback: a more in-depth look at the issues
if you mean by the devs… shrug

Zention.1849:

I know that the matter is being addressed at the moment, still an “official” forum post would be much appreciated. That shows just how little this “event” was planned in the long run.

at this point, I’m not quite sure what you’re advocating, but I agree with this bit.

for my part I’d say:

• the events are badly balanced – often they die too quick (people spend too much time walking and not enough fighting)

• the events are not rewarding in and of themselves – no experience or loot from enemies, no karma – they feel totally unrewarding. (heck, I remember leveling characters back when scarlet invaded)

• the events are boring – this varies from one to the next, but the catapult one’s really bad; repeated catapulting, which can take forever if someone unpracticed gets to the catapults first. to be honest, some of these feel worse than a standard tank’n’spank

• the blooms are bugged or bad – if you were lucky, you got 5 blooms at the end. I know a bug was involved here, but to what extent? was it just the not getting rewards or was it the number?

• for an event marketed so heavily around guilds, there’s no guild integration – this confuses me. the whole “it’s a good time to be in a guild” message is just plain wrong. it’s not a good time to be in a guild. being in a guild has literally no bearing on the outcome of this event whatsoever.

• For an event aimed at new players, it sure isn’t new player friendly – nice rewards – if you’ve got piles of gold. lots of events – but you’ll need waypoints to make it on time. interactive fighting – but if you’re not experienced in the game (catapult mechanics, etc) you’ll have trouble completing the event, or maybe even cause it to fail.

it kinda feels badly thought through to be honest. the one positive for me is:

• The Rewards are actually quite nice – having previously gem-store only or even unavailable items be the rewards is nice, though undermined by the above issues.

the idea of bringing these skins back into the game is nice, but doesn’t fix the implementation of the event.

overall, I feel this event needed some serious work, and was ruined by the advertising long before it ever started. (note – don’t advertise what you can’t deliver. it’s a really bad move.)

Mord.9237:

Kocoff.7582:

Bloodwine.6450:

Now with the Thief feedback thread…

Forum: "Hey Karl, there’s about 7 pages of people who all agree the Daredevil needs the following:

hahahahahaha SO much accuracy in that sentence.

I feel you completely and idk how they will fix Thief and even the DD trait line in 6 weeks. Will there be another BWE before HoT?

There better be, or Druid and Forge are screwed. I thought I read somewhere that there will be 2 more BWEs before launch, I may be delusional. But I agree, with OP completely, Rev is their baby, good luck everybody else, have fun with your half baked elite specs.

2 more including BWE2. so only 1 left. sucks for medium armour classes

Justine.6351:

Why are so many people excited for gliding but so many are turned off by underwater?

-Both are 3rd spaces you can move in.
-Gliding is much more restrictive.
-Underwater has combat.

What specifically makes the gliding experience better then underwater? And no “getting to places you cant get to by walking or swimming” because that is simply by design.

emphasis mine. underwater combat is bad. sometimes, less is more.

Kocoff.7582:

Losing ini for a failed teleport is a serious pain and it got me killed a few times like that too. Same applies for Steal.

you know, if they’re gonna keep balancing thief around the defensive properties of stealth and the mobility of shadowstep…

they should make sure these actually kittening work

stop breaking shadowstep, stop nerfing stealth, and/or stop pretending these are anywhere near as strong as your balancing implies.

Vornollo.5182:

Tonikor.5637:

Bllade.1029:

WHoever suggested turning the three different dodges into an F3-F4-F5 skill. Thats a fantastic idea.

Take dodges out of the grandmaster traits and replace them with something else.

Thank you.

But it seems some forum heroes dont like the idea and think its overpowered… sigh.

It really would nothing more but fair to reimplement the dodges in such a way.
Truly it is quite outrageous to be the only Elite Specialization that has that what makes it stand out from the core spec locked behind Grandmaster Traits.
Like someone noted above, it’s not like the dodges have a lot of synergy between them so I don’t see how this would be overpowered.

Having the GM’s instead do something beneficial to this dodge-swapping, Steal or general Offense/Defense/Utility would be much more solid.

I think the big issue here is that there are two trains of thought being mixed up:

• new dodges shouldn’t be tied to GM traits

• new dodges should all be available.

so while I think most people agree with the first, many – like myself – would be happy(er) with a single selectable revenant-legend-like box which allows us to select one dodge, and so object to the idea of having all three dodges available – not to removing them from the trait line.

(so it’s probably people disagreeing with the details, not the direction)

while I agree with you on the general amount and quality of interaction with this profession, we’ve not really had much feedback from any of the professions yet, so I don’t think we can be too upset about the delay this time.

wait and see. if Rev/Herald/Chrono/Reaper get their immaculately detailed feedback and we still haven’t gotten a reply, then it’s a more valid complaint.

darkaheart.4265:

we sure have a ton of access to poison and weakness :P

not enough poison to match the damage of a burn engi/guard, and weakness is a defensive condition, not a damaging one.

Amante.8109:

You could even have the Grandmaster traits all affect Steal in some way, bringing a core theme back into the mix. This could also serve to offer another trait line that could replace Trickery, if done right.

you can’t really replace trickery until preparedness becomes baseline. the extra initiative is too big.

Tonikor.5637:

Bllade.1029:

WHoever suggested turning the three different dodges into an F3-F4-F5 skill. Thats a fantastic idea.

Take dodges out of the grandmaster traits and replace them with something else.

Thank you.

But it seems some forum heroes dont like the idea and think its overpowered… sigh.

I don’t think it’d be overpowered, but I think a selectable box would be better overall.

Ghotistyx.6942:

They balance the game based on all game modes. Spvp might be affected the most by changes, but they aren’t going to allow ridiculous things to run rampant. No limit to healing and condition removal on evade fits exactly into that category. Even not in wvw, being able to remove 5 conditions and heal 2500 health isn’t unreasonable, and with dash dodge removing cripple and chill, staff 3 removing immobilize, and an 8-10 second stun break, when would a thief ever die?

as soon as we get any sort of Hard CC. or when we get hit at range. or when we get hit up close (which we need to be to do damage)

for my part:

Chronomancer: Yes
Dragonhunter: No
Reaper: Yes
Tempest: No
Herald: No
Berserker: No
Daredevil: Probably*

*need to see what changes we get in the meantime.

Skaven Zverov.2984:

They’re deadly in one-on-one combat using their agility, acrobatic fighting style, and the ability to steal to overcome their enemies. – GW2pedia.

If this is +1 that everyone is talking about…then fine. Thief should be BETTER in 1v1 than any other class. Period.

the +1 everyone’s talking about is only entering a fight if you joining results in a numerical advantage for your team.

• joining an XvX fight to give your side the advantage
• joining an XvY fight (where X > Y) to give your side a bigger advantage.

thief should be better in 1v1 than any other class, but right now it’s considered bad to the point where you really shouldn’t 1v1 unless it’s finishing a fleeing enemy. and even then you have to be careful.

this.

this is what I want.

this is what I need.

it’s just… it’s so right.

ZDragon.3046:

Considering the first minor gives you free dodge right off the bat is pretty strong as it is.

it’s really not. it’s putting off your inevitable death a little longer. now it’s be the 4th hit that insta-kills you, not the third. the extra dodge is nice, but realistically it’s nowhere near making up for thief’s inherent squishiness, and it’s certainly not on par with Continuum split, Reaper Shroud, or the new Berserk Skills.

also, we used to have this as a trait, and I don’t recall it being game-breaking then either.

ZDragon.3046:

being able to swap them mid-combat is just a no no. You shouldn’t be rewarded for every type of dodge and then gain bonus new grand master traits.

Once you pick a type of dodge you should be limited to that one.

this, however, I agree with. just add a little choose-box, like revenant legends.

Kocoff.7582:

that’s a crazy suggestion… That means if you dodge 50 things in 3 seconds (like Ranger arrows and 3 AoE zone) , you may heal back to full HP with Driven Fortitude.

makes a good counter to these skills, against whom blocks and aegis are pretty crap. counterplay to the counterplay.

(multi-hit skills can’t have all the advantages of multiple hits and expect none of the drawbacks)

those are all pretty good.

I wouldn’t mind re-used animations, if they were good re-used animations

the basic idea’s nice, and the theme is one I can get behind.

here’s my addition. I tried to cover everything, but there are a lot of specs and not much time, so I’ve not been able to go as in-depth as I’d like. I mostly stuck to solo PvE, which will reflect some of my opinions, but hopefully this helps.

Specialisation: Chronomancer
Overall:

• Was it fun: Quite fun.
• Did it change how I play mesmer in a meaningful way: Yes, though not completely. it’s a versatile class with a lot of offensive support.

Mechanic (Continuum Split):

• quite a nice shatter skill, with a lot of potential for powerful use, but tricky enough that it’ll take time to master. the low duration means it’s not just a pop all your skills twice button, so it feels like it’ll have a high skill cap.

Weapon (Shield):

• Overall: A nice, somewhat offensive weapon, with damage and utility.
• Echo of Memory → Deja Vu: one of the more offensive blocks I’ve seen, the block is decent, the phantasms useful and the second skill is a fitting bonus. no complaints
• Tides of Time: easily one of the top 3 weapon skills in the beta for me. the stun is nice but not groundbreaking, the quickness is short but widespread and the damage is nice. the animation is wonderful, and the idea is just nice.

Skills (Wells): For the most part, I couldn’t see myself using many of these in solo play, but their party-play potential is quite high, and they really seem to help you control the flow of a team fight. the damage done isn’t exceptional, but the effects can subtly shift the advantage to your party.

• Well of Eternity: a nice skill. the initial heal alone doesn’t compare to other heals, but the final heal is pretty sweet, and the AoE effect means it’s actually a really powerful group heal
• Well of Precognition: a good skill for keeping your team in the fight where you might otherwise not be. the unblockable feels quite nice against certain enemies, and the blur at the end helps to deal with the consequences of going full offensive.
• Well of Calamity: quite good for turning a mob of enemies into a much lesser threat. between impairing their movement and cutting their damage, you can severely hamper their effectiveness.
• Well of recall: a decent skill, though I feel it’s probably more geared to PvP than PvE. the well decreases allied cooldowns and increases enemy cooldowns, giving your team the advantage. the idea’s nice, and the numbers are small enough to not be broken.
• Well of action: similar to the above, this increases friendly skill usage speed while decreasing the same for the enemy. helps shift the balance of power in your favour.
• Gravity Well: I was a big fan of the original gravity well, so I’m a little sad to see this change. that said, it does make a little more sense now, with the focus being more on team-based control and buffing. (note, I preferred the old version due to it’s better use in PvE, so this change is worse for my personal playstyle, but I don’t think it’s necessarily a bad change for the spec overall)

Traits:
Adept:

• Minor – Time Splitter: gives all the Chronomancer stuff, not much else to say.
• Major – Delayed Reactions: makes interrupts more powerful, and works well with the short stuns on tides of time, as well as the dazes available on diversion
• Major – All’s Well that ends Well: gives a lot more access to Alacrity, which seems to be the Chronomancer’s thing. quite nice, and promotes well usage.
• Major – Time Catches Up: pretty nice, makes shattering more effective at long range.
  Master:
• Minor – Flow of Time: more alacrity. more reasons to shatter. it rewards you for playing mesmer. it’s straightforward, helpful and does the job. not much else to say.
• Major – Danger Time: bonus damage against slowed enemies. gives damage, promotes slowing, nothing to dislike. crit chance increase is nice.
• Major – Illusionary Reversion: 50% cashback on your shattered clones! nah, but this is nice, keeps the illusions coming.
• Major – Improved Alacrity: does exactly what you’d expect. nothing special by itself, but definitely works well with all the other alacrity traits.
  Grandmaster:
• Minor – Time Marches On gives a general movespeed increase, makes you harder to slow down. something mesmer needed, and it works pretty well.
• Major – Chronophantasma Can I get a refund? un-shatters phantasms once. what’s not to like?
• Major – Lost Time: more crits means more slows. works beautifully with danger time, which gives more crits from slows. the feedback loop here helps.
• Major – Seize the Moment: Quickness on shatter. makes shatter better, and gives more skill use. what’s not to like?

Overall, the Chronomancer is a nice elite spec. it’s clearly geared towards offensive group support, but many of the benefits work well in solo play too. my biggest complaint would be that the spec feels a little like an upgrade, and didn’t change my playstyle all that much – but perhaps my lack of party-based play was the reason for this. all in all, a solid expansion to the profession.

I’ve been going through all the specs, so I’ll leave my DH stuff here. sorry if I’ve missed anything, or if I’ve misunderstood any part of the guardian – it’s not my most experienced profession – and remember that the following is my opinion, and can easily be wrong:

Specialisation: Dragonhunter
Overall:

• Was it fun: Not really. has potential, but feels poorly executed.
• Did it change how I play guardian in a meaningful way: Not really.
• Longbow felt a little lackluster.
• not sure what this spec is supposed to be. support? doesn’t guardian already have more support than any class could possibly need?

Mechanic (New Virtues):

• Spear of Justice: this virtue’s interesting, and allows for a slightly longer-range targeted burn. other than that, not much to say.
• Wings of Resolve: a nice gap closer (which doesn’t make sense on a ranged build?) and a decent AoE heal.
• Shield of Courage: gives a mobile projectile blocker. while this is nice, isn’t the guardian already pretty well known for having a decent projectile reflect?

Weapon (Longbow):

• Overall: The Longbow is a fitting addition to the guardian, providing a long-ranged option for the mostly close-range profession. however, the skills themselves feel rather lackluster.
• Puncture Shot: this attack feels pretty weak, and the piercing aspect rarely comes into play. even when it does, it’s not a huge factor.
• True Shot: This skill’s supposed to be the high-powered move, as far as I can tell, but the damage doesn’t feel all that high – certainly not high enough to justify the 3/4s root.
• Deflecting Shot: this skill’s actually really interesting, though I’ve not practiced enough to make good use of it. a projectile-destroying projectile is an interesting move though.
• Symbol of Energy: a decent symbol. does burning and grants vigor. also the only symbol I’m aware of which can be placed away from the guardian.
• Hunter’s Ward: an interesting move, though it’s very all-or-nothing, with most of the damage being weighted on the final impact. the immobilise is nice too.

Skills (Traps):

• Purification: an interesting trap, though a heal reliant on an enemy might not be so useful in some circumstances.
• Test of Faith: a decent control trap, though all it does is punish enemies for leaving, where Ring of Warding stops enemies leaving, and only has a 10s longer cooldown.
• Procession of Blades: does okay damage. it’s a trap that damages, not much else to say.
• Fragments of Faith: sort of like the above, but with less damage and more aegis granting. something the guardian’s already good at?
• Light’s Judgement: one of the more interesting traps, the pulsing reveal is quite useful – definitely strong in PvP.
• Dragon’s Maw: possibly the best all-round trap, this one’s good for deciding where you want your enemies and then keeping them there. really need some good AoE damage to work though, which makes it a good combo-skill.

Traits:
Adept:

• Minor – Virtuous Action: gives all the Dragonhunter stuff, not much else to say.
• Major – Piercing Light: gives the standard 20% recharge on traps, along with an extra bleed on each trap, which benefits condition builds.
• Major – Zealot’s Aggression: the extra damage against cripple is nice, especially given all the cripple Dragonhunter gets, but I can see this being even better in groups.
• Major – Soaring Devastation: adds an offensive element to wings of resolve, which makes it more versatile – always a good thing.
  Master:
• Minor – Defender’s Dogma: an interesting minor, but nothing in the Dragonhunter’s kit gives block other than aegis, which mostly comes from the base profession.
• Major – Hunter’s Determination: I can see stability being useful, but I’d have thought – given the root – that the stability would be most useful during True shot, not after.
• Major – Bulwark: it makes Shield of Courage better. not much else to say.
• Major – Dulled Senses: this further increases the cripple that dragonhunter can dish out, and adds weakness on top of it – but once again, the only knockback in the Dragonhunter’s kit requires traiting – otherwise it’s reliant on the base Guardian for this to work, and even base guardian doesn’t have all that much knockback.
  Grandmaster:
• Minor – Pure of Sight increased damage to enemies far away. the fact that this affects all weapons is nice – allowing it to benefit the scepter and staff too.
• Major – Hunter’s Fortification: AoE protection on virtue activation. it’s nice, fits the guardian, and promotes virtue usage. doesn’t really feel different from base guardian though.
• Major – Heavy Light: makes short-range shots knock enemies back. a good way to keep enemies away, though the ICD means you’ll never keep them that far away, so you’ll have to time this well for it to be useful.
• Major – Big Game Hunter: incentivise you to throw your spear of justice, and rewards you with extra damage. not bad, not amazing.

Overall, the Dragonhunter feels sort of lost. much like it’s name, it feels a little generic, vague, and not entirely sure what it’s doing. Guardian’s existing ranged weapons don’t do much damage, so the Longbow solves this by…not doing much damage. it adds a new role of support to the class best known for support, and the traits don’t seem to be doing anything consistently – some don’t even work with the elite spec.

I feel like Dragonhunter needs to go back and decide what it wants to be. no execution can fix the lack of direction I’m feeling from this spec.

Steinpilz.5078:

Sagat.3285:

Link those stances please.

I mean those physical skills, sorry.

I actually think that stances would fit a martial artist really well, and was hoping for them pre-reveal.

Cuth.5203:

I don’t feel like #2 needs to be like Heartseeker, you just need to move your camera faster. Fail will happen but well, it would be too easy to land.

Alternative – it can be directionally targeted like Warrior’s Whirlwind attack on Greatsword.