I don’t enjoy gambling with real money in the real world, and the examples you give totally equate to gambling. Throwing real money at video game roulette is not going to work with me, I’d rather pay 2-3x and make sure I get it what I want, even if there is a chance to get what I want gambling for a fraction of the cost. The end result is me spending $0 instead of $10.
I’d love to see an skill or ability that drove Bleed conditions to the bottom of the pile on a target. Pop skill, inflict vulnerability, move bleed to bottom under vuln and poison. It would be a tricky and strategic skill to make sure enemies cleanse other conditions first. Sure they could still cleanse the bleed with a little extra effort, but it gives it a chance to tick a few more times.
Yes, in latest patch notes in the News section, they fixed Hidden Killer.
The only people that think we are OP are people posting about how One Specific Thief absolutely destroyed them, then make generalizations about the class. One good player overpowered them, because it is certainly not the class mechanics.
I have a new thief myself, just hit level 30. I definitely recommend putting your first 10 points into Uncatchable (0/0/0/0/10). Caltrops every time you dodge is a lifesaver and it does good condition damage too, inflicting up to 3 bleeds ona target just from dodging. I typically use it offensivelyby engaging a mob, standing on them, and dodging away when they take their first swing at you. They’ll take 3 bleeds and be crippled a few seconds longer, making it really easy to slide them up with dagger auto attacks.
This, in conjunction with the actual caltrops ability and death blossom that a few others mention above works wonders on a crowd, and I barely ever have to switch out of D/D for any situation. I still keep a Shortbow as a backup because you never know when you need a ranged option or quick escape. Good Luck.
My hopes are that they have more mobility plans for us. They seem to want thieves relying less on stealth and more on being “slippery,” at least according to what they said in the SotG, so hopefully those changes just weren’t ready yet. This nerf may not have been so bad if they opened up more mobility to offset the negatives, but so far all we got were negatives.
So caltrops duration was lowered from 15s to 10s. This is fine and an acceptable form of balance imo, so I won’t talk about that here.
I was playing around just busting off some caltrops in town and watching the timer, the new area ring added for visibility lasts for 10 seconds on the ground and then disappears, that’s fine. But the caltrops themselves remain on the ground for the full 15 seconds and it is sortof confusing.
In a fight, I’ll drop caltrops and I really appreciate the outer ring to see the area that is affected, but I am not always paying attention to it because you can see the caltrops on the ground and assume it is active. It’s not really a huge deal, but it does get pretty confusing that they still remain on the ground for 5 seconds after their effectiveness wears off. It might actually work in our favor in pvp as people might avoid the area for an additional 5 seconds even though they are now harmless.
I’d drop the elite on Necromancer, Guardian, and Elementalist without thinking twice.
I’d usually drop it on the Engineer.
I’d situationally drop it on Thief and Ranger.
I don’t think I’d ever drop it on Warrior or Mesmer.
This is the correct answer.
I have a suspicion that the April sPvP patch will add some mobility tweaks to the thief that weren’t ready to go in at the same time as the rest of this patch. Devs appear to want us to rely on stealth a little less, but skip around and be harder to hit instead. If that came out at the same time, you might not see as many sour grapes.
Lol your answer will be a locked thread due to all caps. They don’t even need to read it.
OK, talk about a drastic change to dynamics. Everyone being able to SEE you plus the short duration of stealth in this game would be completely pointless. Basically, say goodbye to ever landing a backstab and to eat every attack possible because you could still be targeted.
All they need to do is add a restealth timer to every stealth skill for skill duration +3 seconds. CnD, no more stealth activation for 6 seconds. Done.
Good math breakdown, this is appreciated.
One question: 2 auto attack chains is an 11% decrease in DPS, but I didn’t see what the DPS decrease was when you time the DS and WS #1 attacks perfectly before CnD BS. Not a “significant” drop, but still curious what it comes out to since we’re all about math here and optimizing the rotation. Thanks!
5 less seconds of caltrops hurts pve as well.
I just rolled a thief and fight monsters with D/D and caltrops. What’s hilarious is that they are attempting to balance high level pvp and nerfed my little level 30 into the dirt.
I already thought low level thief was the hardest class to level.
I enjoy carrying a bottomless pocket of caltrops.
Charr named “Goatse Ringfinger”
What a throwback reference to the most horrible thing that has ever been on the internet.
Put your first 10 points into Arms (0/10/0/0/0) and select the Deep Cuts trait which is +40 precision for each unused signet you have equipped. You mneed to hit level 20 first. For the skills you equip, use Healing Signet, Signet of Might, Signet of Fury, and Dolyak Signet. You’ll only have 1 or 2 skill slots to start, so just unlock signets and put them in there. You get lots of crit chance at low levels doing this.
Looking forward to it because I have 5 characters and everybody needs work.
I love the hand painted maps and loading screens. I admire the brush stroke effects every time I play. It is just a really cool art scheme.
Also, RTL = Ride the Lightning, since everyone assumes you know what RTL means.
What they should do is eliminate the redundant #5 skill on banners, since there are 2 other ways to plant the banner already. Even if they make planting the banner instant, they could come up with a better utility or something to put there.
If the damage and stats of the off hand axe and shield are the same, then no. Both hands equipped still total up your stats and overall attack power.
Thanks team!
xoxoxoxoxoxoxo15chars
Is there a link to this SotG?
I found a passed out NPC in a pirate cave in one of those “spash water on the drunks to wake them up” type heart quests. This NPC wouldn’t wake up, but was the only one you could still interact with. When you did, he would stand up and do a death animation, complete with scream. I must have spent 10 minutes clicking on him to make him dance like Thriller.
Eliminating it in towns is probably the lowest priority they have, since it doesn’t affect gameplay. If it is that expensive and problematic to fix, makes sense PVP comes first, then PVE. There are so many people in Lions Arch is is probably the most expensive zone to fix out of all of them, and the pros don’t outweigh the cons.
Here’s a great quote from the Shroud of the Avatar dev team on “culling” which immediately made me think of GW2:
“Most people are shocked to hear that one of the most expensive systems on large scene MMO servers, is mob/character visibility. Not the actual ray testing to see if they can be seen but the logic of figuring out which entities should be updated of others actions.” ~ Chris Spears, Tech Director for Shroud of the Avatar.
I’m sure they’d love to fix it for PVE as well, but eliminating it completely is Expensive.
Aggro is strange in GW2 because there is no trinity, so no natural tank. Being a Guardian has an inherent aggro associated with it. So does max health, which is the opposite of a Guard, so it get’s weird. Mostly being close to the mob and doing damage grabs hate first, then it starts looking at if you are a guard or have high HP. Alot of Necros pull hate from range because their H kitten o high it outranks a closeup guardian. I really don’t know how toughness fits in, but generally mobs make a few checks to attack whoever has the calculated highest survivability in its opinion. I know that reviving is hate #1 for a mob and they come straight for you to prevent it.
Then there are certain mobs who do the opposite and go for squishies first. There is no universal aggro rule for every mob.
“Botting” is more or less treated the same as hacking when you report, you did it the right way.
I think people need to suck it up and develop a sense of humor. Goofy names can be fun, why so serious?
That said, I’ll never pick a serious character name, but I like to chill just below the radar with obscure medical condition names like Tenesmus or Fistula In Ano. Now that’s classy!
Only the earth ones. The other 3 will die pretty quick IMO. Air will stay ranged and CC a little bit but I barely notice what it is doing. I would prefer to have an earth ele out because yes, they are hard for mobs to kill. I use this ele setup when leveling with a scepter for much the same reason. Mobs group up together around it and stand still, letting you cast whatever you like without taking damage.
I would think you’d want to use 20% reduced glyph cooldown trait (10 in Air) with both glyphs of elementals, so you have maybe 80% uptime on an earth ele to tank for you and keep mobs in place for your ground aoe. Other than that, curious to see what else helps. Haven’t played with staff much since it seems harder to level with than scepter or dagger.
In those situations you specifically need it like your warrior chase, why not eat a bunch of candycorn?
Why… just why!!
Everyone knows there is nothing remotely of value in those BL chests that is worth the price of the keys, how many XP boosters do you need in a game that gives you silly amounts of it during your leveling process already.. I have 300+ sat in bank doing nowt, just like countless others. Do ya think its worth buying enough keys in the sale maybe…….
Short answer? Yes.
Long answer: For me they are worth it, what isn’t in the pics is the 35g I made off 10 chests from backs, the 7 g off the coin bags, and the countless keys that opened even more chests. But to each their own, I made more off the chests than I could have directly transferring to gold. On top of that I have tons of items for it.
If what you say is true, I think you just answered your own question. More gold from chests than gem exchange means less money for them, especially if keys are on sale. You could theoretically buy discounted keys, make more gold than gem exchange rate, then convert back to more gems than you had, and that is real money lost on their side.
Although it is only the 8th of March today, so we still have plenty of time to see what happens.
Yes, it is a FACT that it is a technical restriction, not a gameplay restriction. Every stack is individually tracked by the server. If 25 stacks was the max per caster, not per target, a group of 5 condition players in a dungeon would be applying 125 stacks to a target and obviously this would break something on their end.
I don’t think they prefer it this way, but it’s all they can do.
Actually I think the better solution would be to add an elite Signet skill, like Arcane Signet or something, with a passive 3-4 second attunement swap reduction. That would be an elite worth using that would free up builds. The Active on the signet could be whatever, maybe No CD on attunement swap for 10 seconds, 90 sec cooldown. Pretty useful, not OP, solves a lot of problems.
IMO, the only signet worth anything is signet of restoration. Otherwise, cantrips >>> signets.
Why are cantrips so much greater than signets? Is it purely because you can trait them for regen? Is regen so important that it is irreplaceable in most pvp builds? If you can trait auras for protection, and signet of water for regen (which also affects mist form which I have slotted), what are you really missing from the other cantrips? If you’re using a traited mistform anyways in a signet build, what are the other cantrips doing for you in pvp? There are other ways to remove conditions besides cleansing fire, lightning flash seems situational and not worth a slot. Is Armor of Earth’s stability that much of a deal breaker to negate any other build besides cantrip?
I guess I’m wondering why spammable 33% damage reduction and perma signets would be worse than having 1-2 extra regens. Nobody is gearing heavily into healing power anyways.
I just bought the game in early Feb. From what I understand, it feels like these changes to Dailies are catered more towards people like myself, new players. I’m leveling up a handful of characters at the same time, highest level is 50, and I guess I don’t have that “dangling carrot” syndrome because I can’t use any of the gear that laurels buys.
I don’t even complete the daily every day as I have no real sense of their value yet. I know I am going to want them later at some point for some good gear, but until you hit 80 you can’t really spend them on anything. I am OK with this because as a casual player, by the time I hit 80, I’ll be able to grab some ascended items for my characters.
I have no intention of grinding dungeons to have the absolute best possible, so to me this laurel system is going to reward me better gear than I was going to be able to get any other way. As a new player, I am basically looking forward to free gear by the time I level up. I think that is who ANet is catering to at the moment.
We haven’t been balanced but most people would probably say we are strong. You can easily die in 2-3 hits but you can survive forever with a proper build and a good playstyle. I would wager success as an ele mostly revolves around a playstyle that favors standing waaay back and AoEing, or zipping back and forth through the zerg then running like hell.
Have you considered making use of the Fire trait that makes all signets cast Fire Aura too?
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEUQJArYlEGyN2bw2AeOBQQxBIMeAiIkIK8QpQOA
With the recent change to Fire Aura, it may be worth trying.
Yup there you go. I wonder if we see more of this type of build if 0/10/0/30/30 takes any more nerfs.
Been playing around a bit more thinking about a signet/aura version of this as well since Fiery Shield got a recent buff:
20/10/30/10/0
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEUQJAoYlMGSOWbw3AeOBApgJBFEgw4BIiQiowDA
You might be a bit more glassy because you’re cutting some condition removal (still have 3 ways) and some regeneration. The tradeoff is Fire’s Embrace (Fire IX) is considered an aura and would trigger every time you used a signet. Air I and Earth V would give you loads of fury, swiftness, and maybe most importantly, Protection.
Going D/D gives you 5 Auras if you have 3 signets equipped which is 15 seconds of protection, and plenty of fury and swiftness piled up. Low cooldowns on signets means you get a lot of uptime on protection. The recent buff to Fiery Shield granting might each time you are hit means if you are getting hit (with 33% damage reduction) you also are stacking might. Nobody Wants to get hit, but when it’s coming and you pop an aura, it also protects you as well as increases your damage with might and fury. I am hoping it is enough to negate some of the regen you lose, but you should still be OK on conditions.
If you are feeling especially glassy, swap Water V with Water II and signets apply vulnerability as well. 1 Less condition removal but you are still spamming protection. I guess you could also go Arcane V here since it is just so useful.
Elementalist – Arcane Signet. Passive could be something like +5% crit damage or boon duration if it isn’t OP, active could be no cooldown on attunement swap for 20 seconds. This could also give people other options besides 20-30 Arcane just to get the reduced attunement cooldown and open up more synergy since we have lots of signet related traits.
Another survival tip and a slight change of playstyle: use both glyphs of elementals (lesser and elite) and grab Air 10’s quick glyphs trait. Earth ele is a heck of a tank and rotating between them gives you about 2 minutes of tank pets with only 20-25 seconds of downtime between summons. Elementals grabbing agro lets you use churning earth on dagger 5 all day on large groups.
So is it possible to have signet of air 25%, Air attune 10%, one with air 25%, and windborne dagger 15% for a total of 75% passive speed boost?
Ahhhh, very cool! I like your tweaks to handle condition removal. I was back and forth on Signet of Restoration because it is a signet build after all, but with the way I had it set up, I couldn’t clear conditions any other way besides signet of water passive. I was also bouncing back and forth on Mist Form since it is already traited in this build, so your advice really helps fine tune it. Also being able to flip to cantrips with the same build doesn’t hurt either.
I just really wish we had an elite signet of some kind to synergize with this type of build.
Hi all,
Looking for opinions on getting an earth based build to work for the sole reason that nobody seems to ever use it. I was able to come up with some decent synergies but was wondering what more experienced players thought, and if it is something that could be successful in wvw/pvp. To make this even weirder, I think S/D seems to fit best with this type of build since there are multiple blinds and 2 immobilizes with Signet of Earth to help land everyone’s favorite skill ever, dragon’s tooth.
0/0/30/20/20
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEUQJArYlEGyN2bw2Ae+AARRLwMeASIkUUMTOA
I’m trying to cover all the bases. Condition removal is handled through Ether Renewal and Signet of Water since we have perma signets. Signet of Water is also another source of health regen without relying on cantrips again. More damage is coming from vulnerability whenever signets are cast, which have shorter cooldowns and can be cast much more frequently. We also have 10% damage when endurance is full from earth 25, which is why we have vigor on crit, useful even without the free bonus damage from going earth.
Looking forward to some opinions from my forum pals.
I think the worst thing about scepter is it doesn’t really have a sensible offhand to go with it.
If we had an offhand with sensible offensive minded 900 range attacks, the scepter would have a good feel to it.
I think you’re right. Scepter/Scepter would be pretty sweet, and could be the solution to fill in the gaps in Scepter deficiencies, as well as build diversity.
I haven’t changed much but I use
WASD Movement
QE Strafe
1-8 = 1-8
F1 = `
F2 thru F4 = R, F, V
Mouse side button 1 = Auto attack
Mouse side button 2 = Loot
C is weapon swap for other characters.
This setup seems to work fine for Ele and any other class as I play multiple characters, so this is more of a universal setup that works for me. I also usually must mouse click on 6-8 utilities.
Here are a few non-pvp things to consider since I think you’re all set in that department:
1. We want lots more cosmetic items in the gem store, any word when this will get fleshed out? I think most people hate town clothes, why can’t we make our armor look like a pirate if we are willing to pay for it?
2. Any plans to release an LFG system? Bare bones, an LFG system for Story mode dungeons, making it easier for pugs. Perhaps just walking into the dungeon spawns you there with 4 other people who did the same for instantaneous grouping.
3. Emotes! For a touch of old fashioned fun, are there any prospects to add more /emotes to the game? A little goes a long way and my friends and I enjoy just goofing off with emotes as much as we can.