Guild Wars 2

Because Stonehenge has nothing to do with observing celestial bodies…
No, wait. It does.

Ah. That would be confusing, yes .

Um, the 4 seconds of Aegis normalization is unrelated to the Shield — that was talking about the effect from clicking f3 — Virtue of Courage’s active effect.

Shield Skill #4 was not mentioned.

I already love mosshounds. Druid loves them even more .

Mono.7320:

Nike can I go with SB/Axe-Dagger Instead of Sword for more bleed condi?

I run SB/Axe + Horn right now so I’m not gonna say ‘no’ . If the layer upon layer of cripple and immobilize works as well as I hope, you may not need a melee weapon at all, making axe an excellent alt weapon while waiting for the bigger SB stunts to cool off.

Moment of Clarity pairs with Ancient Seeds soooo well .

Also consider on the Lone Pine what happens when you cast Entangle followed by either glyph… Boom: instant 5 target Ancient Seeds with its FX hidden under the Entangle briars. They specifically called out that if you trigger Ancient seeds with an AoE it procs on everybody before going into ICD. Bleed-o-rama with hidden barbs dialing it up even further.

Sir Vincent III.1286:

Nike.2631:

Devs are commenting that taking 40 heals or 400 (!!) attacks to charge up celestial form makes it something of a burst tool and not like Necros popping in and out of shroud. Hopefully we’re laying on fatal condition pressure a little faster than that .

Let’s see how fast can they charge that up.

Solar Beam (auto-attack) – heals 3 targets 3 pulses every 1.25 second

Thus 9 heals per 1.25 seconds, so that’s approx. 4.5 attacks which means they get full charged astral celestial in apporx. 6-7 seconds — just doing auto attacks.

They reach astral celestial sooner using other skill, but let’s not complicate it further.

A legitimate concern. We’ll get to see how it plays next week and how the balance is shaking out on the ground rather than on paper. They’ve had more time with it and seemed to think that Druids were burst healers compared to Revenants because of that spin up time.

Ancient Seeds and shortbow #5 is pretty much auto-tangles. You can build a whole interlocking nest of awful around SB and off-hand dagger.

You should have predator’s onslaught up continuously.

Twisting the new trait-line and utilities into a selfish monster was pretty much the first thing to go through my mind.

I’m confident people will unleash even worse evils in a day or two…

Devs are commenting that taking 40 heals or 400 (!!) attacks to charge up celestial form makes it something of a burst tool and not like Necros popping in and out of shroud. Hopefully we’re laying on fatal condition pressure a little faster than that .

I’m trying not to laugh myself right out of my chair. I’ve made & played healers on every class in this game (including Thieves once they got venom share). And fact is pure healing has never been welcome and a couple of strong healers who can do other things will be just as valuable if not moreso if we ever do see real attrition instead of easily dodged mega-hits.

Some of the other classes have insanely powerful Healing build already. So the freak out is real but the threat really isn’t. Other than maybe having to get some Zealot/Keeper gear instead of the ubiquitous ’Zerk set.

WHAT A LOVELY DAY! (to be a Dragonhunter)
Part II – meat, potatoes, and dessert!

A list of all the changes I would like to see for polished, competitive Dragonhunter at launch.

Virtues

• Wings of Resolve. As a regular user of the Battle Presence trait (which is now disable while this virtue is on cooldown) I’d like to see the base cooldown slightly reduced. I would like for the trait that enhances this virtue to increase the range to 1200.
• Shield of Courage. In an effort to see further reduced reliance on Renewed Focus by Dragonhunters, I’d like to see the cooldown slightly reduced. Having all three virtues recharge faster than their core profession counterparts will also provide symmetry helping to explain to new players why all three have cast times.

Longbow

• Symbol of Energy. Increase symbol radius to 200 (up from 180).
• Hunters Ward (Cages ). Apply cage effect on 2nd or 3rd tick rather than 4th.

Traps

• Purification. Add “Cleanses 1 condition from Dragonhunter when placed and when triggered.”
• Test of Faith. Add “Placing this trap is a stunbreak. Creates a Light Field when triggered.
• Procession of Blades. Add “First and final damage pulse are whirl finishers.”
• Dragons’ Maw. Add “Downed enemies in the cage radius are finished when the cage effect ends.”

Traits
There’s just one jagged burr left.

• Pure of Sight. This effect needs to be selectable rather than mandatory to enable a wider range of builds that include melee focused trappers without forcing them to take a “dead” minor trait. Numerous options present themselves for juggling a more broadly useful effect into this slot while swapping this out to compliment a range-focused trait set-up.

We are SOOOO CLOOOSE to Dragonhunter being a dreamteam line-up of skills and effects for mystic/holy archer themes. Really looking forward to it and to the echoing screams of all those players who declared traps “useless” when they stumble into them in the heat of battle …

WHAT A LOVELY DAY! (to be a Dragonhunter)
Part I – tidying up around the house

A list of all the changes I would like to see for polished, competitive Dragonhunter at launch.

Names

• Dulled Senses. Yeah, I have no idea how this name ties to the effect, and since the effect has changed repeatedly I sincerely doubt anyone else does either.
• Zealot’s Aggression. This is subtle, but I would not use the word “Zealot” for a trait name on a profession with a “Zeal” trait line unless that trait was IN the Zeal line…
• Hunter’s Ward. While wards are used in fantasy fiction to describe both things that protect and things that entrap, the protective usage is more common and makes this skill name a little jarring. Please consider “Hunter’s Cages” or “Luminous Cages”… I would really like a skill name that leads to the soft CC effect it delivers being commonly referred to as ‘being caged’. Its evocative, accurate, and unlikely to be mistaken for any other effect in the game by casual readers.

Audio FX

• Puncture Shot. New sound that isn’t backwoods tub-thumping. I want the ‘creak-snap’ of a POWERFUL weapon being drawn and released. Get the folley guys out on a fieldtrip to record some crossbows maybe. ‘rrrrrk-THIP!’
• True Shot. More cowbell! Or at least more rumbling whoosh like a jet aircraft taking off. Make the player smile and enemies cringe when this beast goes off.

Visual FX

• Piercing Light. Needs a new icon now that it no longer causes bleeding.
• Longbow. All attacks need a unified visual theme, preferably inspired by the smaller arrows raining down when using #5. Should have light trails similar to Focus #4
• Virtues. More use of the Guardian’s signature blue-white fire.

Shield
This could easily be THE go to weapon for support-minded Guardians trying to help their team from the back line with two tiny adjustments~

• Shield of Judgment. !!Update!! Adding 4 second Aegis is dead sexy, but I still think it needs 900 range (up from 600) to mesh with DH using it on a fast swap from the back line.
• Shield of Absorption. !!update!! Now a 4 second channel and mobile. Fantastic .

Spirit Weapons
Potentially the best damage-adders for ranged Dragonhunters, they need better up-time. Please consider one of the following~

• Minion-like. Spirit weapons persist until destroyed (no timer).
• Grace Under Pressure. By default if a spirit weapon is destroyed by damage instead of by timing out, cooldown is significantly reduced (-50%?).

I did. Seems like we may need some advanced Asuran weed-killer.

Honestly… I’m really curious what’s gonna come out of the balancing pass reveal (tomorrow I think?) because core profession changes are what’s going to fix what’s wrong with some of the Especs more than Especs are going to fix what’s wrong with their core.

We’ve heard Ele D/D is in the crosshairs for a nerf & that Necro axe is getting tuned upwards. I’m really not sure what to hope for with Thieves.

Yeah, you are correct. The heal choice was left over from when I was eyeing the Glyph cooldown trait. Will fix in original post. I’m suspicious Natural Mender could be used in conjunction with our regens or proc off of Natural Healing as long as it’s the pet that gets a heal. Troll Ungent might be very good with Natural Mender…

Mr Pin.6728:

Dear Guardians,

We regret to inform you that as of the time of receiving your letter our dogs have unfortunately already errr… eaten… your tome. As such we are unable to facilitate its return. Please don’t ask for its return again as we consider this matter now closed.

Further we appreciate that you have found our old discard… errr… lost longbows. Feel free to keep them as an apology for the ummm… eaten… tomes. No need to continue to attempt their return as we have already replaced said longbows with newer models.

With the best of regards,

rangers.

You win the internet for the day. Genius!

Ermygerd! EVERY CLASS HAS BEEN ABLE TO HEAL SINCE DAY ONE (’cept thieves, but screw them) and NO ONE EVER RUNS HEALERS. NOW DRUID HEALING is RIgHt uP thEre wITth a maNtTra-MesMEr!! Mindblown!!1!11! YUhateDPS?!?

This day could not get any better.

!!Updated!!

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 .

A healing focused Guard is still gonna push some nice numbers and mix in Aegis which Druid is completely lacking. Honestly the two will be highly complimentary…

And raw heals on a mantra-heal Mesmer are INSANE, not that anyone ever plays it in that configuration.

Dear Rangers,

Thank you for finding our misplaced Tome of Courage. Still have no idea how we dropped it. Please mail it back at your earliest convenience (postage included). We miss it.

Thank you, Guardians

PS Those wyverns look awesome! But watch for falling poop…

Oh, I’m with you there. Guardians dropped their Heal-Tome and Ranger blatantly picked it up and ran off with it .

Amante.8109:

You like reminding people of what is and isn’t realistic to expect from development, and make no mistake: it is not realistic to expect a hail mary overhaul of Thief/Daredevil in the 11th hour before HoT release… especially not with Karl at the helm.

You’re right (that I’m right :P ). So Daredevil is not about to morph into a full-blown regen-tank line. But it still could get a bit more self-heal sustain before launch day.

My understanding is the Physical heal skill Channeled Vigor is specifically in flux. What would make it better? Would we better off with some regen at the end if we are at full endurance rather than a flat +heal?

Driven Fortitude is already a self-heal/sustain. Is it enough in the new more challenging landscape?

Also weakening strikes might be really good for taking the sting out of enemies. Longer duration on the weakness condition to smooth the incoming damage curve?

Shalien.9018:

Don’t forget the fact that breakbars will make mobs uninterruptable so our Pulmonary Impact on interrupt trait will be outright useless against all boss mobs. We got a trait specifically for trash mobs, yay!

Players have break bars? News to me.

And not the only way you can get pulmonary Impacts. Plus if you are fighting a big boss you know has a bar why are you loading on-interrupt traits?

RedSpectrum.1975:

They also get wyverns, those alone outmatch out shiny features

I think Rangers have been the last kid to get picked long enough we can let them have wyvern pets AS AN APPOLOGY for 3 years of being crapped on.

Druid has a butt-load of buttons, but they’re HEALS. Has healing others ever been the make-or-break mechanic in this game?

Did you see so much as one Aegis in the druid’s kit? If they up the pressure with more high tempo/unavoidable damage we’re still going to be a crucial component of keeping the party up and fighting.

Eponet.4829:

I hope you’re willing to invest in zealot’s gear, or apothecary’s for condition damage variants.

I’ve been piecing together a set of Keepers since it became available. Great set of stats and getting better in light of the Druid commentary.

You really should never be seeing classes called out specifically in an LFG.

“LF good reflect” maybe. But classes by name? Why?

finalshadowz.6178:

Lack of Imagination for the tempest concept.

Honestly that’s not true. Lack of impact, maybe. But it’s a cool concept. Horns and storms have a strong connection in Tyrian lore.

You’ll come crawling back. Or at least over to stand next to the support Guard/DH.

I’m pretty sure any “we want to kill the zerker meta” is gonna be felt by all professions and isn’t uniquely anti-thief persecution. If people are going to wither over time in the new encounters, it’s gonna happen to everybody.

So we should probably focus any remaining requests/changes on a bit more survivability where we can get it. Boon-stealing Regenerate for example. I’m not worried because I’m already playing high volume of hits skills with Signet of Malice which already makes Daggerstorm a full heal with the right gear. Bring on the withering, I can take it. But yeah, glassy-er builds are gonna start looking around for more sustain if they expect to roll as lone wolves beholden to none.

So lets focus on getting us to a good place, and not the constant out-of-class comparisons that are usually horribly misinformed anyway.

If only you could change trait assignments at will…

I think people just aren’t seeing the potential on Daredevil and Dragonhunter, but that’ll come out one way or the other with more play. Berserker seems like the smallest gain any class is experiencing.

For sheer power I’d rank highest to lowest~

Herald
Chronomancer
Reaper
Daredevil
Dragonhunter
Scrapper
Druid (unless healing becomes truly mandatory)
Berserker
Tempest

Honestly, everything they were saying just tells me I’ll continue running Battle Presence and be loved for it more than ever.

Because healing has been so integral to success up to this point.

Can we not flip out?

Other people like to heal, maybe they’ll actually be able to do it now. That’s pretty much ZERO impact on a primarily damage-dealing class like Thief. If anything it means you might have an adequate healer standing with you so you can continue to dish max-damage wearing highly aggressive stats on your gear.

Jahroots.6791:

Definitely the Noble Count. Arcane and Royal Guard are close runners up.

Nice use of accessories!

Second bit reminds me of an old joke. Delivery is everything but bear with me~

If you took ALL of a man’s VEINS! ATERIES! and CAPPLIARIES! and laid them end to end…

…that man would die.

No, no. I get you. I did say ‘a dab of wild conspiracy theory’. Honestly, if we get an ‘Oaktree transform’ that enables the little oaktree spirits to follow it around, that would be genuinely awesome looking. “Treeherder” for the win.

Ok, I know how I actually want to see the effect delivered. For realsies.

“While in Oakheart Form (Elite skill), your summoned nature spirits are mobile and gain Protection.”

MOAR BOONSTEAL
Ok, this is a little specialized but the ‘pulmonary impact’ effect could also have a boon-steal added to it.

Creates a tight little bit of interplay for the target knowing they just got marked with PI they can/should STOP spamming boons on themselves to starve the coming boon steal. If they manage to let all their boons fall off the thief gets nothing.

Jaxom.7310:

Nike.2631:

I’d love a scorpion wire or taunt on DH. Just not sure where to cram it in!

i think i kno where anet would tell u to cram it in…

On an f4 button? BRILLIANT!

…

Sina.9208:

Nike is full of optimism, as always.

I am full of optimism. Its a trait we KNOW they already have the code for .

Honestly, I think druids will be fun. But I think they won’t be ANYTHING like what people are hoping for either because of sub-par experiences with Ranger core mechanics or from watching the train wreck that was the Ranger CDI. That place where Aspects were proposed and the moderating Anet employee (because I won’t dignify her with the title “Dev”) asked that it could be calved off from the main thread to be buried and forgotten.

I’m not expecting to see anything more than the word “Aspect”, stolen from the grave of one of the most popular paths to improvement for the Ranger class ever put forward.

Bryzy.2719:

I’m already losing my mind waiting for the dam twitch con!

5 hours 40 minutes to go (not that I’ll get to see it cuz celebrating nana’s max level party IRL – she also maxed out cooking so there’s gonna be food buffs galore). So I’m relying on you guys to give a play-by-play on here lmao.

God this is like one sad step down from watching someone else play a game on twitch – reading about people’s reactions while they watch people play a game.

What am I doing with my life?

Hopefully stocking up on max-level food buffs.

I would give an awful lot to have some of my nana’s cooking again.

I promise the game will still be here when you get back.

Durzlla.6295:

I have no reason to believe they will include a spirits can move trait since they said they wanted to balance them around being immobile (still waiting on that part), and because no other elite spec had traits dealing with old utility skills

Actually thieves are screaming bloody murder that they have an old trait minor trait that was yanked now coming back as a new minor trait in the same tier.

Bezagron.7352:

Nike.2631:

TRAPS

I am perfectly happy with the Dragonhunter getting traps as their additional utility skill-type, but the traps themselves still need a little more payout for the risks.

• Purification. As it’s name suggests it needs to address conditions. Add “Placing this trap removes 1 condition from the Dragonhunter. When this trap is triggered convert 1 condition on the Dragonhunter to a boon.”
• Fragments of Faith. Still the gem of the set.
• Light’s Judgment. It’s right there in the name… Add “Triggering the trap creates a light field.”
• Test of Faith. Add “Placing this trap is a stunbreak. Triggering the trap creates a light field.”
• Procession of Blades. Spin to win! Add “First and final damage pulse are whirl finishers.”
• Dragon’s Maw. Needs more cowbell! Add “Downed enemies in the attack radius are killed at the end of the duration.” (using tech seen in the Daredevil Elite)

Adding a cleanse convert to the healing trap, a stun break to what is arguably the weakest of the traps, and a little more indirect condition cleansing through light fields will go a long way towards making trap-heavy or even all traps builds have the survivability to actually use the traps line.

I think this is a great idea of what Traps need to make up for what their lacking & part of the direction they should head in. I would also look at Traps cast times in regard to range gameplay styles, distanced or melee. This would allow for some reactive trap gameplay with some traps on top of proactive gameplay traps require.

Thanks . I’ve actually slimmed my list of essential trap changes down a tiny bit even from that post. I see where you’re going with trap set-time varying by functionality/role, but I suspect they’ll want a unified mechanic on the front end and them differentiate roles by cooldown times. While I think your approach may better evoke the vison of the scheming trap-setter, the skill type is having enough trouble gaining acceptance that its just as well you can throw them down in a mid-fight frenzy… PUSH ALL THE BUTTONS!

I’m sad to see Bleed removed and Dazed added. Although Daze can be a great condition I feel it doesn’t help in keeping your foes within your traps but am interested in how it play into DH & Trap gameplay to test.

An idea to keep the Bleeding is to have an initial stack of bleeds on triggering of the trap, as well as on each hit. Another addition to the trait which could help with trap build survivability could be:

Receive less damage from foes effected by cripple, bleeding & burning.

• -10% incoming damage (requires only one of these condition on foe).
• -15% incoming damage (requires tow of the three conditions on foe).
• -20% incoming damage (requires all three conditions).

You could probably simplify that to~

You receive -5% damage from foes for each condition they have from among bleeding, burning, and crippled.

Possibly with some other small effect to round out the trait. Even -15% damage would be pretty tanky for a Espec that’s already well positioned to kite like an entire kite festival .

Lastly again could either a pull or taunt be added to Spear of Justice providing a purely DH means of forcing foes into your traps through a CC effect.

I’d love a scorpion wire or taunt on DH. Just not sure where to cram it in!

Bllade.1029:

I’d like to bring back the topic of more Boon Stealing capabilities for the DD.

PvP meta has always been about boons. Giving boons, stripping boons, converting boons etc, but the action that you find most prevalent among many of the professions is the ability to generate and sustain their own boons.

This is a fantastic opportunity to balance this ever so increasing abundance of boons that were going to see when HoT is released.

Alright, lets run with Thieves actually stealing stuff, that’s got a nice ring to it, yes?

There’s two types of boon steal – stealing any type of boon the target has, and stealing specific boons. Lets try to fit both into the Daredevil.

STAFF
Just going with the names of the attacks we get…

• Weakening Charge. Add “Steals Might from foes struck and transfers it to yourself.”
• Debilitating Arc. Add “Steals Regeneration from foes struck and transfers it to yourself.”

…Making Staff a truly unique tool for thieves and giving the Daredevil an interesting counter to the over-saturated “Might-meta”. Stealing Regeneration is a fabulous ‘swing’ effect keeping your enemies from getting out from under your pressure while giving the Daredevil sustain through theft.

ELITE
There’s concern Impact Strike’s value is chiefly limited to the final moments of a fight you’ve already won because of the finishing mechanic. But with boon steal…

• Impact Strike. Add “Steals 1 boon from your foe.”
• Uppercut. Add “Steals 1 boon from your foe.”
• Finishing Blow. Add “Steals 1 boon from your foe.”

…It makes the elite more appealing mid-fight and more hilarious as a finisher where you essentially are picking a dead man’s pockets…

Arnath.2319:

Marks are far superior. The only advantage Traps have is them being invisible, which is only useful in PVP, that is why i suggested making a trait making them invisible for those PVP players.

Marks are ground target-able, blast radius, instant effect, short cooldown, condi heavy skills that thematically fit this elite spec better.

Sadly they’re also a weapon effect not a utility skill type. All marks fire from the left-hand tray. They also don’t proc Runes of the Trapper . Personally, I’m planning to exploit that rune set hard with some of my Guards. Plus, you don’t think they’d really let us keep the current traps effect-magnitude while gaining ground targeting, instant payout, and instant arming time?

How about because the Druid reveal is going to be a tiny foot note in the larger proclamation that the’ve now revealed all of the new specs, can show off the complete set of new class art as a single banner, and generally crow about how they’ve evolved the concept of multi-classing compared to other MMOs.

Look for the druid details on page 5.

Because harvest-bots need to go even faster?