Guild Wars 2

I would really like to know if there is something more than just a fancy name about those specializations… because if you get new weapon, skills and some traits, it doesn’t mean it’s any different, there should be something what makes the druid different from ranger, a reason not to specialize… otherwise they could just add new weapon and skills without a need to call it specialization… specialization implies you get something in a trade for something else so I expect more than just unlocked 1 weapon, few skills and few traits…

simplesimon.2084:

As long as you logged in once during the two weeks you could play it at any time.

or unlock it with gems if you haven’t logged in

I was curious if the content will make me buy the expansion as I don’t play a lot at the moment, mainly living story… and yes it did, it looks really promising according to announced core features so YES, I’M IN!

i dont think its bad, you are not a glass with this, so the necessarity of cantrips goes down, signet of air is a break stun with blind, another blind is from fire trait, 5sec CD is not that awesome, but not that bad too, solid for 1v1 fights…

what you are missing with this build is boon duration, because main power of this build is perma protection/swiftness/fury, but without boon duration, you wont be able to maintain perma prot… i would change runes to some boon duration when you dont have arcane traits, monk runes would fit this build quite well imo

i havent played GW2 for almost half year… spvp forum is still full of the same topics as before half year… sad and only thing we got is a reward system none asked for, changed one farm to another, no rewards for skill and high level play :/

condition ele is crippled by attunements… access to a limited amount of conditions in specific attunements is the real problem…

this could be solved by adding more on crit condition application (earth line procing bleeds) and increase duration or chance of the fire traint procing burn, thats the only way how to give ele enough condition access when considering how attunements work…

i played ele as my first class in GW2… then i switched to mesmer because ele was just too hard and mesmer could do the same much easier after i got some skill in this game, especially in pvp, i switched back to ele and it felt much better, its a lot about moving, dodging etc and it can be hard for a raw begginer as you say so imo ele isnt good choice for a raw begginer, for group pve its ok, but solo or pvp you will struggle

use it → go to the finisher tab in character menu → change your finisher to whatever else you want → problem solved + limited finisher charges will be there for you if you will ever need them

solo and team arena are separated because when they werent teams were stomping solo players (or even coordinated teams with voip were stomping pugs from the mists who didnt want to join solo, so just getting a team werent always a solution) and it was not fun for both of them… it is better this way…

difference between solo/team and hot join is obvious for everyone i hope… but if its not…

hot join is without any obligations or restrictions, you can join/leave anytime, you can do what you want, you can try new build, you can troll, you can 1v1 if you want and if others let you, its just hot join… solo arena is competitive play and it is required to play seriously, this means punishing for afk, leaving, trolling etc, question is if this punishment is already big enough to force people to take it seriously, but i dont meet many trolls and even leavers are not as common as they used to be

Chasind.3128:

I’m loving arcane wave

same here ranged attack, ranged blast finisher, still no cast time, nice change

im something between glass and balanced D/D with berserk amulet, nothing close to a bunker… dont have enough dps to outdmg warriors heal…

ele just badly needs survivability…

elemental attunement = water regen, earth protection, air swiftness + its aoe
renewing stamina = vigor = dodge
evasive arcana = heal with condi cleanse on 10sec cd alone makes it worth + some minor dmg, blast finisher and blind
30% boon duration = more protection, vigor and regen
15 → 10 sec attunement CD = more boons from elemental attunement and btter access to weapon skills when you need them

no other line gives you more survivability and utility which ele needs that much

Amazes.5618:

There is no use for gold in PvP because everything is brought with glory.

there is no use for gold in mini games too as they are more like SPVP (pvp armor, no damage to gear etc) and they still reward items, gold and karma… look at it like SPVP is a mini game for players who play mainly PvE… it makes sense imo

they said its already in developement and first step should be done before the end of the year… and then followed with more parts of overall reward system…

as of now, they already changed how glory/rank points are gained in the match, lets hope its just a first small step and we will get much more and finally get rewarded for skilled play…

well, you can get some gold from selling Halloween bags at the moment, they are worth of few silver as i remember and you get 5 of them for a rated win, not that bad

i really apreciate an effort you put into elementalist its good to see you looked into our build diversity problem and overall dependence on arcane line, especially for staff eles im very curious how it goes when it will get live, wish it could be sooner, 5 weeks is quite a long time

maybe someone said it but im too lazy to read everything…

i think rewards for losing team should be based on their score… there should be difference between losing 500:50 and 500:480, at least it could remove afk hot join glory farmers for a loss if there isnt another system for it

numbers would probably need a balance… but idea of scoothing mist-like buffs is very interesting

people around you can gain or lose rating you know? and thus your rating can move to another possition in leaderboard…

what is not working is leaderboard decay, so people who didnt play for ages wouldnt be there…

Bsgapollo.5364:

and they nerfed mist form even more by making it a non-capture point contribution

srsly, in which space you live? it has been like this for ages…

interesting reading, i wish Living story is at least half this deep and ANet isnt that bad in making stories then how it looks right now i still hope it will become something awesome!

hot join is not a serious play… get over it…

mjharrison.3209:

couldn’t disagree more. Auto-attacks are terrible design, and one of the key reasons why this game is so spammy and unappealing to watch.

The game needs more aimed abilities/skill shots if anything… too much stuff is auto-aimed.

well, you cant remove autoattack completely and this is one of the solutions how to make them less spammy, easier to avoid their main dmg and overall make them less valuable

yes i agree with this, autoattacks are too powerfull on most professions… they should be just a timefiller when other hard attacks are on cooldown, not main source of spam… oh i mean dmg… because game is about dodging and timing, autoattacks just demote that… look at for example shortbow ranger, so unfun spec with zero skill, just stay and autoattack and sometimes accidentaly press some other button :/ thats bad design :/

one thing before anything…

if you are playing warrior now, elementalist will probably feel hardly underpowered for you, so keep it in mind

well, when i consider we have aoe dmg in fire, air could get a single target dmg buff along with lightning surge buff suggested above…

i would suggest chain lightning change so it does overall the same dmg, but regressively… when its now 100% over 3 bounces = 33% per bounce, i would change it to be 50% on first target, 35% on second and 15% on last, maybe with small buff to dmg, so it would deal more single target dmg then fireball, to be worth using… it would be nice buff for single target dmg or aoe dmg with 1 focus target

air should definitely deal more single target dmg then fire… so combo fireball + lava font should be less powerfull on 1 target then chain lightning + lightning surge imo… otherwise its no point staying in air then for control and swiftness and thats not good concept

it depends on your build… but if your build is balanced, its good to have some mix of berserker and soldier… and if it would cause your crit to be too low, mix it with some knight

just please, dont improve rewards in hot join… its unbalanced farming mess… people should be able to progress here, but not as much as in rated matches, especially after they hit some specific high rank, maybe after 20? or just increase rewards for high rating play enough that hot joins just wont be worth it

Elden Arnaas.4870:

I found the old One with Air much more useful in PvE.

not really, you needed to stay quite long in air for it to be effective… and when you consider how easy access to swiftness ele have, its not needed… new version of trait is more fight/defensive oriented and its quite usefull for roaming too … in PVE, just pick glyph of elemental harmony and VIII Inscription from air and you have infinite swiftness on any weapon set

stealth is one of the most annoying things in MMO RPGs, it should have been F class mechanic and not as it is, problem would be solved… i used to hate how stealth worked in WoW, now i would love to have it like that instead of this…

or just remove stealth from weapon skills which can be spammed and move it to utility, thiefs who want to go with stealth will and the ones who like another types of fight will be ok

i dont really like the gems idea, it would only cause gems farming like when they were awarded in paid tournaments… only if they werent able to farm, as a reward from automated daily/weekly tournaments etc

other ideas seems good to me

and what i want the most, the progress, be rewarded for skill, for good play, for wins, for better rating… good idea would be to make reward system based on rating, but if you want to keep glory/rank, you could add some skin sets which were only available from rating… and giving more rank points for winning at higher rating is a must if rank/glory system will stay

sorrychief.2563:

anet pls

we all know there are cheesy builds with tons of dmg, but be serious, they are not viable… not even need to talk about how Dragons Tooth is easy to evade, Phoenix is close behind it and Fire Grab dont stay too far behind them… and before you land this combo, you will be probably already dead with that build (well, maybe right after Mist Form)

kirito.4138:

Without any major changes from patches for the last few months

We have went from OMG Necro OP -> OMG Spirit Ranger OP -> OMG Warrior OP.

Ranger:
All spirits can now be launched, knocked down, and knocked back.
…now begin their recharge when the spirit dies instead of when the spirit is summoned

Necromancer:
Grasping Dead: This skill now applies two stacks of bleeding instead of three (PvP only).

not so much, but at least it helped to get them from OP to strong, so warrior shines above them and calls for a nerf…

as long as you can choose your side yourself, it cant be balanced you can even choose a server… and it was like that all the time… only Play Now button puts you into server with players around your rank, at least it used to be like that

and in terms of autobalance, its turned off when 1 team reach 400 points or so

everything as usual… AND A NERF TO WARRIORS

g e o.2589:

I hope the skill will be PvE only and Toxin will be NPC only.

probably this

srsly? you are obviously a warrior player who dont want it to be nerfed… its OP as hell, not only “almost like the old elementalist”, its exactly the same and maybe even worse, above average dmg, above average survivability (read almost unkillable 1v1), best mobility in game, best control in game, usually all in one build… if ele needed to be nerfed, this must be too

Romek.4201:

but Lol has a Matchmaking – GW2 not

not sure if serious or just a kitten…

CntrlAltDefeat.1465:

on flat ground

valid argument, because capture points are often not flat ground… oh wait…

PS: argumenting with bugs is not a valid option, all classes must face them…

Duncanmix.5238:

warrior is not op, make one and learn its weakness. L2P.

thats the problem, warrior doesnt have weaknesses

GankSinatra.2653:

I like how ele self healing was far too high so it got butchered, then they give the same healing to warriors a patch or 2 later along with the CC that ele staff should have. (Actually nobody should have this.)

Going in circles.

thinking exactly about the same, they took it from ele because it was too much (ye we all know it was in that time) and gave that and much more to warrior… hp, dmg, CC, heal, mobility, all in one… oh and dont forget some condition immunity skills

i tried auramancer in pve, it bugs so often and dont give aura to others, it happened many times in dungeon, we were all on one place, only i and 1 other got aura… and i think it doesnt work with all auras, only with aura weapon skills… not worth grandmaster trait…

support as a role is almost pointless in this game… it was told we will have 3 different roles instead of classic tank/dmg/heal, it should have been dmg/support/control…

at this point, only dmg is always viable… control is viable if you have very good access to it and can shut someone down (warrior outshines everyone else here) or in big team fights (staff ele begins to be viable here)… but support? i dont see many points of full support build in this game, support is often misinterpreted as control, but thats not what it is, control is offensive and affect enemies, support is both offensive and defensive and affect allies… yes you can do some minor aoe heal, give some boons etc, but i cant imagine heavy support oriented build, which is viable in this game :/ support is only secondary mechanic here which adds some team benefit to dmg specced and balanced builds…

PS: one of the best support is heavy might stack, swiftness stack, fury stack, even protection or regen stack, but thats usually done by not-support specced players, thats only secondary effect of their build to be more team oriented

PPS: what ele need to be good support? easier way is elemental attunement trait and learn to stack might with scepter or dagger or stack swiftness with staff, thats almost all… if you want be more support oriented, maybe rock solid for stability or persisting flames for more fury… or aurashare build is what is probably the most support oriented build ele can achieve but dont forget that you cant live only with support, thats why support isnt a full-featured role

its a matter of choice and implementation severity, it could be the player who is downed the longest time or the player who did most dmg to finished one (and in specific range ofc, for both)… its not that important imo, important is to make it fair so 1 finish rally 1 downed, not all…

well, try to think about this scenario, a bit unreal, but good example…

5v5 fight, one team are hard dmg dealers, second team are a bit more balanced builds…

dmg dealers manage to coordinate so each of them down one of other side and because they are good and have a lot of dmg, they do it…

meanwhile, second team wants to play more focused and because they have less dmg, they focus on 1 guy and down him as well…

this happens at +- same time, so 1 player from team 1 and 5 players from team 2 are downed…

looks like the end, or? but in that moment, those 5 downed players still focus that one downed from other team and because he is glass cannon, they manage to kill him before anyone is finished and BANG! all 5 are alive…

does it seems fair to you? 5 rallies from 1 lucky kill? i think this is much worse then what would happen if it were only 1 rally from 1 finish…

not sure if serious or just kitten…

Justin ODell.9517:

Hmm, maybe this is a good opportunity to get your feedback on the issue.

Do we freeze everything or do we throw everyone back into their team spawns and keep the gates locked?
- would be better to freeze, just as in moba games, but im sure it isnt easy to implement

Do we add a time window for how long a game can remain paused?
- yes or maybe let the other team unpause after some time period if they want to

Tournaments are often run on a schedule, do we keep the game clock running while the game is paused so the game will still end around the same time?
- not sure in this

If the player comes back, do we just resume the action or do we restart the match?
- resume the match after pause

What do we do when we have to give up on waiting for the player to reconnect?
- add surrender button requiring team votes? to not waste time in lost match

How do we handle trolls that disconnect on purpose?
- punish disconnects, even if its not on purpose, it ruins the game for other 9 players, people with unstable connection shouldnt play rated matches

Do we count a disconnect as part of dishonor?
- yes for sure

Do we disable progression and rewards for a game that doesn’t finish because of a disconnect?
- i suggested this in HoN many times and i will suggest it to you… when team isnt full at the end of the match, leaver should be penalized and lose more rating then others, at the other hand, others should lose less rating then if they lose as full 5 team…
- e.g. -16 rating for all, 1 left, leaver gets -32, others -12, overall rating lost remains the same for the sake of balance

Do custom arena owners want to be able to pause through a command?
- well, anyone should be able to pause for a limited time, so i think yes

Lets hear your ideas. Try to come at the problem from more than one angle.

answered

Romek.4201:

@Volrath maby its not based on rank

can be something like tournaments matches won or leaderboard ranks (but this with high decay)

what you mean by decay? in all games, when you unlock some reward tied to rating, you can use it forever = no decay needed, would be quite stupid to take away gear from someone when he lose a game

but maybe this is the point where we need seasons

Volrath.1473:

thats cool i like it but First the rank from SH farmers must be rolled back. Otherwise it is meaningless…

would be much better if rank doesnt matter, only rating from rated matches, no hot join…

Justin ODell.9517:

So what would you like to see?

A “ready” button that appears before the match is created, and if someone doesn’t hit it within some time-window the match is aborted and both teams are returned to the queue? Perhaps the non-responding players kick out of the team, or kicked out of the entire queue?

One way would be to check your heartbeat every so often with a “are you still here” button, but that would be kind of annoying. It also doesn’t address the players who leave because they don’t like the team they are paired with.

We could just ramp up the dishonor system.

I know the team has their own thoughts on this, but I’d really like to see if someone here can come up with something awesome.

this sounds quite good, both of your ideas… maybe the ready before match would be better, instead of multiple buttons

and for the people who doesnt like the team composition, you still have dishonor but you could make it much more strict, because ppl afk or with problems would probably be kicked before match starts and people who leave on purpose could be punished for it, maybe 1 leave = 1 hour without pvp? or make it with a chance, 2 leaves in 24 hours = another 24 hours without pvp?

PS: if someone have connection problems and get DC by mistake, they shouldnt play pvp anyway, they would ruin the match with lags and DCs…