Guild Wars 2

First, they nerfed a passive mantra bonus where you could actually hit stuff between mantras and turned them into a QoL nightmare where you are staring at the skillbar like an idiot and mashing buttons like Lubomyr Melnyk instead of playing the game.

Then, background cooldown was awesome and finally felt like something that made mantras less clunky and gave the awful PvE mantra gameplay more flow.

…so obviously, they had to take it away. Because playing a mesmer should be utter pain and frustration for less of a result than an AFKing warrior, and no one cares about PvE balancing.

Back to sticking to ele in the rare cases when I could actually choose mesmer over it.

If you start stomping and swap pets with Zephyr’s Speed you still get the full stomping time and two stomping animations, one fast and one usual for the rest of the stomp I believe; you have to start stomping right after you swap pets to actually get the reduction. Is that a problem with the trait or a game-wide problem with quickness and stomping?

Don’t all our trait “effects” actually cast our native skills now instead? Both inheriting applicable trait bonuses and cooldowns.

Robert Gee on Ready Up #35:

The passive of this skill now gives 5 seconds of Swiftness… This was gonna be 10 seconds… I assure you all WvW mesmers, I have tried this with no boon duration, and if you run this with your… ohm… ehh… focus, focus 4, you can basically have constant Swiftness, you’ll be fine… We wanted you to have some investment, you should have to invest in boon duration if you want that to be permanent, or at least the focus skill, we wanted there to be some play with it, ‘cause if you get permanent Swiftness all the time, there’s no play to that.

So… How about fixing non-stacking swiftness on Focus?

Because currently what you get is this:

• get 5 seconds of Swiftness
• cast Temporal Curtain
• run through it with 0.1 seconds of Swiftness left
• get no swiftness for the next 5 seconds, lose 12 potential seconds of swiftness, get your Temporal Curtain on 25 sec cooldown for no reason

No, I do not agree that timing my mobility skills which puts me in combat if any random animal walks through it to the moment when I have no Swiftness is what should be called “investment”. I also do not think that this signet will be used anywhere else than in PvE, – a solo WvW roamer has little reason to take a signet that copies boons to allies, a WvW zerger gets permanent swiftness from guardians, and a PvPer is already short of utility slots for all the crucial skills.

mirror on reddit

Blackworm.2167:

Lishtenbird.2814:

Never liked that old shabby pirate look. Nice to see a fairly modern, southern city – finally feels like the fantasy MMO style I prefer.

So… like every other fantasy MMO out there?

There’s a reason why most MMOs are like that: most people want it. GW2 has unique combat mechanics and unique common sense in their business model that makes all other MMOs subpar though, so I’m happy that I can get best of both worlds bow. And to be fair, the new LA isn’t even that magical and fancy as one would expect from a main city of a fantasy MMO.

Read the patch notes. It’s all there if you can’t handle it by pressing buttons in the game. They went as far as give you automatically a fairly similar build to what you had…

The Build Tab
Upon logging in, you will see that the Skills and Traits section of your Hero panel is now gone. We’ve replaced this with an entirely new Build tab that allows you to view all of your skills and traits in one convenient location. To access the Build tab, open your Hero panel and select the second tab from the top of the far left. Additionally, inside the Build tab there are three larger slots with filled-in or grayed-out backgrounds—these are your specialization slots.
Specializations
Instead of investing trait points across varying trait lines, you now select up to three different specializations depending on your level. Each specialization offers a variety of traits for you to choose from that give you passive abilities that enhance the way you play. By default, you’re given access to a base set of specializations known as core specializations, which you equip by clicking on the left-hand arrow of a specialization slot. Specialization slots unlock at levels 21, 45, and 71. We’ve taken into account the skills and traits that you had currently selected on your character and made an effort to unlock and equip a build similar to what you had been running prior to this release.
Specializations and trait choices are game mode specific. You may select different specialization lines and associated traits in PvE, WvW, and PvP.
The Training Tab
Excluding racial skills, all nonweapon skills (heal, utility, and elite) that appear on the right half of your skill bar—as well as your traits—are now locked inside the new Training tab. To unlock these skills and traits, open up your Hero panel, go to the Training tab, then select a track under Core Skills or Core Specializations. In order to train, you will need to spend hero points (previously skill points) in a selected track. Hero points are earned by leveling up or by completing hero challenges (previously skill challenges) throughout the world. The Training tab is locked until your character reaches level 11. In order to make this change, Antitoxin Spray has been removed from the game.
Core Skills
Core skills are reward tracks of heal, utility, and elite skills organized by skill category. You may start unlocking skills at level 11. Elite skills are unlocked at level 31. Individual skills are locked by default but may be unlocked in the following manner:

Step 1: Open your Hero panel and go to the Training tab. The Training tab is the third tab from the top on the far left of the Hero panel.
Step 2: Select one of the tracks under Core Skills. Tracks are located on the left side of the Training tab.
Step 3: Once you select a track, it will become visible, showing you a circle with all of the selected track’s associated skills.
Step 4: In the center of the selected track, there will be a skill, a button that allows you to learn the skill, and a cost (listed in Hero points).
Step 5: To learn a skill, click on the Train button and confirm that you’re willing to pay its Hero point cost. Once completed, the next skill in the track will become available. Once all skills in a track have been purchased, the circle will be completed.
Optional: To train further into a track, select the reward level that you want and click the Train button.

Core Specializations
Core specializations are an updated version of the previous trait system. All specializations are locked until your character reaches level 21. Individual specializations and their associated skills are locked by default but may be unlocked in the following manner:

Step 1: Open your Hero panel and go to the Training tab. The Training tab is the third tab from the top on the far left of the Hero panel.
Step 2: Select one of the tracks under Core Specializations. Tracks are located on the left side of the Training tab.
Step 3: Once you select a track, it will become visible, showing you a circle with all of the selected track’s associated skills.
Step 4: In the center of the selected track, there will be a skill, a button that allows you to learn the skill, and a cost (listed in Hero points).
Step 5: To learn a skill, click on the Train button and confirm that you’re willing to pay its Hero point cost. Once completed, the next skill in the track will become available. Once all skills in a track have been purchased, the circle will be completed.
Optional: To train further into a track, select the reward level that you want and click the Train button.

Never liked that old shabby pirate look. Nice to see a fairly modern, southern city – finally feels like the fantasy MMO style I prefer.

Reminds me of that reddit thread called “Can we think of ANY change ANet makes that doesn’t make SOMEONE mad?”

CONDI, tough, vit

and

CONDI, pow, prec

please?

ColinJohanson.2394:

To more directly answer some of your point….We are adding a system that lets you change the stats for your ascended gear (weapons and armor) next Tuesday – which will cost a combination of 10 spirit shards, piece you don’t want anymore, 5 ectos, and an exotic insignia of the stats you want to convert to. Legendary Gear will remain the gear that can freely change stats any time.

That’s the best new for me since the addition of new fractals. Thanks.

Windwalker.7421:

Correcting title to “Phantasm Builds: Useless GMs in Illusions for PvE”

Sorry, it’s impossible to balance every trait for every game-mode. This one is clearly one aimed at PvP, where it’s a very powerful GM and far from useless.

So does it become more “get bonus from illusion upkeep” and “illusion-improving” if talking PvP?

IMO this trait simply does not belong to this tree. By pure description, what does “blind and confuse on evade” sound like? Dueling. Domination. Inspiration. Chaos. Hell, anything but Illusions.

Beldin.5498:

The core was already down to $10 .. and with HoT it will simply be down to $00.

So the core GW2 went F2P, and anyone can play it freely without buying HoT?

From Guild Wars 1.

You know, that thing from which Guild Wars 2 has everything we loved, and more.

serenke.4806:

darkdomino.9578:

No, you’re paying twice for the core game if you own GW2 already. You won’t get an extra code.

No. You do not pay twice for the core game. The expansion would be priced at that either way. You can argue about how this is a bad idea but at least stop spreading nonsense.

That would be true if the core game went F2P. Which it didn’t.

Yes, blind is 10% efficient on creatures with Defiance.

tobascodagama.2961:

Teutos.8620:

Blind on dodge does not sound good to you?

Blind and Confusion, don’t forget!

So, 1 stack of confusion for 4 seconds (a game-changing GM trait!) whenever you blind a foe. And what sense does it make again in a trait line focused on improving Illusions, including phantasms?

Adept and Master has at least 1 of each type of traits:

• bonus for illusion upkeep,
• bonus for shattering.

Grandmaster does not. It would’ve if illusions blinded foes on non-shatter death or gave AoE blind on you evading or got pulsing protection, but it doesn’t.

Sold Out.7625:

Core game is a free bonus to a set Heart of Thorns price to incentivize new players to get the game and not have them pay double.

Your post is pointless.

Nobody misses you. Go away.

This reminds me of why I moved to reddit. There, one can easily see the community reaction to each post, and repeating stuff only makes it worse if no one agrees.

ArrogantHero.4965:

People on these forums are complaining about the value of the GW2 expansion. I believe that everyone is titled to there opinion, fair enough. BUT if you have ever went to go see a movie when it first came out YOU ARE A HYPOCRITE!!! You say GW2 expansion cost too much but you will spend $10-$20 to see a 2 hour movie.

A cheeseburger is $1 and a movie ticket is $5 here in Russia due to the exchange rate, anything above that is “expensive”, and even $5 is “expensive” for students.

GW2 is not only USA. $50 is not throw-away money in many other countries, and gaming is not the only hobby people want to pay for.

ArrogantHero.4965:

MOST of you PROBABLY spend hundreds, some of you thousands on video games every year. What’s $30 compared to that?!

Around $10 in the last couple of years for a bunch of some indie stuff from Humble Bundle that I don’t actually play just to support it. I don’t have time for other games; to be fair, I could’ve spent the GW2 time way better, but people need to relax anyway.

Wanze.8410:

Give it a couple of days until the traders start buying up all this stuff and dump the supply on the tp.

It simply means a lot more things will become expensive because of the increase in demand.

• It will not make ascended less expensive,
• it will not help light classes,
• it will not help altoholics,
• it will not remove the extra stat increase incentive to craft it.

Earlier, people said “I do not have to craft it for every character stat-wise, it’s just a long-term option for my main”; now people will have to grind for BiS item since it does matter. ANet has a chance to make a lot of players way happier by making damask cheaper – but yeeeah, with the today’s reveal of HoT bundle policy, I’m sure they’re not aiming for anyone’s happiness.

Wanze.8410:

Lishtenbird.2814:

It’s not that players do not want ascended to be better, it’s that they want it to not feel grindy which it always did, especially for light classes, especially if you play more than one class, especially in fractals, and it does feel more grindy than ever with the rocketing price.

The price is relatively irrelevant in determining if its more grindy now, as long as the droprate stays the same.

In a game where almost everything can be bought with a universal currency (gold), that relatively is pretty irrelevant once you count in the opportunity cost of selling the mats and getting other goods (and more of them in our case).

Also, I assume that most people do not grind 300 silk per day, they play to get gold and buy the rest of ungrinded silk (and linen) for daily crafting. That might be false, but I’m inclined to think it’s true.

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

Again, how can it possibly be “exploity” when they are letting literally everyone in those maps do the same thing without using a skill?

There’s no gliding in the new WvW map.

And in HoT, you have to glide forward, falling directly down and activating the glider without faceplanting in a wall will be rather tricky (but it still is not the point because WvW).

Since ascended is getting buffed to 10% instead of 5% over exotics, now is the best time to:

• reduce the amount of silk scraps in the Bolt of Silk (to change all silk recipes),
• reduce the amount of bolts of silk the Spool of Silk Weaving Thread (to only change the Damask cost),
• make it require mostly gossamer instead of silk since that one is almost leather,
• (make heavy and medium armour require more deldrimor to make it even maybe?)

It’s not that players do not want ascended to be better, it’s that they want it to not feel grindy which it always did, especially for light classes, especially if you play more than one class, especially in fractals, and it does feel more grindy than ever with the rocketing price.

But if the recipe requirements are decreased, the market will balance it out with the increased demand and everyone will become happier Bonus: it will make speculators who got hands on the patch notes earlier than everyone else unhappy.

Most speculate that it’s Spectral Walk, not Spectral Return. If it’s the latter, I will be back in this thread raging and demanding to get one of the most awesome skills back. The Walk thingie, though, will be really exploity in the new highly vertical maps, so no wonder it gets changed.

Teutos.8620:

Blind on dodge does not sound good to you?

A blind with a 10% chance of success, after I already dodged the big attack?

That was one of the best “come-back” and “watch your opponent’s HP” traits out there.

If you want to create a phantasm build and go into the Illusions line for

• Illusionist’s Celerity,
• Compounding Power and
• Phantasmal Haste,

there are no useful GM traits whatsoever. I might assume that Master of Fragmentation is supposed to go with the Chronophantasma trait, but it feels kinda lacking regardless and makes little sense. The other traits are designed to benefit from keeping illusions up, while the GM ones focus on either shattering or, well, doing something that has no connection to “illusions”.

So, Consume Ecto will not be changed according to the latest patch notes.

Do thieves think that Consume Ecto is balanced at the moment? Will you be using the double steal trait? Do you feel double Consume Ecto will be balanced?

nexxe.7081:

Lishtenbird.2814:

ColinJohanson.2394:

Simply put: we haven’t announced it yet – when we’re ready to show everything about our plans for challenging content for HoT, we’ll announce it.

Though it isn’t the “challenging content” feature discussed in our announcement – I will add we want our open world content experience to be more challenging as well just in general. Though the AI was better in our CBT experience – we think we still have a lot of work to do to get our creatures and encounters even at the start of Verdant Brink up to where we want them to be. Our game has great combat, our creatures and encounters should challenge and require you to use that combat system.

More info “when it’s ready”.

I hope that doesn’t mean that the “challenging content” will be put into those LW S2 Story instances which I hated to grind for achievements and had absolutely no reason to ever replay with my friends, unlike fractals and dungeons which I’m still doing daily (when I have time) despite them being stale.

It’s possible that it will be. I’ve always thought that those achievement instances could have replaced dungeons. It’s actually a great concept, and all they would need to do is add more bosses, which drop RNG exclusive gear, just like traditional mmos do. As it is now, they aren’t worth repeating, once you have all the achievements, and the other junk can just be acquired outside the instances.

There are more problems with this concept than just RNG drops:

Lishtenbird.2814:

Instead, I’ve done these things once (or a couple of times if you count achievement runs) & am never coming back there again. Why?

• User-unfriendly activation.
  • You need everyone to activate the same episode (and lose progress on current if it’s not finished).
  • You need everyone to have the episode done.
  • You do not have separate LFG sections for these instances.
• Rewards.
  • There’s little point doing this content on your main; grinding open-world content for the rewards is both more fun and more rewarding.
  • Sometimes there’s a point doing it on your alt, but it is rarely enjoyable since it’s not your main and it often leads to frustration instead.
• Too much focus on storytelling.
  • Unskippable dialogues and cutscenes anyone?

I understand that the new buyable Personal Story chapters is a source of money which caters to solo players in this MMORPG, and that dungeon grinding is something ANet economists dislike, and I do not want this thread to be another “need more dungeons” thread, but… honestly, it really feels like so much wasted potential.

So… how about at least duplicating some of the fights as fractals/sets of mini-dungeons?

TL;DR: rehashed content is better than no content.

ColinJohanson.2394:

Simply put: we haven’t announced it yet – when we’re ready to show everything about our plans for challenging content for HoT, we’ll announce it.

Though it isn’t the “challenging content” feature discussed in our announcement – I will add we want our open world content experience to be more challenging as well just in general. Though the AI was better in our CBT experience – we think we still have a lot of work to do to get our creatures and encounters even at the start of Verdant Brink up to where we want them to be. Our game has great combat, our creatures and encounters should challenge and require you to use that combat system.

More info “when it’s ready”.

I hope that doesn’t mean that the “challenging content” will be put into those LW S2 Story instances which I hated to grind for achievements and had absolutely no reason to ever replay with my friends, unlike fractals and dungeons which I’m still doing daily (when I have time) despite them being stale.

Kaliki.3247:

My team and I all had a game crash in therma just now. We all sent our report in but I wanted you to know you were not alone. It was a level 29 and we were fighting the portal by the main console.

That’s odd. I’ve done fractals the day before yesterday (40 or 50) and we had no problems at this portal anymore. I figured it’s been fixed in one of the patches.

This bug has been mentioned on reddit today again and it appears that many players still do not know why this is happening. There are some suggestions on how it should work from player’s perspective, too.

Mine froze completely and didn’t show an error (and neither made screenshots, so here’s a photo), had to Alt-Ctrl-Del and kill with Task Manager on Windows 7. The same happened yesterday, at the same place (+- 5 meters); today we used Blink and portalled up, but yesterday we didn’t portal but IIRC one person did blink up.

Liked the idea earlier, still like it now.

Hate this “improvement” and want it nerfed back.

Getting really sick of all this trash filling my inventory (aetherkeys, black lion chests, medallions, sigils, runes, piles of sands, 1c recipes and so on, and so on – and that’s extra to geodes, crests, lockpicks, bladders, recipe books, shovels…) It looks like they’re deliberately pushing it all there to force people to buy extra bags, permanent tools and finally – ultra-pricey permanent merchants.

JonPeters.5630:

A couple notes on Dragonhunter. We went with this name because we felt it was evocative of the medieval witch hunters. Guardians consider themselves protectors of the innocent. Followers of their faith be it in honor, valor, etc. The origin of the dragonhunter is a more subtle nuanced version of this. Guardians fight for justice and the dragonhunter faction believes justice is the eradication of dragons and their minions. I understand this is a lot more high concept than Mesmer but at the end of the day we felt like we wanted to try and push a more mature theme here. I hope this helps explain our thinking. We had other generic names in mind but felt like it was important to have a mix of spec names that are generic fantasy, more Tyrian fantasy, and more high concept. This one falls more in the third category.

This is not the first time that ANet adds 1 to 2 and gets 12 while the rest of the world gets 3.

I would’ve bought it if they outright said “Hey, we want to attract younger audience, and this spec was the only one we could do it with!”, but this reasoning just doesn’t cut it.

ANet came up with a very specific, disconnected term (dragon hunter) which a 10-year old would’ve suggested since more abstract fantasy concepts (sentinel, warden, seeker, arbiter, seraphim) are far from his understanding and beyond his vocabulary. And then ANet states that we, players who have written hundreds of elaborated posts on the subject already, fail to grasp this deep concept. I wonder if this is just PR talk to cover up for the younger audience targeting, or they believe that a glorified ranger is something that naturally comes from a concept of a “holy knight” guardian we’ve always had in our minds for 2+ years.

Anyway, Genesis has already summed it up perfectly earlier.

Genesis.8572:

Thank you for your reply. We appreciate anyone from ArenaNet providing feedback on the fan responses. I get what you were going for. I really do. That became apparent in the Friday twitch stream on the guardian elite specialization. The problem is that the concept comes across as incredibly garbled mess. Intent does not equate to reception. You are sending mixed messages through the name and the flavor text in a manner that feels both disassociated from the core concepts of the guardian and what you claim the elite specialization is about.

You and Karl indicate that ArenaNet seek to evoke a “medieval witch hunter.” But ANet talks about the specialization being “big game hunters,” which is a distinct concept from a “medieval witch hunter.” I can see “witch hunters” being connected conceptually to guardians, as purifiers and inquisitors of the faith, but not “big game hunters.” “Witch hunters” were not known for taking down “big game,” but the secretive, deceptive, and dangerously subtle ‘game’ that lurked within the hearts of their fellow humans: apostates, pagans, and heretics. The danger for “witch hunters” was neither “big game” nor the world outside of their community, but within their community.

<and so on>

Liked Sentinel and Warden so far. And Seraph makes sense with the wing and bow things.

Maybe the hate that Dragonhunter is getting is partially because, like, there are no real dragons to fight in this game and people do not really care about dragons? The dragons (and their champions) in GW2 are some unseen giant chunks of plants, iceblobs and crystals (AFKing while being zerged), and not some real threats from flesh and blood that people can perceive as real threats worth hating and fighting against.

With guardian as my 3rd main (and 1st main for open-world farming) I’d say I’m not excited. Feels like it brings nothing to the small group, challenging content I actually want to do, and open world was easy mode on guardian already.

Also, voting for name change – Dragonhunter just doesn’t sound for guardians (even if we assume that Braham picks up Eir’s longbow to become a petless ranger).

Ehh… doesn’t it actually have a tick there in the popup, like, “do not ask again”?

Velimere.7685:

Lishtenbird.2814:

Pressing auto to maximise DPS is totally the right strategy to play a class. And not making core class mechanics contribute more to DPS.

I don’t know if you’re agreeing with the fact that I stated or talking down to me in your own obscure way, but it still stands that the majority of a Mesmer’s sustained DPS in PvE is from his auto-attack just the same as with all of the other classes.

For starters, I would like to see a link to calculations of that “highest sustained DPS” for “all classes”.

Noha.3749:

Who knows if thieves gets Death Shroud and Rangers longbow range.

Come on, we all know thiefs will be immune to Slow and Confusion, autotarget the real mesmer, reveal us from stealth, and double steal for all boons plus permaalacrity.

runeblade.7514:

Dueling needs to be open anywhere and anytime. Period.

All anti-dueling argument I’ve seen over many threads is dumb including the one Lishtenbird.2814 made. I groan whenever he repost it because he is biased against dueling.

I went into WoW/RIFT/Aion/TERA to find these hostile duelist. I found some duelist, decline their duels and guess what they did? They moved on and find some other people to duel. People who called duelist hostiles have never been to a dueling room. The duelist there are nice but the griefers are hostile.

“Your arguments are dumb because I say so. I am always right because I know I am.”

That’s not the first (and definitely not the last) thread I’ve seen that kind of “argument” from you. And from other threads, I can tell that you don’t even have enough expertise in the game, its classes and mechanics despite your terrifying amount of characters.

No info on it yet apart from the generic “You will get part of those from updated gear and part from traits” that we got some time ago.

Velimere.7685:

Lishtenbird.2814:

What’s the point of taking +10% to 40% of your damage (you) rather than +15% to 60% of your damage? “Deal more damage” stuff never applied to illusions.

Because the majority of a Mesmer’s damage in PvE is from his auto-attack.

Pressing auto to maximise DPS is totally the right strategy to play a class. And not making core class mechanics contribute more to DPS.

Carighan.6758:

Yes, in theory Phantasms can be good. Btw, that trait is being merged baseline in the v2.0 patch before HoT. So no discussions where it belongs, it’s just gone. :P

Look in the adept traits.

Xaylin.1860:

Much more exciting than +15% damage, don’t you think?

I would find it “exciting” if dancing on one leg on a rope across a canyon with a bunch of eggs on a plate on my head was like 40-50% more efficient than pressing 2 and going AFK on some other class. Otherwise, it’s a self-imposed, hampering gimmick chosen by masochistic PvE mesmers.

I could even understand countess Anise’s dress which would be limited to only 1 weight getting an outfit and requiring 2 more armours to be designed… but this Daydreamer’s outfit just screams “I’m a light armour mage, mix and match me!”

So… while it’s awesome, no, I’m not getting it.

Algreg.3629:

nah, I don´t think so – as opposed to the I duelz u-kids, OP actually put some thought into it, his idea of dueling would actually add something meaningful to the game, as opposed to dudes spamming people with “lolz, coward noob” stuff randomly on pve maps.

Regardless, any kind of dueling is a slippery slope.

There are tons of problems, starting with the toxic PvP community (which has been dumped into a single zoo cage for now) and ending with class balance whining where it should’ve never existed (my guild used to hold a PvP tournament and youknowwhat? they banned skills like Moa, traits like PU and certain sets of gear!)

So no, thank you.

rainpool.7189:

Lishtenbird.2814:

So many words typed, so much time spent, and the OP still fails to realize that mesmer GS auto damage floater is bugged (as it is for many frequent auto skills).

If you do 10000 damage on GS auto over 10 seconds, it means you’ve been doing 1000, 1000, 1000… damage per second. And not 1000, 2000, 3000… 9000, 10000 per second.

And if you’re getting 5000 damage on a Rapid Fire in 2 seconds, unsurprisingly, it means you dealt 2500 damage per second.

I think you’re the one that is confused. The op is complaining that it takes too long for a mesmer to deal 10,000 damage, when compared to ranger. Not what you are trying to say.

Look here:

trueanimus.4085:

I tried some experiments with mesmer and gs damage scales when using mind wrack and on some mobs i can get up to 40,000 damage or higher before im forced to move thus resetting the tick. Yet with ranger i can get up to 24,000 damage on one skill and it almost downs the mob.

My question is… why does mesmer channeled dps stack (the numbers add up but the damage is still just 300 per tick) when #2 ranger longbow skill actually does the damage that it claims to on the skill per tick.

There are multiple things I do not understand in OP’s post and they do not actually make sense. Most likely it’s just total confusion over different mechanics of the game, flavoured with a floater bug.

Ah, and I remembered I was going to link this thread when people start talking about ascended being too hard to get:

Full Ascended Armor & Accessories in 35 Days From Account Birth

We I need want another option to get ascended gear.

FTFY.

The absence of the anti-duel posts here makes me think that veterans have simply left the forum (and the game) since there’s completely nothing to do there. Here’s my summary of the previous 999999 threads on dueling:

Lishtenbird.2814:

2. DUELING

[~] Threads for reference:

• Why is there still no dueling?
• PvE Dueling
• Why is there No Dueling and no Trading
• Really need a dueling menu

[+] Arguments in favour:

• That other game has it; we’ve seen it done there and enjoyed it.
• Dueling is for fun, not for leaderboards.
• Dueling is a great way to pass time, while waiting either for a queue or other things.
• Dueling is a way to get to know someone, without them even speaking.
• Dueling allows players to get to know themselves, as well as their builds.
• Custom arenas are unintuitive and cost money.
• We want our gear to matter in duels because we worked for it.
• To deal with duel harassment, make duels voluntary, give an option to hide/ignore duel requests.

[-] Arguments against:

• GW2 is not that other game. Dueling in GW2 is like that eternal fight between a whale and an elephant, because GW2 was designed with class synergy in mind: different classes with different damage, control and utility skills, combo fields, AoE sharing (and stripping) boons and conditions. That’s why PvP has the 5v5 structure, and the objective is to hold points, and not kill each other.
• Since dueling is not a supported game mode, it is natural that the available method to duel (custom arena) has inconveniences.
• Your gear stats will be normalized, as the design behind GW2 says that sports-like competition is about skills and not credit cards.
• No matter how you hide it through options, people will always find a way to annoy you in say chat, map chat and even whispers (like they do in WvW). The best way to prevent this is not to have dueling at all.
• Dueling would cause either a class balance disaster or a community disaster. There are already more than enough community complaints about mesmers and thiefs which caused them to be nerfed so hard because of PvP that playing in PvE became meh, and making it even worse because of a game mode which wasn’t designed to exist in the first place would feel wrong for players maining these classes.
• People who duel have a negative attitude towards everyone else. We do not want to see dueling in a PvE environment as it will bring uneasiness and unsafety, which contradicts the philosophy of GW2’s PvE.

[=] Current state of affairs:

• “Dueling” threads are often met with negativity, both because this is a sensitive topic and because it has been discussed countless times. Still, new “dueling” threads appear every now and then, showing that there are players who are actively wanting to discuss the addition of dueling.

trueanimus.4085:

Now.. as for mesmers.. to get any high numbers.. you have to channel GS 1 skill.. and even on a regular mob, you can reach 10,000 damage.. but it takes FOREVER to kill the mob that way.

So many words typed, so much time spent, and the OP still fails to realize that mesmer GS auto damage floater is bugged (as it is for many frequent auto skills).

If you do 10000 damage on GS auto over 10 seconds, it means you’ve been doing 1000, 1000, 1000… damage per second. And not 1000, 2000, 3000… 9000, 10000 per second.

And if you’re getting 5000 damage on a Rapid Fire in 2 seconds, unsurprisingly, it means you dealt 2500 damage per second.

Korusef.3714:

I think the duration increase will only affect Mesmer though.

Outgoing stealth from mesmer skills will be increased for both the mesmer and the allies. Applied stealth (e.g. Shadow Refuge) will have the caster’s duration.