Guild Wars 2

zengara I was referring to a solo “mode” like laokoko said.

I personally don’t want ANet to make group content like dungeons easier, in fact they could stand a revamp akin to the Tequatl fight, utilizing a more varied design style requiring players to do more than simply burn down mobs.

What I meant was to include an actual SOLO mode, where one player could reliably go through a dungeon and finish it. Whether this means adding in indestructible NPCs to rez the player (like much of the LS content does) or simply downscaling the mobs so one player could reliably and consistently conquer the dungeon would be up to ANet.

I mean, if you think about it, dungeons from a story perspective actually make sense as a single player or solo instance, as there is only ONE Pact Commander in the context of the Personal/Living Story.

And in a way, the beginnings of such a mechanic are already in place via the “Challenge Mote” system in some LS instances. ANet could create a “Solo Mote” outside of each dungeon entrance.

I understand that some 1337 players can solo/duo dungeons or some parts of a path.

My question is, with the coming of HoT, and the likely migration of a majority of players to the new content, will there be a mode that downscales content in dungeons for solo players?

Kind of like in GW1 where you could take 7 Heroes when mission outposts were dead.

Not a critical issue I know, but would be nice especially for newer players to at least be able to see the content without having to rely on PUGs.

RoRo.8270:

You make a lot of sweeping generalizations. Just because the game is mainly focused on your characters appearance doesn’t mean that person sits in town staring at their own character all day. There are not a few skins like you have mentioned yourself. Getting gear in this game is trivial after that every piece of gear you get is aesthetic. Oh and I do not own a legendary like you somehow came to the conclusion of.

I don’t know how you can compare the actual content updates to skins and say they are minimal. If you want I can go through the past quarter and we can compare how many updates were skins and how many were content.

I actually didn’t make any generalizations, simply stated fact. Also, the usage of “you” and Legendary was to mean any player in the general sense, not you specifically.

Quantity /= Quality. The Heart of Thorns expansion may bring more content than all of last year’s monthly updates and LS releases combined. Just because its ONE expansion does not make it inferior to the multitude of smaller content patches released thus far. Releasing an update that includes Caithe’s Dagger in the gemstore is not more significant than the start of LS Season 2 for example.

And you may have missed it, but I contend that the game is NOT focused on character appearance, that’s you in your Barbie Dress Up post. Yes, the game’s gear treadmill is lateral instead of linear (more skins instead of more stats), but that doesn’t mean that the game itself revolves around skins acquisition.

Heck, with more than five players on screen you can’t see your weapons anyways with all the F/X going off, much less PvP or WvW. People don’t play those modes in the hopes of catching a glimpse of Frostfang or Eternity zooming by on a player rocking full Ascended skins. They play for the fun, competition and thrill of victory.

So no, GW2 is not about skins, unless you the player decide to ignore the vast array of content available.

RoRo.8270:

How is gw2 not a Barbie dress up? Most of the updates encompass gemstore skins.

So, like all of the Living Story? The cutscenes, voice over, new zones, new enemies, skill updates, etc., etc.

That’s secondary to a few gemstore skins in your mind?

Look, regardless of my disagreement with others in this thread as to the importance of a title bug (and skins which few if any even use), you cannot make the argument that GW2 is ABOUT skins. Well, you technically can, but it would be a foolish argument.

Easiest way to make the case is to ask yourself what you spend more total game time doing, sitting in LA emoting with your new Legendary, or playing the game with your guild, doing world completion, hitting PvP and/or WvW, running a dungeon or fractal set, etc.

If you can honestly say that you spend more time staring at your character standing around doing nothing, then I guess I’m wrong and very sad for you. I will admit I’ve spent time re-skinning and dyeing my characters’ armor, but that time spent is nowhere near the amount I’ve spent playing the game itself.

And as I’ve said, the bug should get fixed, but it is of little importance when there are critical skill and profession bugs/issues that have been around for months or even years without a fix.

Today’s Update#2 did not fix this.

bain of man.6857:

sounds like kaleban is rocking a title he didnt earn and doesnt want to give it up <.<

Just a few posts up, had you bothered to read before commenting, you’d realize you’re also barking up the wrong tree.

Is it a bug? Sure, and it should be fixed. However, given its lack of gameplay effect, it should take a backseat to pretty much EVERY other issue that affects gameplay, such as skills and traits that are still bugged or broken, LS issues, and the myriad other bugs and glitches that actually matter.

Harrimur.7425:

Well I don’t think anyone talks about that it effects the actual gameplay. This game however is a lot about cosmetics no matter if it is skins, titles or minis.
I do fully agree that it is not something Anet should put their main focus onto. But only because you don’t care about cosmetics as it seems doesn’t mean others don’t aswell. So you also have to respect those who do and not make them feel guilty because they do.

Literally the entire thread has been composed mostly of people whinging about how someone else’s title somehow nebulously affects their gameplay experience. Which is tripe.

GW2 is not Barbie Dress Up Island or whatever. Sure, there is a focus on cosmetic upgrades (as opposed to stat grind in other MMOs) but these are neither the main thrust of the game NOR do they affect actual, concrete gameplay.

Which means the only logical conclusion is a select few players feeling oppressed because someone else got something they didn’t by bug/mistake/deal with the devil. This makes no sense at all, since several have admitted they DON’T have the title, and have no plans to shoot for it, making it of little to zero value in the first place.

As I said before, if you’re worried about what other people have that you don’t, you’re going to have a bad time. Focus on the social aspect of GW2, go play a dungeon or guild rush with your guild, and realize that sitting around in LA with some rare skin is NOT gameplay, its ego stroking in a video game, which is quite sad.

Noein.1685:

This “it doesn’t effect gameplay” argument seems to be a reoccurring excuse for those that received the title without earning it and YES, you’re going to lose your title. It doesn’t matter how much you try to justify it. Should you or anyone but anet be blamed for you getting this title without earning it? No, but quit trying to hide behind lame excuses.

What if you paid for 10 skins with gems and all of the sudden a group of people used an exploit to gain said skins for free. Would that effect your gameplay? Would you want to invest your time/money into the game anymore? Of course not, you would be furious and you sure as hell wouldn’t buy any more gems (anet doesn’t want that, in case you didn’t know). These people that earned GWAMM not only invested their money into buying gw1 and its expansions ($160 total when i bought them all), but so much time, thousands of hours to get that title. I haven’t earned it myself and i probably never will, due to how much time it takes.

Thought I made it pretty clear, I don’t have the GWAMM title (legit or otherwise) so you can stop barking up that tree.

And NO, your example would not affect my gameplay at all. A bunch of people running around with gemstore skins would not make dungeons any more difficult, or PvP any more challenging. If you’re one of those people who are very susceptible to envy or jealousy, then I guess it could affect your enjoyment of the game, but that’s a problem with your ego, not the gameplay.

serenke.4806:

I already wrote this but i guess i have to write it again. I don’t care what others have as long as they have earned it. Not sure why the concept is so hard for you to grasp.

Why do you care whether someone has “earned” it? This isn’t a job, its a game. Does someone else getting a fairly meaningless, grind based title for free somehow de-value the time you may have personally expended into getting it?

Assuming you played GW1, and legitimately got the GWAMM title, then what is the problem if others got it for nothing? They didn’t get to experience the thousands of hours of gameplay (and presumably fun) that you did in that game.

You can stop with the passive aggressive posts. You don’t have to keep repeating yourself, the problem is that your justifications are meaningless. Repeating them doesn’t change that fact. Jealousy is a stinky cologne my friend.

serenke.4806:

So i assume i have to explain it for those who didn’t get it the first time.
The problem itself may not affect everyone, the way it is being handled affects everyone.
Just like others have shown good examples here, and since you brought up PvP… What if next time thousands of people would get the Champion Brawler title for entering the Heart of the Mists?

And? Does the Champion Brawler TITLE give you some sort of gameplay advantage that I’m unaware of as well?

Just so we’re clear, I don’t have GWAMM (although my Mesmer in GW1 is 29 out of 30 titles, so I may one day finish the last one up and get it legit) and could care less if everyone in the game had it. GWAMM or Champion Brawler doesn’t make you better at dungeons, more deadly in PvP, or shoot Arrow Carts further in WvW.

They’re cosmetic, nothing more. The only person it affects negatively are those who place value on it to the point where their ego is miffed.

Its the same thing as Legendary weapons. Some rich guy can go buy all the Bifrosts he wants, heck why not one for each character? And that guy could be TERRIBLE in terms of gameplay, and get outperformed by a good player in blues and greens. An Ascended Staff is just as good as a Bifrost, costs significantly less, and the only difference is cosmetic, not mechanical.

Do you complain that people with an Incinerator can use the wardrobe to make it look like they have TWO Incinerators, even though they DIDN’T EARN IT!?!1 Why do you care?

If your enjoyment is wrapped up in what other people have, then you’re going to have a bad time.

I REALLY want to finish the LS achievements, but can’t get past Ogden’s stupid dialogue bug for Hidden Arcana.

Submitted bug reports, and the only response I get is “we’re working on this and many other bugs, keep an eye on the forums…”

Is there a TIMEFRAME for when this will be fixed? Maybe I’m a bit OCD, but I hate seeing these easy achievements left unfinished in my journal, not to mention it blocks me from Luminescent skins.

Its also especially worrisome when the vaunted Living Story is broken, since its pretty much the sole focus of development prior to HoT.

Its Elminster, duh.

serenke.4806:

This directly affects everyone playing either game (GW1 or GW2) and i can only hope they won’t do something similar to something you care about but won’t be fixed because it’s not a priority.

I was unaware that displaying the GWAMM title gave you +10% damage in PvP. Yeah, ANet should so get on the ball and fix this bug which affects everyone by giving a concrete gameplay advantage to those cheaters.

Just some personal observations:

1. The PvE meta will change with HoT most likely.
2. The Elementalist even now makes good use of most stats.
3. Highly likely that stats other than Zerk will see more use as the game goes on.

Given that, the most obvious solution for an Ele is to craft ascended Celestial armor, plop the meta runes into it, craft Legendary weapons (to switch stats on the fly) and pick up a collection of ascended trinkets with various stats.

You mix and match what you need, using Celestial armor as your foundation. Specializations might see the Elementalist becoming on par with Necros for condition damage, or a change up in how condis are handled might see a better use than power for certain builds.

But given that you can acquire ascended rings from Fractals (enough to fill a bank after a couple of weeks), accessories from guild commendations and amulets relatively cheaply, they’re the most obvious area to shore up a build. Have a Zerk trinket set for PvE, and a Knight’s/Nomad’s/Soldier’s set(s) for WvW, and if you can afford a couple of different weapons or a Legendary or two, you should be all set for both modes.

I mean after all, its not like the damage difference from Zerk→Celestial armor is THAT much, plus you get more condi damage and a host of other stats which may be weighted more favorably in the coming months.

JoshuaRAWR.4653:

I want a golf club for my guardian so when i use Banish, i can scream FORE!

I hope somewhere out there, someone is running around with a Charrdian named Tiger Woods.

I’m really curious as to the definition of "OP’…

Is it “I got killed by xxx class, therefore xxx class must be overpowered because I’m so good” kind of hubris?

Because looking at the class objectively, between weaksauce skills, high cooldowns, and the basic requirement to blast Might in a fast paced PvP environment to do competitive damage in any way, doesn’t really say “OP” to me.

My guess is that since the Elementalist is no longer a free, easy kill, and is able to compete on an equal footing to the majority of other professions, that even footing seems overpowered relative to how the Ele used to be. Never mind that to be competitive the Ele has to be played to the hilt, and minor mistakes that other professions can soak via armor, active defenses or inherent class abilities flattens an Ele into a quick grave.

Gryph.8237:

Yeah why should the spec be an answer to the necros problems? It shouldn’t. They need to address the necros core problems. Go to the necro forums. There are awesome solutions there and not one is asking for more damage

Break a stained glass window. Pick up the millions of pieces and re-assemble it.

Make a new stained glass window.

Which do you think is easier?

Lue.6538:

1. Strawman. The specialization can be toggled at (almost) any given time according to the information we’ve received so far, it is also “bound” to a specific profession already in the game. Facts are as follows: The specialization WILL add skills to the existing professions, yes, they do aesthetically acquire a new name with the specialization but they are never the less still the same profession, merely with additional options for skills. Old “classes” are therefore indeed getting new skills, albeit in the form of specializations.

2. So simply put: Theres unbalanced skills around now, yet people work around them? The difference is that the previous skills have been under scrutiny for an extended amount of time, whereas the revenants skills hasn’t and it wont be reasonable to expect it to be “balanced” in any way or form until it has solidified a position for itself among the other professions. As for “useless” skills, I’d say they’re “underused” and not useless. They don’t hold their own within the current meta and is therefor overlooked and could absolutely use a thorough review, it is however absurd to claim that the revenant will not have such skills, there will always be skills that the playerbase value higher than others.

3. Now we’re on the other end of the spectrum from point #2, and unfortunately, the same holds true here: There are skills that may be “over the top” for all professions. In general however, you’ll find that it is combinations of skills that truly makes a profession “op” rather than its individual skills.

Finally, it is rather silly to throw in one of those “please read my posts” comments don’t you think? A sort of “hidden” insult, backed up by a patronizing ‘happy’ smiley that can best be discribed as a passive aggressive way of saying that “you don’t undestand what I’m saying”. Give it a rest, it is just sad.

1. Its not a strawman. At most, it looks like Specializations will add one new weapon and switch out one traitline for another. So you’re looking at 5 skills at most (Elementalist being the wildcard), with a 1:1 exchange on traits. That’s NOT even in the same ballpark as an entirely new profession, which by the way the Revenant will also be getting a specialization, so comes out way ahead in terms of design and tech compared to the old professions.

2. http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Fire_Shield – there are many skills like this, spread throughout the existing professions, that have minimal effects, and in the case of the Ele especially, insanely high cooldowns. The Revenant is being designed from the ground up with the lessons learned from the last 3 years, whereas the existing professions are still bogged down by underpowered skills, traits that still don’t work or are bugged, and all manner of issues. The Revenant will NOT have these issues, by the simple fact that its being freshly designed to integrate into an existing 3 year meta cycle.

3. When individual skills outshine entire other professions, then yes, they’re OP, otherwise, its apparent you don’t understand basic definitions of words. If you can look at skills like “Rite of the Great Dwarf” and not see insanely OP designed skills being thrown willy nilly onto the upcoming selling point of the new expansion, then you must not be much of a competitive player.

Lastly, people are just bummed that from everything that has been shown, the tech effects of the entire Revenant class, if they are added at all to existing professions will likely only be Specializations. So Rangers who stay Rangers, Warriors who stay Warriors, etc. will still be using the same skill effects they’ve been seeing since release. Sure, we might see a technical re-work of Stability, and numbers balancing, but the whiz bang effects of skills are unlikely to change.

Zelyhn Lekovitch.2867:

You are not getting it: I am asking whether my analysis is the only objective explanation for why we appear OP. The question is: can any one else come up with an other explanation? I just want to understand why we appear OP.

We can think of solutions once we have properly stated what the problem is.

Edit:
By default I always assume that the people I am talking to are logical and sensible. I might be overly optimistic but with this paradigm in mind I cannot understand how anyone would not recognize that there is a l2p issue if there is one. Since people do not seem to acknowledge this kind of issue, I assume that my analysis is wrong. This is why I look for alternative explanations. This is where you are supposed to enlighten me.

I’ve played pretty much since launch.

Casual PvPer, tend to focus more on WvW, with a lot of roaming. I’ve mained Ele almost the entire time (with a lesser focus on Guardian and Engineer).

My personal observation is thus:

The strongest iteration of the Ele in 1v1 was at launch, when skills like RtL hadn’t been nerfed yet, and was the era of 1vX trolling videos in WvW. PvP, the Ele has ALWAYS been subpar, except for several organized teams that can play to the strengths of the class while minimizing the weaknesses.

The greater “nerf Ele” community perceives the bog standard Ele through this lens. If they get their butt kicked by an Ele, they perceive it as an OP class, even though they then proceed to get their butts kicked by the other seven professions too.

For some reason I can’t fathom, players just don’t like being dominated by a good Ele player. It doesn’t matter if you point out PU Mesmers, most Thief builds, decap Engies, hambow/shoutbow, bunker Guards etc., etc. Its like these players have blinders on, and are tunnel vision’d on the Ele as the source of all their woes.

More than any other profession out there, it seems the majority of PvP scrubs refuse to adjust their builds and tactics to counter a profession like the Ele, and rather than bringing CC skills, boonstrips, and any other counter you can think of, they just complain and moan when their damage doesn’t land or stick. And usually with a casual PvP environment like GW2, the squeaky wheel gets the grease, and if you compare objectively where the Ele is now compared to release, its been over nerfed pretty significantly.

I mean, the META build for Eles in PvP right now requires you to blast through half your skills before every fight just to build up enough Might to be a threat, as to just have a chance at survival you have to build extremely tanky. Most other professions are not that badly pigeonholed, and if players were HONEST they’d admit they want the class nerfed just so they don’t get rolled by a decent Ele in 1 out of every 10 match ups.

Stop saying use your imagination. Just stop. This is an MMO, not some story driven single player RPG where actual roleplay takes place, and even THEN most devs try to avoid massive plotline gaps due to time travel.

MMOs are supposed to be consistent as much as possible. That’s why you can’t play season 2 of the LS until you’re level 80, and that level “assumes” that you’ve done the story dungeons, and watched all the drama between Logan and Rytlock, and have killed Zhaitan.

IF ANet isn’t going to bother with a Deathknight style starter area and condensed personal story, then they should at least add an NPC or some flavor text that describes the personal story as a dream or “Mists fueled reverie” similar to the Sylvari Dream.

Otherwise, its just lazy writing, storyboarding, and retcons out the wahzoo. And if they’re not willing to put in a little work for the flagship class of the first, and new expansion, then how does that bode for the future of the game?

jportell.2197:

You cmearly didnt play pvp in late 2012/early 2013. D/d cleric bunker eles were rushing far and holding the point 1v3 while never dying and if they got low they just rtld off point and healed to full. Now instead of a cleric amulet doing no damage. Its a celestial with nearly the same healing and more might plus more evade up time. Oh yes d/d eles were very dominant before.

So let me get this straight. In your mind, a class that sacrifices all damage to go “bunker” wearing a cleric amulet guaranteeing abysmal damage and overall designed to rush a point and hold it while their team catches up, shouldn’t be able to and should just succumb to defeat in a 1v1?

Then explain what the point of the cleric amulet is, much less capture and hold point mechanics, and why other professions designed to bunker and hold aren’t subjected to as much vilification as the Elementalist? Why is a Guardian or Engineer designed to bunker “working as intended” but an Elementalist doing the EXACT SAME THING is now OP? Keep in mind that both the Guard and Engy likely are both more survivable and capable of dishing out more damage with a greater margin for error than a comparable Ele.

Its pretty clear to me that you don’t play PvP, or don’t understand the mechanics behind it. There has never been an Elepocalypse dominating PvP, there have been good, organized teams showcasing the Ele’s ability in top tier play, but these are the 1% of the 1%. The Ele has never had the PvP pug-ability of the HS Thief or PU Mesmers, and people that say otherwise just want to keep their free, easy kills.

Still not working. Isn’t the Living Story like the selling point of this game in some respects?

Does it really make sense for it to stay buggy this long?

At what point can a player expect a fix? Is there a threshold of bug reports you have to submit in game before some dev takes a look at it?

Lawful.5314:

What? being able to just barely overheal the damage from two nabs, while holding a point, while not being able to kill either of them, doesn’t count as being very fun to play or dominant in my book.

People are still kitten from way back when a specific few Eles were showing their skills trolling in WvW on the Youtubes.

Mind you, they weren’t actually KILLING anyone, just simply bouncing around and stalling enemies.

Then the QQstorm started, and hasn’t stopped to this day, mostly from people who main Mesmers and Warriors and disliked not getting their free kills anymore.

You guys are kidding right?

How about no nerfs? The reason the profession is strong with Celestial as said is the amount and speed of boon application and sustain.

In terms of the overall game design this is paper armor though, and in the past the Ele was not so strong especially once more active boonstrips were introduced (such as Thief Sword).

The problem isn’t so much the profession or the amulet, but Conquest capture and hold design. Its why bunkers and decaps are meta, as are any builds that are designed for attrition style gameplay and fast movement, rather than burst style assassination.

If you want to fix PvP, and make it more interesting for a wider variety of builds, then you have to have more point generating mechanics. For example, if there were a center point on each map that could be “capped” via damage being done to it, instantly winning the match, then players would build zerk to zerg rush it and win quickly.

Then counters could be built, such as a CC character that would throw up reflects and absorbs, or pushes and pulls to keep teams off the point while the rest of their team kills the other team. With a risk of loss not due to attrition, players would build characters to kill the opposing team, rather than sit on a point.

So as you see, the real problem isn’t the Ele or Celestial’s strengths (and weaknesses), its the poor design of PvP.

ANet would have to do it in such a way that it didn’t seem like plagiarizing the idea behind WoW’s strongholds. The Revenant already seems a little DKish, so tread lightly is my thoughts there.

Still nothing. What is a decent timeframe to expect a fix?

Still not working.

Try to talk to Ogden, the first window tries to pop up (never actually see any options) for about a half a second, then the window that offers the multiple historical dialogue options pops up.

Nothing I’ve tried seems to work, from abandoning the story, playing all the way through up to that point, etc., etc. This makes it impossible to progress into Glint’s Lair.

Submitted tickets in-game, no responses to anything, and its still broken for me.

Been over a week since I last tried Hidden Arcana for achievements.

Still bugged, tried every workaround I could find or think of.

Still getting the first dialogue screen that pops up for only a second, then it skips to Ogden’s historical knowledge options.

When can we expect a fix?

Since people still… keep… missing… the… point…, I’ll provide an example that may just illustrate it.

Echoing Eruption, “cascade attack” with three blast finishers on an 8 second cooldown.

No other profession in game has an attack like this. Following the example, Churning Earth would be a good candidate for alteration to a “cascade attack” and that’s the question of the thread, is will the NEW TECH be applied to core profession skills where it would make sense?

We’ve seen footage now of the Revenant in action. Its fast paced, dynamic, and kinetic, sort of like Thief gameplay on steroids. The longest CD on existing Rev weapon skills is 15 seconds, imagine how Eles feel with 40 or 50 second CDs in addition to a 10 second attunement swap CD? Don’t even get started on utility and Elites with ZERO cooldown.

I realize that before, at and post launch the dev team will be looking at balancing Revenant skills numerically. But mechanically, and through execution, Rev skills right now are superior to existing core professions. And they just look COOL. From what we’ve seen, its likely SPECIALIZATIONS will get the tech updates on HoT release, but that’s a small percentage of playability compared to the existing eight professions with all their skills and traits.

Just to be clear, the concern isn’t adding Resistance or altering Stability on the existing professions, its about updating the look and feel of the professions so that the Revenant doesn’t instantly eclipse them in the awesomeness factor.

This is obviously a question focused on PvE and WvW.

And that is, is there an armor set that would apply equally well? I’m partial to Zerker stats on weapons, and can switch out trinkets as needed, but I tend to prefer to only have one set of armor if possible.

To that end, I’m looking for suggestions on a set of armor that would work on my Guard that allows one to frontline in WvW, probably with hammer, while still doing respectable damage in other areas of WvW and PvE.

Whether its simply a suggestion on the prefix/runes or a link to a full on build, I would appreciate any input, especially before I start working on Ascended (this is an alt).

Did no one read the OP, or did a bunch of people with no balance experience hijack the thread?

This isn’t about the power of the Revenant, or its skills, its about the coolness factor! Looking awesome and having varied and skill based gameplay is what the Revenant showed off in the stream, and that’s what this thread was supposed to be discussing.

Heck, the reason I chose Ele to main two years ago was because of all the professions it had the best “coolness” factor, pyrotechnics, etc. Yeah, it required a higher skill ceiling to play at even a baseline effectiveness, and I’m even now still working on it, but its worth it to have what may be the most visually interesting profession to play.

The problem with the Revenant is the kinetic nature of the class and its skill effects makes even Eles look slow and sad. Along with the OP, I’m hoping ANet will update “the look” of all existing professions with HoT, to give the same “feel” as the Revenant for the existing professions, but based just on the abysmal handling of skill balance and the length of time it takes to get stat fixes, that hope is not very confident.

I’ll make it simple for people.

At launch, 100 gems cost 20 silver.

Now, 100 gems is I believe around 15 gold. So a 75x fold increase.

Additionally, many of the easy gold farming exploits have been removed (heavy, repeated CoF1 for example) while many of the new items being added with each update are account or soul bound and/or not tradeable or sellable.

Most of the inflation is caused by the addition of new skins, new vanity items, toys and whatnot. I have no problem with those costing gems, as that’s kind of what the gemstore and the “end game” of GW2 was supposed to be anyways.

What is a problem is simple quality of life improvements that newer players, unless they’re willing to break out a credit card, will never be able to realistically achieve in game. This is a distinct advantage that some players got either by cheap conversion rate or massive gold farming that newer players can never achieve. Which should be against GW2 design philosophy of not allowing players purchaseable superiority.

I recognize that its not a HUGE difference in competitive play, but it is a distinct QoL issue that detracts from GW2’s theme of a fair and balanced playing field.

tl;dr cosmetic or convenience items in the gemstore should be done as is, actual improvement items such as bank tabs, bag tabs, storage expanders and such should either be made available as a gold sink, or adjust the gem cost for inflation on the gold-gem conversion ratio. A good time for such a change might be the HoT release, which is sure to bring a slew of new items, which I’m sure will all be account bound and needed somewhere down the line as a gigantic scavenger hunt.

Incidentally, the lack of easily purchaseable storage combined with account binding and “holdover” items needed for future scavenger hunts (example: the unlimited continue coin from SAB) is what causes many gamers to be prospects for hoarders-style reality shows.

Honestly, the easiest way to do the Rev’s skills and Legends is to look at the legends as modifiers.

Revenants get the same number of utility, heal and elite skills as any other profession, and players are allowed to mix and match as they see fit, same as any other profession.

The Legend stances then modify how each skill works. For Example:

Utility skill A under Ironhammer Legend performs a short leap and then melee AoE knockdown, under Mallyx Legend the same skill is a long distance shadowy teleport and AoE launch at the point of impact. All governed by the Energy mechanic.

This is just a simple example. It would let ANet modify and balance the base skills’ relative strength, and then the Legends end up giving more utility to make up for the lack of a weapon switch.

Personally I was always a proponent of Celestial for Ele for two main reasons:

1. Eles, more than any other profession use the most of all the attributed to good effect, even Healing Power when zerg diving lol.

2. Its the most nerf proof set of gear.

I’ve found over time that the easiest way to go is to get yourself a full set of Celestial armor (upgrade to Ascended when possible), keep weapons Zerk, and then mix and match trinkets for desired stats.

This way, apart from armor, you can go all zerk (even traits/attributes) for PvE and see little to no DPS loss, especially if you run Strength runes/sigil for Might uptime, and switch up trinkets to Knight or even Nomad for toughness in WvW.

It may not be the MOST optimal in every situation, but I hate having to cart around multiple armor sets. So for me, Celestial armor is the way to go.

Is there going to be a fix for this?

GoldenTruth.2853:

Most of the profession sounds really cool, but if the utilities are completely locked behind the legend (as in Jalis Legend only has 3 utilities and you have no choice but to use these 3 specific utilities in this Legend) gameplay is going to get boring really fast, and adaptability is going to greatly suffer. Both of these are only amplified by only being able to wield 1 weapon.

I would hazard a guess that each Legend you’re able to channel will include one utility skill that switches out your weapon skills with another set of 5, similar to Engineer kits.

Its really the only solution I can think of that overcomes the lack of weapon swap, as only having 5 weapon skills seems quite restrictive in current game design.

I’d say that if that’s not the case, then the Utilities are going to have to be semi-spammable, and likely include a lot of “chain” skills to amp up the variability.

Genesis.8572:

The idea that WoW handles their lore better is absolutely laughable. This is said as a WoW lore enthusiast and as a guy who has played Warcraft 1-3, their expansion packs, and WoW since Vanilla beta: the Warcraft franchise is a terrible trainwreck of lore and story progression filled with more retcons than sense.

Consider that a blood elf and draenei can both start as a monk class – as introduced in the fourth expansion, Mists of Pandaria – but their starting zones still reflect the time of the second expansion, The Burning Crusade.

You’re talking about a game that’s been out for over a decade, and as you said, is now into its FOURTH expansion, not first.

Is it okay then for ANet and GW2 to just stick to the same basic formula of story hackery, instead of trying to learn from other games’ errors and mistakes and attempt to fix them?

I don’t think people are truly expecting some epic re-imagining of the profession creation system, BUT its not like Revenants were “always there, hidden among us” kind of deal, Rytlock post LS2 is LITERALLY the first according to the devs. At least with WoW, when each individual expansion was released, AT THE TIME they made sense more or less with the existing continuity. HoT isn’t even trying to jive with the current state of the game, and that’s poor planning.

I’d assume that eventually they’d include Legends from each campaign, with an eye towards balancing heroes with villains. So here’s a barebones list with some basic ideas…

From Prophecies:
Prince Rurik – heavy single target melee, taunt
Vizier Khilbron – medium ranged AoE, CC, fear

From Factions:
Master Togo – PBAoE, retaliation
Shiro – heavy melee AoE, resistance

From Nightfall:
Kormir – support, condition cleanse
Mallyx – heavy ranged AoE CC (fear, taunt and slow included), heavy ranged AoE condition spam

From Eye of the North:
Jalis Ironhammer – melee PBAoE, ranged single target CC (think hammer throws)
Glint (seems odd to channel the Great Destroyer) – heavy reflects, blocks

Andred.1087:

You might want to evaluate the context of that statement before flippantly applying it in whatever way you see fit.

First, its not flippant. The same rhetoric used for the Revenant, and indeed HoT in general is what was used to “sell” the NPE, which is almost universally reviled.

As to the point of reconciling lore with mechanics, well that OTHER MMO that did so well introduced a death themed heavy class, with all new mechanics, and simply made a starting area, short questline, and integrated it into the world lore-wise relatively seamlessly despite massive amounts of existing lore and mechanics.

It CAN’T have escaped a storyboarding team of even two people that you’d need Doctor Who style time travel to reconcile shoehorning a profession into the past.

We KNOW that professions don’t have their own starting zones, and that its linked by race, but that’s because the initial design of GW2 and the Personal Story made that a good design choice. However, many parts of GW2 need to be updated, whether story, NPC dialogue, continuity, etc. so why not begin the expansion design with this in mind?

If you want to do it right, sometimes taking the harder path is what’s required. Which means creating a Death Knight style starting area, injecting Revenants post-Rytlock dive, likely starting them at a higher level (a “prestige class” perhaps that requires one lvl 80 on the account?) and polishing up the lore and story continuity. Or at least that’s what AAA titles are SUPPOSED to do.

Besides, what’s going to happen to newly created Sylvari once Mordremoth destroys the Grove, the Pale Tree is killed, blah blah? Are newly minted Sylvari a year from now going to all be time travelers? I wonder what the licensing requirements will be for a TARDIS minipet?

Roy Cronacher.1576:

Just like on the current professions, you will start at level 1 when you create a new Revenant character. We want it to be easily accessible for anyone with Heart of Thorns which means not putting it behind unnecessary content gates.

You might want to revisit the NPE then.

Linken.6345:

Sounds to me you want ffiv system of all classes on 1 toon for 400 gems.
Sorry bud pony up buy the last 4 slots you need to have 1 of each class and level them up.

That’s entirely wrong.

I’m thinking of a lore appropriate way to introduce the Revenant, as well as a way to SWITCH classes on a character, not possess all of them at once on one toon.

Argon.1563:

Personally, I would rather only have to pay for a character slot, rather than a slot AND a stone for a profession I should be handed for free, considering im going to have to buy Heart of Thorns.

(and it would still interfere with the personal story, hence why theres no race change option, as there are a few profession specific things, such as your character biography during character creation, and profession specific rewards in story quests.)

Perhaps I wasn’t clear. I’m assuming that HoT will release with a new character slot or two. You could then create an Asura Thief or something, take it through the short Revenant PS, and whammo, you’re a Revenant. Same level but it flags the character as a “post-Zhaitan” entity, so any of the stuff you do in game is similar to taking a Canthan or Elonian character through Prophecies in GW1. You could also take an existing level 80 Pact Commander through the Revenant PS, and you’d just have a character that’s dual flagged.

As for the class transmutation stone idea, I meant that it would allow you to change an existing character, say a level 72 Warrior into a level 72 Mesmer. Personal story is tied to race and dialogue, and your profession is irrelevant and never mentioned. The only profession specific thing I can think of is the flavor question that determines what item you start with, and it would be a simple thing to either leave it as is (you used to be a Warrior so started with a Spangenhelm, now that you’re a Mesmer 71 levels later its quite irrelevant) or a short pop up text box that allows you to change it. Profession specific stuff is nice in the short term, but in all my time playing GW2 I don’t think I’ve done anything but salvage or sell level up rewards, as I’m usually rolling with crafted stuff anyways.

The problem is that the NPE is misnamed. Its the “New Character Experience.”

Extremely unforgiving to alts, and annoying for people who’ve been playing since Beta and know the ins and outs of every system and skill. Its only slightly less annoying to everybody else, since the game is not that complex, and once you know how boons, conditions, skill combos and such work on your first character, you know how they work in 99% of the game, barring any profession specific stuff.

My suggestion, if the NPE isn’t fully redacted is to make it a thing for new players only, and then only on the FIRST character they create. All subsequent characters would then be governed by the original system, with possibly keeping level up rewards.

Yes, this would allow a brand new player to simply create two characters, abandoning the first one entirely to skip the NPE altogether. But lets face it, GW2 is not that difficult of a game, the NPE is pretty horrible all around, and the ONE place where learning curves might be difficult and need gradual introduction is PvP, and that’s still an instant “all-on” out of the box game mode.

Its something that’s bounced around in my head for a bit, and that’s how the Revenant would be presented at start.

Seeing as how Rytlock was a warrior and “came back” as this new profession, would it not make sense that Revenants aren’t created characters?

Instead, we have to take an existing character through a gauntlet style personal story instance, and at the end of it the base profession changes to Revenant.

Same class level, same personal story history (i.e. Human Noble, Asura Statics, etc.) but the character is forever altered by its trials in the Mists.

Incidentally, this would then open up the opportunity for a “Mists Soulstone” in the Gem Store for 400 gems or so that would allow you to switch any character’s profession at any time (outside of combat of course).

I’ve found that on Ele, most of the Mordremoth related content is easier on a staff. D/D means you have to stay in close to the enemy, and many minions have charges, AoE swipes, etc.

Staff allows you to range your target, is focused on AoE which is necessary given enemy density usually, and has mobility and plenty of CC. Throw down an Unsteady Ground with Lightning Rod traited and watch the fireworks lol.

I’ve also found that using Arcane Shield, along with Glyph of Storms and both Elemental glyphs helps with aggro and gives you lots of options like the Earth Blind on GoS, and the various on-demand Elemental utilities.

But I’ve relatively easily cleared most of the LS2 along with the achievement runs with the above build with a 6/6/0/0/2 spec, switching between Blasting Staff and Renewing Stamina.

For the sake of argument, assume that not every player is willing to accumulate or craft multiple Ascended sets.

PvP isn’t really an issue, thanks to all equipment being normalized.

So my question deals with PvE and WvW. I realize that everyone seems to be on the Zerker bandwagon, as its “meta” and such. But being a dirty casual like I am I’d rather not have to have two different sets of gear for the two game modes.

So is it REALLY all that bad to simply go Celestial with the majority of your gear? I figure having armor be Celestial, with runes of Strength slotted should be fine, go Zerker on the weapons (makes sense for weapons to be offensively focused) and then use multiple types of trinkets to round out what I need, such as Zerker for PvE, and Knight’s or even Nomad’s for WvW.

I figure between Might stacking and trait build, that the above loadout provides a nice base, and is “meta-shift” resistant, so that no matter HOW ANet balances the Elementalist this gear will, while not always optimized, be always effective.

Tried several times in the last two days, still not working.

Seems odd that this would be a thing in the first place.

Kodiak.3281:

I have it on word from a very credible source that the specialization is actually dual wield hamsters attached by a rope that we wield in nunchaku fashion.

I’m sure you meant gophers right?

For the achievement run, I’m running into the bug that causes Ogden to only give his multiple “history” dialogues, and doesn’t allow one to continue into Glint’s Lair.

Is there any workaround for this? I’ve tried abandoning the episode, and re-activating, and still nothing.

Does anyone remember the Sinpocalypse?

Factions was released, everyone and their dog made Naruto clones, 99% of Sin players failed at the class and dropped it, and the Assassin gained a much undeserved reputation, and was, for a long time relegated to Shadow Form farming/tanking.

Will the Revenant be the same? We have a defensive, support minded heavy with the Guardian, and an offensive, DPS minded heavy in the Warrior.

Given that ANet is likely not reviving the trinity, what is the Revenant bringing to gameplay that the other two heavies don’t? And will the addition of the Revenant end up just like the Assassin, where it becomes a “joke” profession that everyone kicks from dungeons/raids/everything because they’re sick of Rev players doing the warp step move we saw in the video and aggroing everything in a ten mile radius?