Guild Wars 2

Shalien.9018:

I support it out of humor more than anything lol. We would all be the man/woman without fear!

In my head it was “Daredevil, the profession without fear” as I wrote it. :-p

Zero Day.2594:

And then the dragon just gobbles you up because you dont have the survivability.

Always with the negative waves… Its a beautiful tank.

Amante.8109:

Nike.2631:

Questions:

• Does Signet of Agility’s active give 100 or 150 endurance to Daredevils?

• Does Superior Sigil of Energy’s on-swap effect give 50 or 75 endurance to Daredevils?

100 and 50 respectively when I tried them in BWE2.

That’s my recollection from testing the sigil also (forgot to check the signet).

So either the text of those needs to change or the numbers need to go up because they SAY RIGHT ON THEM that they should be delivering the higher numbers.

“Refills your Endurance” and “Gain 50% of your Endurance” are not ambiguous. That should be 150 and 75 . (…which should also help put an end to the ‘1 more dodge per encounter’ perception in a more tangible way…)

lukejoe.1592:

Standing still and mashing a rotation is exactly what you get with the trinity.

Standing still and mashing a rotation is exactly what you get with BAD ENCOUNTER DESIGN.

Players don’t do it because the classes promote it… they do it because the encounters permit it.

The Skirmish/Wilderness/Druid mix is gonna give you bunker-y-ness so Settlers makes sense… but losing moment of clarity is really gonna cut into your window to trigger ancient seeds. It’s condi-bunker is a different playstyle with more active defenses than the Marksman/Skirmish/Druid whose survival is going to depend more on hard/soft CC.

I play condi-bunker on Thief and love it, but at least for BWE3 I’ll be trying out the more aggressive, trollish CC set-up.

I think people are sorely underestimating how much healing many core professions can throw down right now. It’s not that the builds don’t exist, its that there’s ZERO need for them. Create a demand and those builds will come out of mothballs right quick.

Even now I’d take a prepared Elementalist over Druid because you KNOW there’s gonna be phases where the heal pressure backs off and you need MAXIMUM BURN. Ele swaps attunement and lays it on. Druid… relaxes a little?

I guess I’ll find out. Though I’m NOT gonna run traps and longbow at the same time.

Sword+Focus/Greatsword with traps and trapper runes.
Longbow/Sword+Shield with shouts and trooper runes (and probably Fragments of Faith)

Ok, I’m gonna make a Marvel Comics joke, but I’m not entirely kidding. As part of the Adept minor trait~

• The Daredevil is immune to Fear.

…Because standing there when one of the Dragon champions drops their multi-fears and looking on as everyone runs off and saying to yourself “What? It’s just a dragon…” would be PERFECT for the Daredevil .

I’m feeling like come Tuesday, I want to pitch the Devs something like~

• Infiltrator’s Shot. Range 600. 5 Initiative. Shadow step to ground target and apply x3 vulnerability for 5s in a 120 radius.

~as a re-work/replacement for Pistol #2 Body Shot and shorter range/lower init-cost alternative to Infiltrator’s Arrow.

Honestly I’m just waiting for Tuesday when it all comes out in text form, complete and without them tripping over their own tongues.

Wait, I thought Daredevil fell into a dumpster and gets a full heal/condi-cleanse from a passing nurse…

((Sorry, had to be said))

Question for the sneaks out there:

If the Devs just plucked Infiltrators arrow right out of the short bow and moved it over to slots 6-9 with NO CHANGES (no cooldown, eats 6 initiative)…

Would you slot it?

Because at this point I’m feeling like being stuck with SB is an option-tax on what most consider to be a more fundamental element of thief gameplay then Steal.

Ghotistyx.6942:

SoA isn’t a Ward, so it wouldn’t be safe to assume the knockback lasts for 4 seconds.

Yeah. I’m getting that impression too… would have been hilarious though. Shield-bubble bum-rush into Dragon’s Maw. The resulting screams would be exquisite.

Dojo.1867:

There is a minor trait that dazes everything around you when you switch to staff. Add something like sigil of hydromancy (or geomancy) and you will instantly also proc some damage triggering the grandmaster.

Yep. Entangle everything around you when you swap to staff every 10 seconds.

Diabolical!!

Dojo.1867:

Wouldn’t have had to make my edit if I knew you post this. ;_;

Great minds .

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

If that is the case, then it is pointless. Taunt could be added instead though.

Huh. I’d assume Ancient Seeds triggers when hitting feared or taunted foes. If they don’t tell us outright it’s certainly something to check during BWE3.

The druid is (deliberately) missing a lot of other layers of support outside of the raw healing they deliver. Boon strip is something which Mesmers, Necros, and Thieves should be quite relieved to see not spreading to the new wonderkin.

But if you really want it, there’s always Sigils of Nullification.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Knockback should be included for PBS and CA synergy.

How? Unlike the others, Knock-back happens and is over in basically 1 server tick. Nothing (damaging) in the Ranger ‘rsenal is fast enough to land while the target is "CC’d". They’d have to add a lingering tag to every knockback in the game to create that window to strike.

babazhook.6805:

Shinobi.3240:

Some more ideas … not a must .. just extra flavor

• Endurance Thief – Could actually steal endurance from enemy players.

• Driven Fortitude gets combined with Escapists Absolution – condition clear and a small heal on a successful dodge .. doesn´t sound overpowered to me.

• Staff Master – The 10% extra damage when your endurance is not full was once a minor grandmaster in acrobatics. Worked with all weapons. Could work like that again and just leave the Initiative/endurance part for staff alone.

Best regards!

The idea for Endurance thief actually STEALING endurance off enemy players is a great one.

I like all of these, but have to agree swiping an opposing player’s endurance would be thematically PERFECT for thieves.

Given its importance to thief game play Revealed could merit having a soft smudge/glow effect around the entire border of the screen to let you sense it with peripheral vision without having to peer directly at your effects bar.

The current icon would also remain so you can check time remaining, but for intuitive/instinctive flow more could definitely be done.

Questions:

• Does Signet of Agility’s active give 100 or 150 endurance to Daredevils?

• Does Superior Sigil of Energy’s on-swap effect give 50 or 75 endurance to Daredevils?

Just for fun ,

THE PACKMASTER
The Packmaster handles a multitude of beasts, controlling as many as three companions with their scepter-whips. They travel the world to gather some of the largest and most dangerous beasts for their pack, gaining the Minion utility skills type.

Class Mechanic

• The Pack. Packmaster uses only 1 type of pet (keyed to the first terrestrial and aquatic pet slots) but may have up to three present at once. Each pet inflicts roughly 40% of the damage of the standard Ranger pet and has roughly 60% of a standard pet’s health. Only the pet closest to the Packmaster responds to f2 commands and shout skills.
• Reinforce (f4). Summons 1 additional pet if less than 3 are present and counts as pet swap for traits.

Scepter (whip)

• Whiplash (auto-attack). 320 range narrow cone “whip” attack (as seen with various Nightmare Court enemies). 3 damage ticks with Torment on the final tick.
• Strangle. Animated “whip” lashes out to wrap around target’s throat. 600 range. Channeled immobilize & weakness
• Crack the Whip. Up to 300 range 2 second fear, up to 600 range 1 second fear. Blast finisher.

Utility – Minions

• Blood-Bat (Heal Skill). Large red bat transfers life to Packmaster and casts darkness fields on command.
• Chromatic Ooze. Ranged poisoner. Taunts and becomes invulnerable on command.
• Bull Minotaur. Melee brawler. Charges/knock down on command.
• Griffon. Flying bleeder. Flies/Evades on command.
• Rock Dog. Melee crippler. ‘Hunker-down’ block/regen on command.
• Mature Karka (Elite Skill). Armored behemoth. Poisons/immobilizes on command.

Traits (Minor)

• Run with the Pack. Gain pack of pets, reinforce (f4), access to the scepter, and minion skills.
• Revenge for the Fallen. You and all of your pets & minions gain Quickness when one of your pets or minions dies.
• Feral Sacrifice. You and all of your pets & minions gain Protection when one of your pets or minions dies.

Traits (Adept)

• Master of the Lash. Strangle pulls and knocks down at end of channel. 20% cooldown on Scepter skills.
• OBEY! All minions gain +20% HP. 20% cooldown on minion command skills.
• To Me! Cast reinforce on taking fallen damage or resurrecting an ally (45s ICD). Falling damage is halved.

Traits (Master)

• Never Alone. All pets gain +10% damage for 6 seconds and any remaining cooldown on f2 is reduced by 2 seconds when Packmaster is CC’d.
• Resurgent Arrival. Reinforce cleanses 2 conditions.
• The Endless Menagerie. All minions gain small self-heal over time. 20% cooldown on minion summon skills.

Traits (Grandmaster)

• The Horde. Your pack may have up to 4 active pets. Pet hit points reduced by -10%.
• Tyrant’s Lash. For each active pet, 8% of all damage Packmaster takes is transfered to that pet.
• Dogpile. If two or more pets are active, a second pet responds to F2 commands and shouts after a 3 second delay.

Too soon?

Shalien.9018:

Don’t reroll, then the terrorists win. We need to unite and show ANet that they have to change how Thief is being handled.

For as often as you and I don’t see eye to eye, we’re on the same page here.

((…saving up initiative to unload-unload-unload on Tuesday…))

Healbots will go Celestial. Aggressive Healers are probably going Zealot. Mad-Seed and other non-healers will tend towards condi-bunker stats.

Kocoff.7582:

You guys think there will be a lot for us on Tuesday, or do you think this is it?

If I had to bet money on it I’d say we’ve seen 4 out of about 6 of the changes for thieves (with pistols getting a little more detail as to how much each individual skill’s damage was buffed). A little hard to tell as the announcer was clearly digging into stuff that might otherwise have been saved for Tuesday and they had some painful time-management issues going on.

But overall anything we haven’t seen yet is going to be small buffs to stuff very few people use presently. Maybe enough to reconsider them in niche builds, but nothing that drives a new highly competitive “meta” build for thieves.

Troll Unguent may actually give 20 ticks if the heal on pet is counting separately. Since it doesn’t appear to bleed off outside of combat like adrenaline you can probably pre-load it between matches like Necro life-force.

But that build treats Avatar Mode (sorry, have to call it that) as an ace in the hole rather than part of its regular rotation, getting it late in a match is probably acceptable.

Come join the party .

The Druid also makes a lovely CC/bleed mass-murderer.

“Is staff-less Druid even possible?”

Yes. Yes it is.

Ganathar.4956:

To be fair druids might be able to make some sort of hybrid build out of druid. After all they can take 2 additional trait lines and they can take a 2nd weapon as well, or even replace staff if they are feeling like experimenting.

I don’t see them becoming as versatile as an ele but they may be able to provide something else besides healing if they build for it. It depends on the balance changes that will come and on the practical application of these experimental builds. It’s quite difficult to predict if druid can work in different ways and I look forward to trying this.

Already done, come take a peek .

That’s why I specified heal-speced Druid, because you can thread the needle avoiding healing traits to set them up as a CC/bleeder. But even with the Avatar Mode up their sleeve, they still aren’t going to have Elementalist-grade situational adaptability – more like locked in Air/can pop into Water for emergencies.

Main thing is class vs. class balance takes place in the land of confidential metrics gathering. It’s literally not our problem because we never get more than the faintest glimpse of what going on across millions of accounts. Down here in the trenches its about leveraging what we’ve got and making sure that as they nudge all classes towards a baseline we don’t loose our unique character or fun.

Because the secret of good game design is making everyone feel awesome while performing at a completely average level.

In what content over the last 3 years have you ever been called on to do nothing but heal? Elementalist has always been, and has always excelled as a class that can shift roles on the fly mid-combat. A heal-speced Druid heals… and if they use their on the fly role swap… they STILL HEAL.

If you can’t figure out how to bring more to a situation with 4 attunements and 20 weapon skills Elementalist probably isn’t the class for you in the first place. But if you can weave the elements and damage, CC, withstand, and heal as needed the prospect of being a mono-healer ought to look pretty kitten dull even with the shiny new FX. (and you can do it all without the stupid pet AI….)

mordran.4750:

SkiTz.4590:

Classes can have great sustain at the cost of damage or vice versa.

This is so true and the nature of all balancing, if you want to gain something you have to give up on something.

Hey Arenanet read this sentence, meditate about it, maybe even hire the guy who wrote this, you could learn a thing or two.

Yeah… that’s ONLY true if you’re performing at the desired level. If you’re under tuned you gain more than you lose. If you’re over tuned you lose more than you gain. Always moving toward the median of the entire pack.

Looking at what just happened, where do you think the metrics and mass opinion were both saying Elementalists were at?

Did you leave a part open for Anet having LESS THAN 30 DAYS?

There’s some interesting things here but None Of It is gonna happen on Druid. Maybe script up a new Espec to give them ideas for Wave 2.

He’s JUST THE MESSENGER. Or did you think he’s abruptly been put in charge of all 8 professions because he was run out in front of the camera to talk about all 8 professions…

I’ve been thinking about the Shield #5 skill change…

With it becoming mobile, did we just get 4 seconds to bulldozer people into waiting traps?

Aomine.5012:

Now finally Guardian has the best shield skills in the game after like, uhh, 3 years?

I like the changes – a lot – but don’t for a moment think that I wouldn’t swap even our freshly buffed shield for the Herald’s shield skills in the blink of an eye.

Mono.7320:

bro check out sick condi variation I theorycrafted just now in 50 minutes… Its mainly Poison/Bleed build with 20k hp 3k toughness and high condi duration http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQNAV34iEqgLLQ1CBDhiDgRv07OIYraA-TlyCABAcEA2TjwxXAgLV/phHAQiKBl4gAklyvZ2fQPdBkCwulVA-w

With that set-up I’d definitely got Krait. The poison will give you more depth of condition, but you are losing some direct damage. Moment of Clarity is really powerful with the SB #5 Concussion shot and should doubly benefit Glyph of Equality. Chaining up a big hit to use after getting your attack of opportunity should be lively (e.g. Glyph of Equality or Concussion Shot to stun/interrupt & set AoO, Glyph of Alignment to spend it)

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Drool

Heehee!

Its almost like a Cripshot but with less Poison, the CC makes up for it though. Could put a Doom Sigil on the dagger for Crippling Talon.

Nice one! Need to try this NOW! I’d go with Rabid weapons, Sinister Armor and Celestial Trinkets for the gear, I like those stats for SB S/D so they should work great with this.

I have to recommend the giver’s weapons over rabid. I think the stat point loss will be worth it for the extra duration on all conditions.

And prickly pear pie… +40% condition duration and lifesteal on crit? May I? May I really?

Mono.7320:

Change Mad Kings Runes with Krait runes. you get so much more Bleeding/Poison/Torment on Elite + more Condi instead of Power

It’s an good option, but I’m hesitant. I feel the power/condition damage swap is mostly a wash due to the hybrid nature of both the SB and Axe. Its 45% bleeding duration on Krait (plus bleed on being hit proc) vs 40% on Mad King with 5% to all other condis which feeds the cripple/immobilize slightly.

It’s not well documented, but I feel like the Mad King on-Elite ravens have a much higher range than the Krait on-Elite proc.

If you do go Krait, I’d swap the stacking condi-damage sigil for a stacking power sigil, again to ensure your direct damage for bow and axe remains a tangible threat.

Why take anything else? Because raw healing on a fully committed Mantra Mesmer is insane and a fully committed Guardian healer is mixing decent HoTs with mass Aegis, blinds, and reflects.

Druid pushes raw numbers. Like a boss (though I’m still not convinced I can’t out green them on a Mesmer). A commited Ele is also no slouch at healing and brings 3 other on-demand modes to the table. Devs have already come on to say that 40 heals/400(!!) attacks to charge celestial form makes it more of a burst heal option and I’m seeing a lot of defensive layering is MISSING from the Druid. The absence of stability is going to be keenly felt.

Cynz.9437:

You forgot that they think thief is “really strong” because of +1 lol.

Obviously they don’t, since they’re handing out buffs to thieves.

You can spot the things they thought were really strong. Like castrating ice bow and increasing the cooldown on feel my wrath by 50%. Or chipping away at Ele’s offense with a string of smaller nerfs. If thieves had similar over-tuned tools, the hammer would have fallen on those too.

Robert Gee.9246:

Warcry.1596:

We keep our minions when transformed!!!

I want to quickly clarify something about this note. The change is that specifically Plague form and Lich form will not destroy your minions. We can’t do this universally for all transforms because it can cause problems with the balance of events or story steps that transform you.

Not “universal” is fine. There is one and only one we all want to not pop our buddies:

MOA must GO-A

No one who watches the ebb and flow of professions could possibly have thought Feel My Wrath wasn’t gonna get a longer cooldown on the next balancing pass. Which has now arrived. Maybe we can get 40 seconds instead of 45, but yeah. No surprises there.

Shield got two really good buffs. Now it’s at least plausible to use it.

All and all a pretty good day and a couple of our regular foils got kicked in the junk as a bonus. Plus the possibility of more on Tuesday.

Healer? I just used the new traits to make an Engine of Bloody Demise out of this so called healer-spec.

I… am not disappointed.

StickerHappy.8052:

Nike.2631:

I already love mosshounds. Druid loves them even more .

what is a mosshound? not being sacrcastic just curious.

Sorry, as Ranger pets they’re called “fern hounds” (same model is called a moss hound out in the world in several places).

Fern hound f2 is AoE regen, which should proc a number of Druid traits.

I can see how Doom sigil for some poison might give some depth of conditions.

I am itching to pop the Entangle+Ravens/Glyph/5xAncient Seed after Zerg diving under Signet of Stone. Having skill order matter is one of the things I most complained about in the Ranger CDI and finally the order you cast in MATTERS.

Eponet.4829:

You’ve probably already realised it yourself, but, because of how much of a cost it is, I’ll mention it anyway just in case you haven’t.

You can now save the cost of the currently 50-300 gold per piece recipes by making a different set of ascended gear and then stat swapping it to zealot’s.

Thanks . Yeah, I was able to get about 12 of the 18 armor recipes before the prices went stratospheric. I’m missing the heavy armor coat recipe but coughed up for the stat swap at the Mystic Forge. I honestly don’t understand the recipe prices in that light.

It’ll be interesting to get off the whiteboard and into the jungle to find out if you can solidly maintain range with that much CC (and SBs’ extra escape on #3). In which case being able to swap between two 900 range sets makes perfect sense.

I think the Sigil of Corruption will work better on the axe as its ricochet seems more likely to pick up random kills and build condi-damage stacks. With the sigil of Incapacitation more useful on the bow earlier in the engagement procing extra cripples. Just remember to swap early and often for the benefits from the Skirmish line minor traits .

StickerHappy.8052:

But lashtail stun is only underwater.. Any more suggestions?

Upon consideration Krytan Drakehound is BETTER than I could hope for. Cripple, knock down & AoE immobilze? Sold?

…Though I might use the new spikeback dinosaur in that slot because it’s adorable .

(…and flings bleeds like a tiny loveable serial killer)

Updated with runes/sigils.

Copied over for convenience

MAD-SEED DRUID

Weapons: Giver’s Shortbow/Rabid Axe + Giver’s Dagger
Pets: Jungle Spider (multiple immobilizes), Krytan Drakehound (CC triple threat)
Sigils: Sigil of Hobbling +20% cripple duration (Bow and Dagger), Sigil of Incapacitation cripple on crit (Bow), Sigil of Corruption stacking condition damage on kill (Axe)
Runes: Mad King (power, condi duration, bleed duration, ravens on Elite)
Heal: Troll Unguent
Utility: Glyph of Alignment — Glyph of Equality — Signet of Stone
Elite: Entangle

Marksmanship

• Opening Strike Cause vulnerability with your first strike when entering combat.
• Alpha Training Pets have Opening Strike.
• Precise Strike Opening strike always critical hits.

• Predator’s Instinct Apply cripple to foes you hit while they are below 50% health.
• Moment of Clarity Gain an attack of opportunity for you and your pet on interrupting a foe. Daze and stun durations you inflict last longer.
• Predator’s Onslaught You and your pet deal increased damage to disabled or movement-impaired foes.

Skirmishing

• Tail Wind Gain swiftness when swapping weapons in combat.
• Furious Grip Gain fury when swapping weapons in combat.
• Hunter’s Tactics Increased chance to critically strike while attacking from behind or the side.

• Sharpened Edges Chance to cause bleeding on critical hits.
• Hidden Barbs Bleeding you cause is more dangerous.
• Light on your Feet Damage and condition duration is increased for a while after dodging. Short bow skills recharge faster and your arrows pierce.

Druid

• Celestial Being Celestial uh-oh mode.
• Live Vicariously Healing your pet heals you. (screw those other guys! )
• Natural Mender Stacking heal buff when you heal.

• Druidic Clarity Entering celestial form removes all conditions.
• Natural Stride Reduce duration of cripple/immobilize. +33% speed when not crippled/immobilized.
• Ancient Seeds Hitting a CC’d enemy applies immobilize and bleed.

This is gonna be a kiting immobilize/cripple/bleed machine .

Utterly OP? Nah. Able to squeeze more out of the cleanse on block trait for DH and more ways core Guard delivers AoE Aegis and continues to hold a passable place in the support meta? I ain’t spitting on it.

DiogoSilva.7089:

Nike.2631:

Ah. That would be confusing, yes .

I just saw Roy Cronacher in-game and asked him about that.

Shield #4 will apply BOTH aegis and protection.

BOO-YAH!!!

Aegis on a shield skill. Our prayers to the eternal blue-white fire have been answered.

Longbow/Sword + Shield Zerg-lord, here I come!