Guild Wars 2

People aren’t bothering to launch counter-arguments OR to support the cause because the level of fanaticism in there is self-defeating. Normally I’m all over not randomly screwing with player appearance – I have infraction points from when they screwed up every single piece of Sylvari cultural armor because a designer was fiddling with it for the Toxic alliance and decided offhandedly to ram the changes down player throats. It took a few weeks but we got that fixed. But that town-clothes group is so spun up I don’t really want to have anything to do with it one way or the other.

Xia.3485:

pswendel.8179:

Any particular reason? Just ’cause?

Dual wielding the same legendary should mean something.

We are long past Legendary Weapons meaning anything. Once they were proven to be saleable, their prestige got castrated.

Astralporing.1957:

Nike.2631:

The Pack weapons skins for Personal Story completion. Try putting 2-3 on one character!

Pact weapons? Last i checked they were sellable.

Ah, could be. Never occurred to me to look for them as they’re kinda hideous .

Oh Noes! Even more people will have the Legendary Greatsword skins that are so common you can’t swing a dead cat without shaving it’s whiskers off on one.

Given how grotesquely provincial and self-serving most player feedback is, and the rampant tendency to believe that one’s personal playstyle automatically has the weight of massive numbers of other players and there for must be cherished and appeased at every turn… yeah, there’s a lot of “clear feedback” that any game designer has to just flatly ignore.

You can have equipment restricted to another race in your inventory but not be able to equip it.

This is true NOW. It’ll still be true on the 15th.

Assuming this thread has the same impact as the ten just like it before it: No. There is no chance.

World Event RNG:
The Tequatl weapons.
The Worm armor.

Time/dailies:
The 75 laurel mini pets and 100 laurel tonic.
10k title

Personal Story:
The Pack weapons skins for Personal Story completion. Try putting 2-3 on one character!
Mix and matching armor from all 3 Orders.
(There’s also several armor piece that only drop in PS as loot choices)

Dungeon Armor Skins

My integrity costs a hell of a lot more than 100g in pixel-money.

Gaining benefits from gear you don’t even have equipped…

Yeah, no.

Putting weapons specific traits (Eagle Eye) on a minor trait is a no-no.

Now, if you wanted to put Spotter there, I can see the reputation of Rangers immediately improving game-wide…

Prowess is going from 30% for 30 trait points to 20%.
Banner of discipline is going from 15% crit damage to 170 ferocity (11.33%).
The beating crit damage food is going to take will be spectacular.

As much as people love to harp on the nerf as being “badly Zerker targeted” or “excessively harsh on Celestial”, I think the real kicked-in-the-junk target isn’t gear at all, its any class that emphasizes auto-crits. There’s a reason the mighty Warrior is getting a new auto-crit Trait and Sigil of Intelligence is being buffed up to 3 auto-crits… its because insta-gib critting by players is being curb-stomped.

Curtis Johnson.8456:

As always we ask you to try out the new system of customization and see what’s available to you. We hope the benefits to the outfit system and wardrobe in terms of future support and additions will be clear, and you can look forward to more new outfits coming very soon.

I will certainly continue to experiment .

One question:

Would you agree that wearing town clothes in combat has essentially ended “But I want to be able to read my opponent’s Warrior/Adventurer/Scholar-ness at a glace!” as an argument against cosmetically mixing armor weights in the future? I realize the technical hurdles are still there (I remember well when you could preview mixed armor weights in game…) but the tactical argument is now largely meaningless, yes?

Morningstar.2934:

What’s your basis for the 1% crit damage to 10-11 stat points?

Look at the current trait lines – 1% crit damage is given as a direct alternative to exactly 10 points of other stats.

Look at a full set of berserker – the other secondary stat is 745 making it directly equivalent to 71% crit damage (with a ratio between 10 and 11 points per 1% crit damage).

The whole point of what ANet is doing is to “normalize” crit damage into a stat like the other stats where ANet has indicated clearly and expressly that the exchange rate is 1% for 15 stat points.

No… that’s the ratio they are changing it to, which is why 30 trait points will now buy you 20% crit damage instead of 30.

There is no current Ferocity that applies.

It’s called “prowess”, and its right there on your character sheet.

John Smith.4610:

The mystic forge changes are a work in progress. What I will promise is that when it is done you will like it much better than you do now.

Only thing that makes me itch is~

“The Mystic Forge is going to get a lot of changes this year. To kick things off, we’re adjusting the way Zommoros distributes rare and exotic rewards a bit, allowing for more variation in output. This is just a stepping stone to further changes that will make the Mystic Forge a much better experience in the future. Please note: the rate of precursors will not be affected.”

…Sounds a lot like the output of the forge will become less reliable — that I’ll throw 4 swords in and after-patch I might get back a mace or even a ring.

Of course, writing a press release blurb for “The thing that we will never tell you how it works is going to work differently – but we’ll still never tell you how…” is gonna be a bit light on details .

I’m actually quite pleased with the change. I’ve been arguing for more goods and less mud-coin out of Events (and later champs) pretty much since I started playing the game. Honestly, more coin doesn’t help you (unless you are buying icy runestones). It just lets you cut further ahead in line against all the other players interested in the same things as you want.

The other way to find hearts is to look for spyglass icons – they go away after hearts are complete, so if you see one, you know there is an incomplete heart somewhere nearby. Talk to the scout and they’ll be happy to point you the right way.

Your ferocity conversion is wrong, and that’s why people keep flipping out over Celestial. If the Current berserker is 1087/745/71% then 71% = 745 ferocity (NOT 1065). Currently ferocity is graded at about 1% per 11. It’s exactly 1% = 10 where traits are concerned.

If you keep trying to say Celestial gear has points assigned to it on a 1%=15 basis, of course it looks whacky. Right now it has something right around 1% equal 10-11. Convert it properly and THEN knock it down to equal the other 6 stats (+6%) and you can see you see that once you’ve applied the UNIVERSAL nerf to ferocity (loss of about 33%), the shifting of points is quite equitable.

phys.7689:

Nike.2631:

Considering what I pay now to shift an appearance (one transmute crystal) HELL YES I prefer the new cost of doing business.

huh, i thought you kept all the skins in your vault, ohh you mean like low level skins, not gemstore skins, or LS skins.

yeah if you were holding on to a modlinir dagger or something that was level 20, then you may as well destroy it in the new system.

Oh I have a dozen-or-so semi-rare exotics from champ bags that I’m going to equip (to place a copy in the wardrobe) and then immediately salvage come patch day. I already sold off the spare Bonnetti’s Rapier I had laying around. I have HUNDREDS of transmutation stones that currently do nothing for my 80s that will make up the difference for a long, long time, as I am fairly careful/methodical about changing my look. I will have all the options I have now, and more, and bank space. There is no part of this change that isn’t win for me now, in the mid-term, and the long-term.

Sure, I could write a system that is 100% player friendly and costs nothing – but I know that this is one for the things ArenaNet funds employee salaries with, and I don’t expect them to give that up entirely just because I want it all for free forever.

This incarnation of a wardrobe will NOT let you change willy-nilly at will for free forever. But it WILL let you do so more cheaply with more options than it has in the past.

If you want to push for more, fine. Just realize that content requires income and there comes a point where slashing their revenue is slashing your own prospects for enjoyment.

Considering what I pay now to shift an appearance (one transmute crystal) HELL YES I prefer the new cost of doing business.

Looking forward to some new builds based on the new Traits, to experimenting with some new Runes/Sigils, to a buff to Celestial for what I use it for, to being able to move Ascended gear between characters, to getting about 500 unidentified dyes, to being able to buy one store exclusive dye and having it apply to my whole account, to getting all my unused skins stored in the Wardrobe, to cloning my Infinite Light, to cashing out Transmutes Stones/Crystals for charges and getting those inventory spaces back…

They’re going to have to do some new content soon, but for a round of housecleaning the system, I’m pretty pleased.

Jahroots.6791:

Silberfisch.3046:

But I think this system is to some degree still pointed at people who don’t change their looks often. Because it takes away the edge off of either loosing expensive stats on an ascended piece of equipment or loosing an expensive skin like infinite light when they wish to switch to something else.

And that’s the inherent flaw in its design, the main purpose of an in-game wardrobe is to facilitate changing your look freely, and often.

Well, this change is going to let me get a ton of unused skins out of inventory into a specialized storage, allow my to duplicate my Infinite Light repeatedly at a trivial cost compared to building a second one, Let me use gem store outfits on multiple characters without buying the packs repeatedly, and does a lot of that by converting a low value resource (transmutation stones) into a high value resource (charges).

It doesn’t have to bend over and kiss the players toes/slash ANet’s wrists on RMTs to still be a huge improvement over the current status quo.

I’ll take it as offered. Thanks.

Evidently the TP is doing a fine job of draining money out of the system.

And champ trains get a swift kick in the shins.

I can live with both.

And its hilarious.

No more gold sinks except travel and TP. Screw you champ train. And Zomorros is doing something but we can’t tell you what it actually is…

We KNOW they did a bunch of work for new tutorials and training new players in the many, many sub-systems of GW2 for the China launch. It WILL be a part of this “pack”. That could be three days of friendly play blogs, but my money is its part of the “Foundation” blog.

Zaxares.5419:

Maybe a compromise?

The Wardrobe works the same way it does now, but when you use Charges to apply skins to a specific item, you can then freely swap back to this skin (and any other unlocked skin), on that item forever? For example:

1. I craft a Zojja’s Greatsword. It has the Zojja skin unlocked on it by default.
2. I use a Transmutation Charge and apply the AC Greatsword skin to it. It now has both the Zojja and AC skins unlocked on it, and I can freely swap between those two skins whenever I want.
3. If I then craft a new Keeper’s Greatsword, but wanted to use the Zojja’s and AC skins on this new weapon, then I’d need to spend 2 more Charges applying those two skins to my Keeper’s GS. (Alternatively, I could use 1 Charge and apply the Keeper’s skin to my old GS, which would now have 3 skins unlocked on it.)

Its not really a compromise when it entirely benefits the player .

The system is better for players than the current arrangement by a wide margin, but its still going to make ArenaNet some money.

Tutorials and new player training.

Kalarchis.8635:

Shut up and take my +1

THIS times all the +1 I’m allowed to give.

1. Get the Hero Voice actors back in the recording studio and record some new dialogue. I am sick of being MUTE.

2. Devote the majority of your effort to stories that begin, middle, and end in 3 month blocks. 6 parts is plenty of time to tell meaningful stories and keeps us from bogging down when a story fails to resonate. If you have another mega-story to tell, lay some proper ground work in the smaller stories before launching it.

3. Idiot ball: put it in a box and then bury the box. Characters can and should make mistakes, but lingering and recurring gross incompetence lessens everyone. There is no glory in beating stupid enemies, and the is no joy in being made to act like a fool because the plot is too thin to get by without it. e.g. the Invasion of Lion’s Arch would have been much more frightening if instead of the Captain’s Council being made up of de-cerebrate mouth-breathers we’d been told the city was going on double watches and citizens had been advised to stay in their homes. That despite their best preparation Scarlet rolled over the city anyway instead of her doing so in the face of no preparations…

The Current Syzygy is 54 to 6 stats and 7% crit damage. That crit damage as a percentage is equivalent to ~60 stat points under the current system (we can see examples of 68 being equivalent to 7%, so the changeover is right in there between 60-68)

After the patch the Necklace will have 57 in everything. For a loss of 3 points (maximum 10 points lost if it were secretly 67 beforehand) it gained 18 points in stats that aren’t being nerfed. If all you ever cared about was the crit damage you lost 3 points of Ferocity. If you actually used Celestial because it contributes a bit to everything the change is a fabulous deal!

On what build & at what cost? If your build/profession does a mixture of power-based and condition damage, such a sweeping statement becomes far less certain. And what if your profession has constant regen? Healing power becomes a survival stat alongside toughness and vitality. Elementalists and Guardians have always had an easier time leveraging the benefit of Celestial over other classes, and Rangers tend to fall in that group too with both regen bunkers and several weapons that are hopelessly entangled mishmashes of power & condi-damage.

Travis the Terrible.4739:

You forgot the important part of this. To yell 1 shot 1 kill every time

I prefer to whisper “I want the pink mist…” .

Describe the “normal killshot build”. I’m curious to see the differences.

I’m running it now out in WvW, using mostly berserker gear because that was what was in my bag and Berserker’s Power instead of Burst precision. A couple of fun/funny fights so far. Auto crit will definitely smooth things out though. I will be looking at Signet of Might over Banner of Strength for Zerg-Vs-Zerg as Aegis IS a bit of a pain.

If you don’t have a build that can benefit from Celestial then why were you wearing it in the first place? Valkyrie has been standing there the whole time saying “look at me! Offense, defense, AND crit damage!”

The change INCREASES you base damage from Power. It INCREASES your chance to crit. Its INCREASES the survivability being offered via Vitality and Toughness. It INCREASES your ability to support via Healing Power.

But most of all it moves point out of a stat that is getting nerfed into stats that are retaining their current value.

If you were dipping into Celestial because you already had a high precision and were just looking to splash a little general stat bonus and build a high crit damage bonus, yes, Celestial is no longer for you. If you were wearing Celestial because you where a bunker who wanted to trade off some of your survivability for a bit more damage, or really any build that didn’t have massive precision the changes are excellent.

Cynar Valdyr.7854:

Would you wear celestial after the “fix” as is currently suggested Nike?

Absolutely. I don’t equip Celestial on my ‘primary damage dealers’ because outside of certain auto-crit builds its a terrible choice for DPS. But on several of my support and bunker character I have Celestial because no matter how much you might like to contribute via non-DPS activities you are still ultimately going to have to pitch some damage too. Celestial has value putting slightly larger teeth on a bunker or healer and this change is going to make it even better for those purposes because they probably had pretty mediocre Precision/Crit chance and couldn’t especially leverage the high crit damage bonus anyway. Now Celestial will be giving better Power and Precision, while also giving better survivability traits and Healing power at the cost of the stat that gave you the least return on your investment.

Its one of several GM traits in this update that are “in the wrong line” specifically so you can double dip: one ability of that sort from the usual line + one of the new grandmasters

Awbee.8405:

I’m even more interested what “A Solid Foundation” might be about. There’s a tiny, overly optimistic part of me that hopes it might be about Housing … if only

That is almost certainly about better tutorials and the leveling process from 1-30 being cleaned up.

But… But… its only funny because it’s true.

I’d guess a lot – possibly even ‘most’ – Lodestones in the game come from combining cores in the Mystic Forge. Its still gonna set you back bigtime (I made infinite Light, all 250 Charged Lodestones, ouch) but its still marginally cheaper than trying to buy lodestones directly. The peppers are actually reasonably farmable – if you like wandering around beating things up plan to gather those yourself.

Ok, I want to try out the new Burst Precision Grandmaster trait with a maximally cheesy Rifle Sniper shtick. What all do I need?

Heavily geared towards Valkyrie (don’t need precision on an auto-crit build)

An ascended rifle.

HEALING~
Healing Surge for full Adrenaline before they even know I’m shooting.

UTILITIES~
Banner of Discipline for the crit damage bonus (170 Ferocity/ 11.33% after patch) plus having some normal Precision will be useful outside of the Tryia-shattering kaboom.

Banner of Strength for Power bonus.

Balanced Stance because you do NOT want to be interrupted.

ELITE~
War Banner – mostly to stick into their broken bodies. Another possible source of Stability for the big bang wind up. Also hits surprisingly hard with Powerful Banners trait

TRAITS~
30/10/0/0/30

Strength III: Great Fortitude — A percentage of power is given as a bonus to vitality.
Strength VI: Powerful Banners — Banners do damage when summoned.
Strength XIII: Burst Precision — OUCH! It hurts to be this good!

Arms IV: Crack Shot — Rifle and harpoon gun shots pierce. Reduced recharge on rifle and harpoon gun skills.

Discipline II: Thrill of the Kill — Gain extra adrenaline on a kill.
Discipline VIII: Destruction of the Empowered — Deal bonus damage per boon on your target.
Discipline XI: Burst Mastery — Burst skills deal more damage and cost less.

So. That’s off the cuff. Make it even meaner!

And that would pretty much sum up why I’d do it differently.

Man… people really like to throw “completely worthless” around where it can undermine their entire argument the most, don’t they?

Normalizing HP and Armor values is more ‘class balance’ than ‘gear balance’, since I’m fairly certain Elementalists in full Berserker wouldn’t mind having a few more HP and a little more armor .

(in fact an armor shift helps them more than it does an Ele in toughness gear because it has a greater proportional impact. Ditto for HP normalization vs. vitality gear)

I’m expecting some sort of HP normalization regardless of other changes – the low HP folks are a smidge squishy/vulnerable to spikes, and the high HP folks are a little over-resilient to conditions.

It won’t take much. If both ends move about 4% towards the middle it’ll clean up a lot of concerns.

The math behind Toughness is a lot more difficult to tweak – it would probably come down to adjusting the armor values on gear rather than any sort of hidden scaling factor. Again we might see a shift of a few percent, but more than that and you’d easily overshoot the mark.

Honestly, being able to unbind duplicate Legendary Weapons will take care of 99% of the fuss, is consistent with past policy, and is easily managed through the existing Support system.

lets just pretend they’ll do the right thing and table the issue until the 15th?

It will likely play out like the infinite tools change — after the patch contact support to return your duplicate items.

Autumn.8043:

The only simple solution to this Is unbind all legendaries, that way people can sell their duplicates and bind the ones they want.

Why do you need them all unbound just to sell the duplicates?

Unbind just the duplicates and call it a day.

People keep saying that… and yet there are a number of dyes I would buy for my entire account (17 characters) that I would not buy for just one character.