Reddit is full of down-voting sycophants. Doing an AMA on /r/GuildWars2 is like a conservative who’s in political trouble doing a Q&A on Fox News.
This is an example of an opinion (in this case, a suspicion) mistaken for a truth. Because NOBODY has any way of ACTUALLY KNOWING something like this. At best, there could be anecdotal evidence, which is insufficient to establish whether this claim is true.
If you really worry about this, then rally some frequenters of this forum to provide some opposition to this allegedly opinionated Reddit crowd.
(edited by Jornophelanthas.1475)
The problem with these forums is that too many people confuse their opinions for truths. They mistake their own predictions for facts, and start believing them because others share the same opinion. And then they conclude that they are obviously right, and that ArenaNet is obviously wrong (or worse: pure evil).
This is not to say that opinions have no value, but only that opinions in this forum tend to be overvalued as absolute truths.
Opinions are not truths.
Predictions are opinions.
Therefore, predictions are not truths.
And any conclusions based on predictions and opinions are unreliable.
If only more people could make this distinction.
I’ve told you that your playstyle of “elemental specialization” is actually possible in the actual game, and it’s apparently not good enough. So just “dance” between two attunements, and pretend it’s a weapon swap. Switching back to the attunement you just left has a 15-second cooldown anyway (without traits).
I personally find your argumentation incoherent. It’s like a warrior complaining that he has no long-range skills on his mace, and that he refuses to use weapon swap to switch to a ranged weapon because “I’m a mace warrior, not a ranger”. And then suggesting it would be a better idea to remove weapon swaps, and to put a lot of extra ranged skills on the mace skillbar, or to redesign the rifle to be a “ranged mace”.
Just because you want something, this doesn’t mean that everyone else thinks it is a good idea. Opinions are not facts.
(And the bugs you describe only occur some of the time, and will hopefully be fixed at some point, because they are not intended. It doesn’t stop me from using these skills, and they work fine more often than not. Besides, class redesign and bug fixes are two very separate topics. Don’t muddle them up.)
Giving water atunement better dps alternatives I hope! While ele can already do good dps I don’t like being forced into being in fire/air to do it.
If i spec into dps i want to do good dps, I am aware it will make the heals worthless and am willing to give that up in order to have the combat cosmetics i desire.
Each element has its own flavour. The flavour of water is that it has the most skills that heal, and that it inflicts chill and vulnerability conditions.
If you want more DPS, water is just not for you. Fire and air are for DPS, fire and earth are for DoT. Water is for support/CC/healing.
While some individual skills may receive a damage boost, don’t hold your breath for water attunement to ever outdamage fire attunement. Except in aquatic combat, of course.
You get experience points from nearly everything:
- Just fight monsters. (You get experience, but not much.)
- Revive downed/defeated players. They are even marked on your map. (You get experience, but still not much.)
- When you see a dynamic event happening nearby (watch the “New Event” warning on your screen), don’t hesitate to join in. The experience rewards are good, and you also receive karma.
- Perform the task for renown heart merchants. You get a chunk of experience if you complete a task. Talk to scouts to find them. When the task is complete, you can spend karma at the renown heart merchant.
- Buy a gathering axe, mining pick and sickle, and use these to collect ore, wood and plants. The places to gather from are marked on your minimap.
- Talk to master craftsmen in your home city, and learn up to two crafts. You can improve your crafts, and also receive significant experience rewards for this.
- Do your personal story. Follow the green stars to where you should enter the story instance. Each story chapter says which level you should be to safely be able to complete it. If you complete a chapter, you get a big chunk of experience, and an item as well.
I would prefer to weapon swap and be able to have one or two elemental specializes. I just dont think attunement dancing is that rewarding. Or make it so you have swap and change faster. I mean after all we wont be changing from range to melee or anything like those that can swap weapons can do and considering the abilities have cool downs on abilities mean it wouldnt be that over powered or anything
I disagree again.
Frankly, it is never fun to give a player a class (consisting of four attunements) and then telling them to choose 1 or 2 attunements to keep, and then taking the rest away.
And if you want to specialize in one or two attunements, you can already do so by selecting major traits. EACH of the four elemental traitlines has a trait that reduces the cooldown of weapon skills for that element, as well as a trait that increases the damage of weapon skills for that element.
This way, you can use the skills from these elements more often and for more damage, increasing the viability of relying on fewer attunements.
Sure we have more abilities BUT for example D/D we lack range if we were fighting a Melee – one press of a button bang they are a range and we would be at a disadvantage thanks to the fact that we have very little Range abilities/Range CC when using D/D
You have three gap closers in D/D: Fire #3, Air #4 and Earth #3 (which also immobilizes them). Add to this the cripples, chills and knockdowns in Water, Air and Earth, which ensure that enemies have a hard time getting away from you.
This does not give D/D real range advantage, but it does give a dagger elementalist a fair chance against ranged attackers.
To be fair, your origin story DID say that you “blacked out at a recent Moot”, and the picture shows a half-vomitting male Norn on it. Why on earth did you pick that as your origin story when it’s strongly hinted that you did something very, very dumb while drunk?
This.
That entire story depends on your own backstory choice during character creation. The story itself is a surprise, but the overall tone of alcohol abuse is sufficiently clearly implied.
If you feel this is a theme that does not fit how you imagine your character, you have only yourself to blame, because then you should have picked either the lost heirloom or the lifelong rival backgrounds.
I think that is the most salient point.
Elementalists are great and possibly the best class in the game, but only if you can use them properly.
Which most people can’t.
I would warn off bad/clumsy players from playing an elementalist.
I would invite, nay, urge hardcore/skilled players to play an elementalist, it was made for them to really show what they can do.
I’m betting you use D/D, part of the problem is that D/D is the only way to viably use ele outside of a group setting. D/D is great, doing anything else makes you simply under par. You still achieve results, but for 5x the work of another class.
Each individual element needs to be able to work as a stand-alone build, if someone wants to be a lightning mage, fire mage, earth mage, or even a dps ice mage then don’t force them to change atunement to not be out-dps’d by a ranger rolling his face on the keyboard.I totally agree, i think having to attunement “dance” to get results is a BAD idea. We should be allowed to be element we want to use and not be forced into changing atunment every 10seconds to be of any use.
Disagree.
Refusing to use more than one attunement is like playing the game with one hand tied behind your back: your results will not be as good as those of someone who does not handicap themselves.
If you insist that a single-attunement playstyle should be made just as viable as any playstyle in any other profession, this would make a multi-attunement playstyle GREATLY overpowered. And you would STILL complain that you feel forced to “attunement dance” to be most effective.
Other classes have weapon swaps, elementalists have attunements. Attunements give roughly twice as many skills to elementalists than what other professions have. For that reason, every individual elementalist skillbar needs to be slightly weaker than comparable skillbars on other professions.
(This is mostly done through skill cooldowns, and giving all skills on the same weapon a similar range, i.e. staff is bad at melee range across all attunements, daggers are most effective in melee range across all attunements.)
The only way how your suggestion could work and be balanced, is by removing the “Elementalist” profession and replacing it with 4 separate professions: “Fire Elementalist”, “Water Elementalist”, “Air Elementalist” and “Earth Elementalist”. And that’s a BAD IDEA, because every attunement has a very narrow playstyle, and players would be pigeon-holed into this.
Apparently, you want to be pigeon-holed. My suggestion to you is to play another class, because the elementalist is a combination of four playstyles.
At level 80, it costs 3s50c to unlearn your traits. Just talk to your profession trainer and choose the dialogue option that says you want to change your traits.
You do NOT need to open their shop or to buy any manuals. As mentioned above, you only need to buy each manual once per character.
To be honest, I never liked that dialogue cutscenes also remove player character’s headgear. Why not just respect the hide/unhide option in the Hero Screen?
I hope this NPC bug may convince the designers to not only revert NPCs to displaying their headgear, but giving the players this option too.
ArenaNet has stated that such behaviour in dungeons (i.e. kicking party members just before the final reward for selfish reasons) is undesirable. If you still know their character names, you could report them in-game.
I’m not sure if ArenaNet ever stated it explicitly, but my impression is that they will not introduce raids in Guild Wars 2, because it basically is game content that is inaccessible to significant groups of players.
Traditionally, raid content was always aimed at players who:
- are a member of a large guild that specializes in organizing raids (because finding/organizing a 20-man group by recruiting in map chat requires an unfeasibly long wait time)
- possess the most prestigious equipment and most finely tuned builds in the game
- have long stretches of time available
Additionally, raid-specialized guilds have historically had a strong tendency to implement rigourous recruitment policies, meaning that if a player has not already completed Content X or Dungeon Y, or is not willing to join a raiding instance at set times for several hours every week, that player does not get in. Furthermore, members who do not log in to join a raid tend to be penalized or kicked from the guild. This is very much like holding down a job, and can often feel like a chore.
Both the game mechanic itself and the ways players deal with it leads to exclusion and elitism, where only the extremely dedicated players ever get to ever raid content. Furthermore, it is even questionable whether some of the players in raid groups are even enjoying themselves because of the social pressure put on them and the hoops they have to jump through to even participate.
So far, Guild Wars 2 has shown that all content is potentially available for all players. The only restrictions implemented by ArenaNet are:
- some content requires a higher character level to play, but everyone can make level 80.
- some content requires groups of 5 players, but finding 4 other people is not all that hard.
- the higher levels of Fractals of the Mists requires infused ascended items (which is what the recent uproar is about).
Contrary to many opposing MMOs, it is possible to be reasonably successful in all aspects of the game even without maximum gear (again, with the exception of high levels of Fractals of the Mists). The gear is not a hard requirement, it just helps.
@GeneralFreedom.2540:
You clearly do not enjoy the playstyle for this profession, so you are probably right if you decide to stop playing the elementalist.
Other people have different opinions, though, so the fact that elementalist is not working for you, does not mean that it won’t work for anybody else, either.
(And have you tried Whirlpool (the underwater elite)? Even after a 33% damage nerf and being limited to only 5 targets per damage pulse, it still rules under water.)
“because these people need to be using game accounts with characters of all professions”
How do you know this? Who says they are playing all the characters?
Because various forum posts by ArenaNet state that all class changes are tested internally before it goes live.
and as for not hiring lazy people – if they arent being lazy then they are just bad – ONLY way to explain how god awful the company has been when it has come to:
- Fixing bugs and issues
- Releasing content/updates that are NOT bugged and break the game even more
- Lack of feedback from them they hardly post on any forum
- A game on start-up will have childhood diseases and bugs. Fixing these requires a lot of work. So much, that it needs to be prioritized. Class balance and skill bugs are on that list, but not always near the top. That is why some issues are still not fixed, while others are.
- There are multiple teams working on Guild Wars 2, as stated by ArenaNet. One specific team creates new content, while another team reviews professions, skills, traits, etc, while yet another team deals with account hacks, while yet another team deals with game stability and crashes. You get the picture. All things are moving at the same time. The addition of Southsun Cove did not pull people away from skill balancing.
- If programmers are told to regularly reply to questions on the forum, that is time they are not spending preparing new fixes and improvements to the game. I am fine with them doing so when time allows, but if there is obviously a lot of work to be done, I frankly prefer it if they just be given the opportunity to do their job instead of doing customer support.
ArenaNet designers have stated that it will eventually be possible to acquire a full set of ascended items, and that the methods to obtain them will range from PvP to WvW to PvE to dungeons.
1 – Why do you believe ANET on this point, when the very introduction of Ascended gear made their manifesto a lie ?
2 – So ? The current situation is still unacceptable. Promising a fix “eventually” is unacceptable, since “eventually” includes “years from now”. At the very least, I want a timeframe for a fix.
1 – Why should I believe a bunch of doomsayers on a forum (that has had doomsayers for some time) over the company that has made two games that I am still enjoying?
2 – Currently, the difference between exotic and ascended is three equipment slots that offer a total of +5 stat points each (spread out over 3 stats). Hardly a noticeable difference.
As it is now, the ascended items are an intrinsic part of Fractals of the Mists progression, but Fractals of the Mists is also the only place to obtain them.
However, all Fractals of the Mists content is still playable at lower difficulty levels.
So what is so unacceptable right now that needs fixing immediately?
@Dante.1508:
The quote you give does not say that ascended gear or infusion is required to play future content, only that future content will gradually provide more ascended gear and infusion variety, as well as more ways to obtain them. Nowhere does it say that casual play will exclude you from ever acquiring ascended items.
You are free to suspect ArenaNet from doing the things you accuse them of, but they have not SAID anything of the sort. However, it is your suspicions that are “literally killing all your fun”, not anything ArenaNet actually said.
If things actually turn out like you fear, then I shall reassess my own position. But right now, I just don’t see it as a suspicion fueled by mass hysteria, not as a reality.
@ArmageddonAsh.6430:
How do you even “know” that the profession updates are being done by two people who among them know only anything about four of the eight professions?
Even if they are two people (which I doubt), they are two people who have been deeply involved in CREATING all eight professions from a very early stage.
Even if they only play two or three professions each on their private gaming accounts (which I don’t know is the case), this is irrelevant, because these people need to be using game accounts with characters of all professions, while they are at work testing (changes to) skills and traits. And how do you think they test skills and traits? By PLAYING A CHARACTER for some time across all aspects of the game, most likely on a separate alpha testing game server.
And finally, any self-respecting company will not hire employees that are lazy and stupid. If some skill or trait fixes cause bugs, then that is human error, and those bugs will get fixed eventually. I hope sooner rather than later.
So in conclusion, you do not know what you are talking about.
@Rpgtabbycat: Yes you do if you want to be able to stay at the most competative level in PvP. Which makes it a must for every WvW player, even if they hate PvE.
Why did they not introduce the ascendant parts in WvW so WvWers could get them? That would be fair and give everyone 2 options to obtain them. Then have WvW specific infusions and fractal infusions, obtained from their respective field of use.
Tada, simple solution and fix.
I think they have every intention to add ascended items to WvWvW reward, as well as dungeons (and hopefully explorable drops and crafting too). They just introduced them in Fractals of the Mists, because they don’t need to break open an existing reward system that way.
Also, the only ascended items so far are rings and back items, covering 3 equipment slots. This is also done deliberately, probably because it will have no impact on the existing exotic weapon and armor sets, and only affects part of exotic jewelry sets.
If and when ascended items for the other equipment slots are introduced, it will likely be done across the board, i.e. all loot and reward tables, and all crafting and mystic forge recipes.
What I’m personally hoping is that the statistical differences between exotic and ascended items will remain minimal, and that the main way to acquire ascended armors and weapons will be to upgrade existing exotics in the mystic forge by combining them with a large stack of some new pink crafting material that can be acquired through all of WvW, PvP, dungeons and monster drops.
That way, there would still be every reason to play dungeons, WvW and exploration, and to keep crafting.
It depends.
If you are using a lot of earth and fire skills, then it doesn’t hurt to have some +condition damage, because burning and bleeding damage are based off of your condition damage score. The exact formula can be found on the gw2 wiki.
Whether you should focus on it or not is impossible to tell without your full build (including traits and utility skill selection). However, if you are highly focused on precision and critical damage, that could compensate for a lack of condition damage.
Its simple – They dont care about the class. Same goes for Ranger and Necro. Strange that the 2 devs that work on balancing (seriously why the hell only 2 :/) Play Thief, Guardian, Warrior and Mesmer and where are they in terms of being good? all 4 are above the Ranger, Ele and Necro
This is pure nonsense. You are just jumping to conclusions based on your own game experience. In every profession update so far, the elementalist has received some kind of bug fix or skill update. Remember the changes to Elementalist mainhand dagger last month? Around the same time the Guardian got a nerf to skills that grant retaliation?
Also, the Elementalist was one of the main recipient of skill and trait updates on all game patches so far. If anything, the Elementalist has received above-average attention in comparison with other professions.
Does this mean that all Elementalist skills bug-free and fully balanced? No, not yet. But that’s because there are seven other professions with similar issues that also deserve attention.
This is what I say all the time to other players myself. But it’s astounding the amount of MMO players who doesn’t know the difference between chore and fun, because they have long forgotten the reason why they started playing games in the first place. The other day I went on a “farm run” with my guild, just to see what it was all about, but half way trough I was too far behind them because I kept getting sidetracked, and because it was stupidly boring. Running around in a circle collecting mats for an hour. Why?! I could have spend that time play Worlds PvP, or anything ells that’s not a chore. People don’t think about what their are doing. But, to each their own..
Agreed. Everyone and their dog are getting on their high horse about “game design philosophy” and “the direction to doom the game is taking”, but they completely forget that the end goal here is just their own entertainment.
People treat their characters as if they are careers, which require lots of chores and busywork to maintain. But it’s so easy to just have fun without worrying about game design philosophies, game design principles and game design visions.
(edited by Jornophelanthas.1475)
I don’t see a lot of ArenaNet posts in any of the profession forums. Still, each game update features bug fixes and balance fixes for skills and traits of all professions.
That they don’t reply doesn’t mean they don’t read.
And that the fix is not there the next day doesn’t mean that it will never happen.
I play the game, I am having fun, and I don’t need convincing otherwise.
Just because some of you don’t appear to be having fun, doesn’t mean that you have a moral obligation to convince me to share your opinion.
We aren’t trying to convince you. We are trying to convince ANET that they messed up. If you play MMOs for gear treadmill and progression then I have to ask, why did you buy GW2 in the first place?
I don’t play for infinite gear progression. I play for exploration, for the story, for the general immersion, for the jumping puzzles, and for the thrill of achievement. These are things Guild Wars 2 offer me.
Not that that is really anyone’s business. I’m only saying this because I don’t want you, or anyone, to put words in my mouth or to deliberately misinterpret my opinion, just in order to invalidate it. I will not be your strawman argument.
I play the game, I am having fun, and I don’t need convincing otherwise.
Just because some of you don’t appear to be having fun, doesn’t mean that you have a moral obligation to convince me to share your opinion.
I like this game.
For some reason, some people in this forum think it is necessary to try to change my mind.
It might result in me shunning this forum, and playing the game instead.
I will second the engineer. You don’t have a lot of weapon skills, but several kits to choose from. I can recommend the flamethrower for close-range AoE blasting, and the grenade kit for underwater combat. I have yet to explore the elixir gun.
And as an added bonus, each healing and utility skill (including racial ones) gives you a toolbelt skill, which basically doubles the number of utility skills at your disposal.
Oh, and try using a shield in your off-hand. Both shield skills can be used not just defensively, but also to interrupt foes.
I’m having great fun with my elementalist. (And I have never used Evasive Arcana.)
I use my staff in dungeons, and like to lay down combo fields for the warriors and rangers to abuse (including healing fields).
I use dagger/dagger in WvWvW, where I like to do hit and run tactics. I switch to staff while defending towers, in order to rain death from above.
I use either dagger/dagger or scepter/dagger in PvE. Although I will admit I will probably be using my scepter a lot less with the Dragon’s Tooth bug.
My trait build is 10/0/30/30/0 (built for survivability), and I alternate my major traits and utility skills between a signet-based build for PvE and a cantrip-based build for WvWvW, without having to change my trait point allocation. I completely disregard precision and critical damage, and make up for this with +power and +condition damage equipment. Which is still mostly green, with some rares mixed in, and one exotic.
I do not feel like the content is too hard for me, not even in Orr, although I do know not to pick a fight with veteran karka when I’m alone. How easy or difficult other players have it in the game does not affect my enjoyment. I like how elementalist skills work, how I cycle through my attunements all the time, and how I can be successful by adapting my own tactics.
Also, I find it very rude that every single time someone starts a thread in this forum asking if the elementalist is any fun, the first reply is always “no, go play warrior”. These people want to know about how to play an elementalist, not something else. You don’t get to decide for them.
I decide where I get my own fun, thank you very much. So should everyone else.
You should consider posting this in the Game Bugs forum, and writing an in-game bug report if you have not done so already.
Point Pride and Pearl Islet have sunbathing tourists (housed in the same shipwrecks and ruined hovels that were there earlier – one tourist is even complaining about it), with Consortium vendors standing nearby.
We can’t really do much, but it’s a funny picture.
Unless it all got reverted with today’s maintenance-only patch.
The karka were rather disappointing, especially considering that they were hyped up to be an “ancient evil”, with the reality being that they were just animals who had their jimmies rustled because a group of idiots wanted to make their home into a resort. I had really hoped that they would have something to do with the DSD (Deep Sea Dragon, for those who don’t know).
The karka could still have something to do with the Deep Sea Dragon for all we know. They actually remind me a little of destroyers.
The Ancient Karka Shell was not meant to perfectly fit your build exactly.
It was meant to be a sizable reward that offers a really significant stat bonus to everyone who participated in the event, irrespective of their build (or whether they even have a build). And a nice souvenir, as well.
If you already have all-exotic accessories that you hand-picked to complete your build, then obviously it is not for you. If you don’t like it, I suggest throwing it in the Mystic Forge.
What’s next? People complaining that the 20-slot bag is a “worthless” reward because all 15 of their characters already have a full set of 20-slot bags each? And that they want the gold they spent on their superior runes of holding back?
The change is the fact that we now have a whole new zone.
people really need to stop saying this lol, the zone has been there the whole time, they led us to believe that tyria was gonna be changed, something HUGE……..southsun cove isnt huge…….it is a gimmick, that failed horribly.
No, the zone did NOT exist in Tyria until we all downloaded it (along with the karka monster type) with November 15 patch. It is brand new in the online world of Tyria, because only five days ago, it did not exist.
I suspect that you are looking for the impact of the Lost Shores event on Guild Wars lore. There is an answer to that, but it is admittedly a little contrived:
Lion’s Arch was attacked by an ancient race deep-sea creatures called the karka, driven on by an Ancient Karka, and provoked by a shady organization called the Consortium. After staving off the Karka invasion in Kryta and the Maguuma Jungle, the Lionguard (aided by many citizens from Lion’s Arch and volunteers from all over Tyria, including several famous heroes) ventured to the karka homeland of Southsun Cove, and managed to kill the Ancient Karka, thus ending the threat to the rest of Tyria for now. Meanwhile, the Consortium is exploiting the island as a holiday beach resort, and their (former) employee Canach, who is widely held accountable for irresponsibly endangering Lion’s Arch, is still at large.
Lion’s Arch will mourn the loss of its major casualty: the old lighthouse.
Will this do?
I named my sylvari Tomorga, which is Irish Gaelic for “golden bush”. I chose his hair and bioluminescence colours to match his name.
And I’m not Irish. I spent a few hours on translation websites so I would be ready to reserve the name on the first day of pre-launch.
There’s almost no chance the price will ever go up to a worthwhile level. Might as well destroy it all.
And if enough people do this, prices will go up.
Not really, because there’s no demand for the things you make out of them and no demand for eating it directly.
I mean sure the price will go up a little but, but enough to be worth hoarding it? no, I don’t think so.
If supply goes down and demand stays the same, prices go up. I never suggested it would be enough to justify hoarding a lot of candy corn.
(For the record, I have around 2.500 pieces stashed myself. I intend to craft me one of the rare skins. When I level my huntsman, I shall convert 8 stacks of 250 candy corn into 1 stack of 10 superior sigils of night. That should save some space.)
There’s almost no chance the price will ever go up to a worthwhile level. Might as well destroy it all.
And if enough people do this, prices will go up.
You can also use them to make superior runes of the mad king, and you need 2.250 to craft one of the halloween skins.
Paying (about) $55 for a game does not buy ownership of the game company, and does not entitle one to make game design or business decisions. Least of all, it does not entitle one to take away somebody’s livelihood.
One forum post is not negative publicity.
Opinion is not fact.
Not even mine.Perhaps you’re unware of the 10,000 + post thread here? This is not “one post in a forum”.
BTW, purchasing the game and buying $120 worth of gems based on their stated commitment to uphold a fundamental design philosophy gives me the right to state my displeasure and offer up a means of correcting what I see as a huge mistake.
I am aware of the uproar, but that does not make you, or anyone else, its spokeperson, nor does it entitle anyone to issue petty and vindictive ultimatums. You weren’t even trying to be constructive, and although your choice of words may be civil, your demand for the public humiliation of an entire company is anything but.
“You made a terrible decision” is an opinion.
“I want an apology” is not an opinion, but a demand that may or may not be reasonable.
“Fire that guy now!” is not an opinion, but an unreasonable demand.
Neither $55, nor $120 buys you the right to fire people.
In terms of how Anet can make good. I personally think that if they agree to keep ascended as the top stat gear and make it available widely through WvW, crafting and such, it will be a step in the right direction.
I believe they have already announced something like this:
(The bottom paragraph)
CURRENTLY, the only way to acquire ascended rings is through Fractals of the Mist.
CURRENTLY, the only way to acquire ascended back items is through the Mystic Forge.
CURRENTLY, there is no way to acquire ascended items for any other equipment slot.
ArenaNet designers have stated that it will eventually be possible to acquire a full set of ascended items, and that the methods to obtain them will range from PvP to WvW to PvE to dungeons.
So clearly, the CURRENT situation may require us to do mostly Fractals of the Mist in order to acquire pink-lettered items. But as more ascended item types are released into the game, this is likely to change.
And besides, if you are not already fully geared in exotics, you don’t even need to chase after the ascended items just yet. Orange items are still the best there are for everything except rings and back items, while you work towards your purple weapon for the next year or so.
It is not possible to replace the insignia/inscription of existing gear.
The mystic forge already has something a little like what you describe, but not what you want:
If you insert 4 same type items (e..g. 4 sets of boots) of the same quality level, you will get a random item of the same type, and of the same or better quality level and level requirement.
You could consider posting your suggestion on the Suggestions Forum.
Paying (about) $55 for a game does not buy ownership of the game company, and does not entitle one to make game design or business decisions. Least of all, it does not entitle one to take away somebody’s livelihood.
One forum post is not negative publicity.
Opinion is not fact.
Not even mine.
Have you tried submitting a support ticket as well?
What I notice about this forum is that it is filled with heavy-handed opinions about the game being bad, about people demanding refunds, demanding game changes, demanding, demanding, demanding.
In fact, I have seen thread titles formulated as “If you don’t believe [X], you must be in denial”, or “This game is dying, you just don’t realize it yet”. People who post such things tend to have such strong opinions that any person disagreeing with them is treated as an ignoramus who “apparently” does not know how the game really works.
Ironically, that is exactly what the OP is currently accused of.
My conclusion is that this forum (or at least this thread) is filled with droves of people who like to shout around their opinions, without any interest in listening to other people’s opinions. Which makes for unhealthy discussions.
And me? I enjoy playing the game. I am not trying to convince anyone that the game is fun, perfect, smooth and successful. I am not trying to convince anyone that the game is unfun, bugged, laggy and doomed.
And I am not stating my opinion as fact, either.
Even if it is technically impossible to rejoin your party in their Fractal, it should at least be possible to be returned to the Mistlock Observatory to wait and rejoin them on the next one, if they manage to beat it without you.
(That way, you would miss out on the loot chest, but would still be able to continue.)
The truth is that level 80 zones (including Malchor’s Leap and dungeon explorable paths) were designed to be difficult, and that the loot from those areas is supposed to be hard-won. That this difficulty level is higher than in other games is a game feature, not a bug.
You are not meant to solo those areas in their entirety. Instead, players are expected to help each other out against the more difficult veterans/dynamic events/huge mobs of risen.
And you don’t need to agree with your friends to play Southsun Cove for this (although it helps), because if a stranger sees you struggle against a tough opponent, that stranger is likely to come and help you for a minute. Or that’s the design intention anyway.
I assume you are talking about the Skipping Stones puzzle in north-west Southsun Cove. You don’t actually need stability for that, as long as you time all your jumps correctly.
I finished it with my elementalist without using any stability skills (after maybe an hour of trying, learning and practicing). The only skill I used was the 10% passive speed bonus from my Signet of Air.
But I hated it whenever someone gave me swiftness halfway through the jumps, because it caused me to miscalculate my jump distance.
From what I’ve seen so far, ArenaNet tends to be very alert in their response to bugs that were introduced as a result of a patch. So I don’t think there is a reason to panic over this one.
Stop complaining. Write in-game bug reports, and post non-insulting requests for bug fixes in the Game Bugs forum.
- Magnetic Grasp is usable, and if it bugs out, it is a nuisance, and not unbalancing.
- Auto-attack when attuning to air is a nuisance, but not unbalancing.
- Dragon Tooth’s blast finisher got bugged in the last update. I’m sure a fix will be given soon.
- Arc Lightning bugging is a nuisance, but has no impact on the game.
(Just activate another skill to get rid of it. Or bind a key to draw/sheath your weapons and hit it.)
(By the way, has anyone tried to combine this perpetual channeling bug with the trait that raises your toughness whenever you are channeling a spel?)
Skill bugs that prevent that skill from working AT ALL will get priority, as will bugs that are very easy to solve. (Changing some numbers on ranger cooldowns is a five minute fix, reworking the code for air attunement requires hours of work and testing).
You can still switch to earth, and use #4 and #5 as blast finishers in addition to Phoenix. (For the record, Churning Earth triggers as a blast finisher at the START of casting.)
Then switch to air and Lightning Whip them for a few seconds.
I am confident that the Dragon’s Tooth bug will get fixed with the next update, or the week after that (if it requires internal testing to rule out any new bugs).
D/D elementalists have 3 gap closers, 2 knockdowns and some immobilize/cripple skills, excluding utility skills. This is to compensate for the fact that their skills are all short-range (more than melee range, but shorter than pistol range).
The best way to protect yourself from them would be to try to maintain distance and switch to a ranged weapon.