Guild Wars 2

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/suggestions/Improving-elite-skills-and-the-new/first#post1819720

Should join in, all ideas are welcomed ^^

I like the armor kit, but potentially ~7 seconds of invulnerability seems drastic.

I kinda agree with the op in a different way though, wvw relies to heavily on mesmer. It’s like if you don’t have mesmers running around you won’t accomplish nearly as much which seems too exclusive. Not saying every profession needs some portal like that but for how effective a mesmer is seems far superior to the others because of 2 skills. Veil and the portal.

Thieves can’t even stealth groups that well because their only long lasting aoe stealth requires you to stand still for ~4 seconds. Blinding powder doesn’t work on a large scale either. Thieves in general are such a selfish profession, they need more team support skills. Even if they gata remove some of the useless traps and make a new category (keep ambush in some form though, only good trap) of skills for team play I’d be fine.

Azraiel.6237:

The Guardian Elites seem pretty solid, though the Tome Elite skills feel a little gimmicky outside of soloing given that they are easy to counter and have considerable cooldown time. Renewed Focus is a no-brainer and I expect I would continue to use it religiously even if I had the option of equipping an additional Utility power.

An extra elite power or two to choose from and/or a retooling of the powers that are “too situational” would be a wiser option, imo. Enabling a fourth Utility slot would be both somewhat bland and likely to necessitate a lot of tweaks to ensure there aren’t any broken combinations that a fourth slot would enable.

Exactly what I was thinking. It would feel pretty lazy to just slap another utility slot option than fix the elites. Its exactly the same idea of why no new zones are being opened (SSC hardly a new zone, more of an open pve living story instance). They are working on the current content before releasing new content which hopefully includes elite skills and a few racial elite skill tweaks (should either be weak but shorter cd or actually worthwhile and long cd).

New elite skills along with adjustments to some of the current ones would be optimal imo. Some elite skills, unless changed entirely, simply don’t fit some builds (profession elites). There should be an elite skill to fulfill them whether a powerful strike or boons or enviromental weapon.

However the biggest thing I miss from gw1, isn’t even the optional elites or how many they had. It was actually looking for a specific enemy to learn it from. Idk why they took that feature out ; ; it added some sense of evolving to the game that was adventurous and enjoyable. Now we just click some button and learn it.. pshh

oh, so its boon duration. Well thats a shame :/ I thought I was missing out on stomping people for longer

I did a test with the skill for how long the tooltip says and how long the skill actually lasts. The tooltip says 26seconds of stability but when you hit 20 seconds the effect and stability wear off. When you look closely, the stability is still going right before it ends (it isn’t blinking) so the stability is being cut short as is the juggernaught skill itself.

I believe something is wrong with how long the juggernaught form is lasting and it is cutting into the skill’s potential by kicking the player out of it sooner than it should be.

Not kittening on you for wanting to play a mmo while maintaining the busy life (other things are in fact more important) but dailies arn’t that time consuming. In fact, sometimes depending on what categories you get, they go quicker than the old dailies.

They really don’t ask much from you, and you get a lot of exp, mats (amount varies between dailies) and a laurel + chance at some gem items. I think dailies are reasonable as is, and you don’t have to pay anything to do them but 20-30 minutes.

TheKillerAngel.3596:

They also have weak stunbreakers. Haste causes you to lose all endurance so it is not a viable stunbreaker. Shadowstep has a 50 second cooldown unless you trait for it. Infiltrator’s signet teleports you to your enemy, which, depending on how the fight is going may not be a good idea. It is, however, their shortest cooldown stunbreaker. Roll for initiative has a 60 second cooldown. If they go sword mainhand they gain access to another stunbreaker with infiltrator’s strike. Keep in mind that they do not have stability without dagger storm, so if you can constantly apply daze, knockdown, and stun to a thief, they are extremely vulnerable.

(40 seconds).

Although not specified and not a true breaker, steal (profession skill) does break stun depending on how you look at it. If traited to give 2 seconds of stealth on steal, yeah it works great actually although you arn’t moving until the stun wears off. But you could also click a target and steal and evade a certain spot gaining that extra second or 2 to retaliate or retreat.

Infiltrators signet can be used when no target is selected so the thief can choose to teleport onto the target (breaking the stun) or stand in place (breaking the stun). Tbh any stun breaker at 30 or less second cooldown is really good and effective.

Theives don’t have good condition removal, but they do have various ways to stay alive while in stealth from either stealth regen or cond removal after 3 seconds of stealth, or from the haste + signet of agility set-up (haste being your stun breaker, SoA fixing the no endurance problem as well as removing a condition).

There are ways to build thieves very strong in offence while maintaining their overall survivability from working around stealth. There are also ways to completely avoid any stealth on a thief but like any profession, if it’s there you might as well use it when you get the chance.

Theftwind.8976:

Well tonight I came across 3 level 80 thieves taking out one of our supply camps in WvW. They had the supervisor down and the only npcs left were a guard and a scout. I took them all out with my Guardian. However I know how to handle thieves as I have a level 80 thief of my own. The easiest way to find the weakness of a particular class is to play that class.

Yeah guardians are very good at countering thieves if you know guardian well (and thief knowledge helps too). Their ability to survive a massive burst and recover from it makes them ideal. Plus they have pretty good cc especially for groups.

NinjaEd: “Types mounts into the search bar.”

:O

there is atleast 3 other threads on this same exact topic. Well cook me alive grenth, you win this time >.<

Thieves are very easy to kill when outnumbered. Like really really easy. Out of a necro, a warrior, and especially an ele, how did not one of them bring any cc?

Thieves in 1v1 are excellent with their burst and also their endurance regen/gain). Stealth is a thief’s version of protection, its the only real protection a thief gets. No reliable or perma regen (like guardian or ele), no potential to get protection (lyssa runes don’t count, thats not a thief thing thats a rune thing), only 1 stability from an elite skill, and no retaliation or aegis. Stealth is our boon, a very special one with many drawbacks. People need to understand why thieves get stealth so well, and also understand invisible =/= invincible.

Truthfully, a d/d ele can do everything a thief can (excluding stealth) and more. Great burst, great sustain, superior mobility, and amazing utility. Has anyone here, who thinks thieves need yet another nerf, tried to 1v1 a good d/d ele? Then come back here and share your horror story.

This thread seems to fall more under Player’s helping player’s sub-forum. If you want, post questions/answers on the thread I made awhile back. That or read through and maybe you’ll learn a thing or 2. I used to hate warrior and thought they were “op” back in like november. The 100b frenzy was simply too much for me. Practice and after making my own warrior and learning more about it, I found out the opposite. Warriors were horribly slow and when it came to mobility/dodging they were down right pitiful.

I’d suggest rolling a thief, go to the mists (spvp) and look/use every skill. Learn how they work and what they do internally. After that, look up some of the skills on the gw2 wiki. Some skills have tricks and/or bugs so it helps to know what you’re expecting when player x uses said skill.

Can a thief keep spamming stealth? Sure but the moment they do any direct damage they are revealed for 4 seconds. Also while they’re invisible there are methods to tracking them (not just swinging 1 until the chain starts up). AoE skills that pulse are the best at this (wells, traps, things like meteor or barrage).

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/players/Ask-a-Thief/first#post1814665

As the post stands, stop asking for nerfs, start asking questions on how to counter thief. L2p.

Wana know how pathetic most thieves are? I watched one go stealth, on my warrior, and 2 seconds later I used Earthshaker. He appeared, stunned. Switch to lb (although other sources work too) and immobilized him. Then continued to smack him to death because he thought his glass cannon insta-gib build was gana work. Even a good thief isn’t that threatening, because they will likely burn their cd and/or initiative and become useless after that. You really have some problems if you think thief, the most nerfed profession in the game, is at all op. Point the finger at bunker ele and necro for being nearly unkillable.

I actually like the permanent pickaxe. Aside from the animation it eventually saves you money because it’s limitless. However not all gem items were made fair, the black lion chests and their keys being one of them. You make something with a chance of a permanent bank access/tp access/make-over kit/black lion merchant and then allow it to be sold on the tp which is going for an insane amount atm. Instead of putting worthless rng into gem items, should either up the drop rate of keys in pve (seriously, I’ve defeated thousands of mobs by now and not 1 key for months. Did they lower the drop rate on these things?) or make the chance of obtaining these permanent kits higher while making them accountbound on aquire.

“But you can buy them without spending a penny” yeah lets be realistic, 310g (average of all 4 permanent kits on the tp atm) isn’t within many people’s interests. They will likely gamble with the chests and lady rng is no fun for anyone. The kits arn’t NEEDED but it is a conveinience some people would like and there is no reasonable way to obtain them.

“buy a flying license” Thats the issue. What if the casual gamer doesn’t want to go out of their way to keep up with the others to get their reward? TRUST me , I don’t think anet should keep the casual gamer moto but thats the verdict. The idea of mounts, I like if it fited. I played ffxi and lotro and I had a mount (ffxi actually had you raise your mount) and it added to the game. I enjoyed the idea of them, but this game doesn’t really support the ideas. Regearding the livings story picture, mounts arn’t appearing. It doesn’t fit the lore because no walking/living/breathing npc has riden an mount. Do I think mounts are irrelevant? No. Do I think they should serve no purpose other than for coesmetics? No, I agree it adds to the game. Looking cool there is nothing wrong. Should we add stat bonuses for having a mount? ABSOLUTELY NO!

I’ve posted this idea, but indirectaly, many times. I thank you for the support.

dbgamer.3407:

Not sure I agree – thieves get dual daggers.. which is kind of the staple weapon for that type of class. Aside from a bow, dual swords just seems to make sense for Rangers.

I run thief, ranger, warrior (geared in that order) and I agree, dual dagger seems fitting for ranger. But for how thief mechanics work, I think dual swords for them before ranger is necessary. They are “nasty” fighters and considering how weak sword is atm for thieves it seems more important to me. Dont get me wrong, ranger needs better off-hand (and 1h main hand tbh) weapons.

woah ,woah, woah, ….. woah.

Before ranger gets off-hand sword, give it to theif. Thematically thief should of had dual swords at the start. Sword main hand is plain odd and offers nothing really useful other than to be an annoyance (I 1v1 a sword/pistol thief before, god aweful. They do nothing but stun with 500dmg and think they’re “effective”)

/signed. I really wish I could compare my 2 builds to one another but aside from “thinking” one is superior, I don’t know for sure.

dbgamer.3407:

why shouldn’t players who work towards something be rewarded?

Like I said, I’m not talking about a large difference, but players who spend more time in dungeons etc. already have access to better gear, so why shouldn’t there be another tier?

They are rewarded, with a really nice skin. Thats how guild wars is, your time invested won’t make you statistically better than anyone ,it’ll just make you look “way cooler” than them. One thing anet has done well is removed the need for an endless gear treadmill that results in a grind that blows your mind away. At first, I was on the same page that legendaries should be stronger. But since release and only a couple of months after that, I realized how much better grinding for skins are than grinding for stats. Legendary aquisition is imo horribly done, but the stats it offers are spot on and shouldn’t be adjusted in any way.

Map 2: The Deep Waters
Theme: Large open waters, taking place on boats. In risen territory, the boats above have no clue when to expect an attack.

Mechanics(Offensive): Stop the boat from reaching its destination. As a risen, you must decide when to emerge from the water and strike the enemy with your team split into 2 risen boats. When you emerge(all memebers on your boat must put a check mark up and in 10 seconds the majority vote wins), you have 15 seconds until you are within range to jump to the other ship and board it. When aboard, you must destroy 3 key points with orrian saplings (explosives) that you just use the action button (default F) to plant in 5 seconds(damage doesn’t interupt planting; takes 8 explosives to destroy each key point). The 3 key points are the mast, the wheel, and the supplie crates below. Once all 3 are gone, the offensive team wins. If you die, you can respawn on your risen boat. If your boat is dead, you must sit in queue for another risen boat to appear (1 minute after your boat dies).

Mechanics(defensive): Your team must keep the boat alive until it reaches it’s destination. There are cannons on the poop deck which can be used to sink the risen boats. The cannons are incapable of sinking the boat in 15 seconds but if fired constantly, can sink it in ~20 seconds stopping their spawn pool from that boat. Your spawn pool is on the bow (front) or the stern(back). Cannons cannot be destroyed however you must locate a pile of cannon balls to load the cannon (5 shots). Ally players not on the cannons can locate them and drop them near you if needed. After a time limit(5 minutes), if your boat is alive still, you win. Then the teams switch roles.

If both teams lose or both teams win on the defensive, a sudden death starts and both ships start within boarding distance. Jump aboard or defence (no cannons) and eliminate the enemy (no respawn). The team that comes out on top wins.

One thing that has bugged me about pvp, game modes specifically, is the limits on it. There are side objectives inside of conquest so not all maps are the exact same, but that can only go so far. Tdm asks for too much zerg and also limits many professions who arn’t as good as others in dueling. So, how about we take something from wvw and apply it to a new spvp game mode. I’m talking about, transport.

Map 1: The Frozen lake
Theme: Large frozen lake in the middle of a forest. While inside the forest, the screen is much darger and winds breeze through. While near the lake, the darkness goes away but thick snow blinds visibility to only a couple yards.

==Mechanics(offensive): Your goal is to stop any yaks from making it to the destination marks. You will not know where those marks are, so you must spread out and look for the defending team’s transport. You will need to kill the yak to stop it and force the other group to either revive the yak or if you stall long enough to reset at their spawn. Yak’s will respawn at the spawn pool after being downed for 20 seconds. Rally skills work and the yak has high health and toughness so watch out (it doesn’t attack though)

==Mechanics(defensive): First you start the yak up by using your action button (default F) to take it from the pen and removing it’s invulnerability. Then you must escort yaks to the destination points which are scattered across the map. The yak is “unstoppable” meaning it cannot be slowed knocked down/back or any cc skills(yak is unaffected by stealth). Through either the forest or risking the lake, you must get the most yaks to their spots in the time limit. Players press their action key (default F) to make the yak follow them. If the player the yak is following dies, it will stand still until another player commands it. The yak can be granted boons and healed but being an npc, will not use any portals near it. When the time limit is reached, both teams switch roles.

If there is a tie, a sudden death is started and 1 team at random is selected to escort 1 yak to a destination spot to determine the winner. Killing the yak in this sudden death means victory for the offensive.

Mechanics (Map): Various holes in the lake provide access underneath. In the water, players can set up an ambush (offensive) or scout underwater (defensive) to prevent an ambush. While on top of the lake, your visibility is limited and holding alt will only show enemies up to 1500 units away (out of stealth) but you can see to about 1800 units if you have a careful eye. In the forest however, there are bushes that provide stealth while inside(yaks do not gain stealth). If an enemy enters the same bush, you leave the bush, or you attack from the bush the stealth is immediatly removed and cannot be reapplied until out of combat. The idea is to set up an ambush or watch point. While out of combat, you can enter and re-enter bush stealth however many times you want but leaving will remove it still

Phadde.7362:

The fact that getting one teammate killed is devastating for the chance to win is very true, which makes it so vital to avoid that! This adds tension and makes it more difficult.

The advantage in mobility should be balanced out for the one that wields the flag. You won’t be able to use Ride the Lightning while wielding the flag, because you shouldn’t be able to.

Thats the skill the anet moderator talked about. Also any invulnerability skills will drop the orb as well in the upcoming patch. Don’t know anything else on this but thats what they said.

I agree, we need more game modes, but not tdm.

Tdm is all about, kill the enemy. Simple enough. But there has to be a side objective. Think about this, since each team will no doubtedly know to stick together, they will engauage in a lets say 5v5 brawl. Pretty epic, and can change in the blink of an eye. Now lets say team A killed a memeber of team B. Now its 5v4 with team a having a much larger advantage because 20% of team B’s effectiveness (just example) got cut out so it is likly team A will just wipe the rest of team B out unless some memebrs of team B stealth away.

If there are no side objectives, people won’t split up and every encounter would end in a wipe. Tdm alone doesn’t work well because people are likly to group and zerg (as many already do in solo queue). Ctf is difficult right now because many people have a clear advantage over others with their mobility and spirit watch is getting adjustments with the orb already (the post is somewhere on the first few pages of this sub-forum). Idk what kinda of game modes aside from something bomb related that can be added, but I don’t see tdm working out well.

The safe spots are quite annoying. You would think the highest source of dps coming from its paw would make the dragon turn and smack them away but it doesn’t. The Shatterer is I think a great example. If you stand in front of it with ranged weapons (I have couple times) it is quite difficult staying alive. It shoots out several high dmg aoes summons minions and swipes at it. It actually feels like an epic fight with how dangerous up front can be. The side however you avoid 1 move every 10 or so seconds it feels like. Very easy.

It wouldn’t be fair to those who don’t care for the grind. Many people simply don’t want a legendary (don’t like the current styles) or simply can’t get a legendary (takes time and/or getting the precursor is very random). A large population would be “weaker” because those who got lucky will have an exclusive stat bonus over their heads. Worst case scenario some elitists come around and start posting things like “Only warriors and mesmers with legendary weapons” and now your cutting off thousands who don’t fill that criteria.

I remember an anet employee talking how when ascended weapons are released, legendaries will get a bump in stats to match them. That would only be to make legendaries relevant when made although many probably still transmute them for the stat grouping but aside from that, legendaries are a cosmetic item. A very detailed (some more than others) cosmetic item.

DeWolfe.2174:

For the Lore argument, may I add, so someone came up with crudy Lore. You do not have to keep doubling down on it. If a large numbers of customers want something, you give it to them. Or suffer the consequences when someone else does.

If you like GW2 and want it to t last, making it fun and rewarding should be a top priority. If people want mounts, let’s have mounts. For mounts flying up to the VP’s, why not? It’s easy is not an argument. Because there’s nothing wrong with easy!!!!! Especially if it Feels good as you soar up to it on your flying mount.

This is a game. Feeling good and having a great immersive experience should come first. This game lacks in having that….. Especially for an RPG!

See, its things like that that are the reason mount posts are just a futile arguement and shouldn’t be added or discussed. The whole reason of “no to mounts” is because A. it isn’t necessary with asura gates and wp and B. because it makes content even less relevant. Not even sure if your post is to be taken serious…

Do people who want a mount really wana walk from Wayfarer Foothills to the shatterer or jungle wurm? Doubt it because assuming mounts were added, you would soon realize how often you miss things because you were too slow compared to those who just wp’ed. Wp I agree, take away. Especially because there is soo kitten many of them in almost every nook and cranny in every map. Doesn’t mean we should get some furry animal to ride around, should just remove many of the wp. IF you really want the scenic route, to acomplish this one can put on a method of perma movement speed bonus and run. You will be quick, and soak in all the visually stunning places on the way. Why would a mount be any different?

oh, because people want it to grant more movement speed than a player. Thats where I disagree whole heartedly, because now you’re making mounts a necessity not a cosmetic like town clothes. Wp in wvw arn’t that many, and if you add an exclusive bonus like a mount to them again I’ve already said this..

Sure, ground mounts can be added as an aesthetic but nothing more. Also no flying mounts because vistas and overall terrain would be flat out pointless if you can soar over/to them. How would wvw be fair if you could fly over the keep and rain kittens over them? On video it would be hilarious but the forums would explode with “the removal of flying mounts”.

(and the picture is the most kitten arguement ever. Throwing a refuge fleeing scene under the bus? If anything they are riding the doylaks because they are injured and can’t walk well as you can see in wayfarer foothills many of them are limping).

Devata.6589:

“Mounts simply don’t fit lore” How do they not fit the lore? Not having mounts does not fit the lore. There are horse carriages but no horses (mounts), there are dolyaks that are being used to transport material but nobody uses it to ride on? There is a submarine in the game, the Charr build bad-mobiles that are parked in their main city, there are helicopters in the game, there are zeppelins in the game, there is a Moa racer in the game. It would fit the lore if people then also can mount. It makes no sense for the lore that you have all those thinks but nobody would be able to use them / mount.

What does not fit the lore are mini soldiers. But mounts do fit the lore.

About the end-game, minis would be end-game if you could earn them in the game. Now they are gem-items and gem-items are extra’s, not end-game.

About the broom. Thats no mount it is just a fun item? Just because you are sitting on it and it does move you does not make it a mount? Lol, oke then I think I can make a deal between you and the people who want mounts. Those people do not get mounts, they just get a nice item, machine, pet they can sit on and that can move them. Just with a little speed-boost to make it extra fun. No mounts, just horses they can ride on and so on.

BTW I have the signet equipped and in addition use the speed-boost from he warhorn all the time. So what would be the problem of having that speed-boost (maybe even 1% faster) while sitting on a mount that indeed totally does fit the lore?

Minis can be bought with laurels, which are in-game (some not all) as can some minis be made during holidays (toy ______) so…..

Helicopters? those arn’t mounts those are vehicles. What people call mount is usually an animal of some sort and I hardly call a machine “living”.

They don’t fit lore, because no one ever rides them (npc’s). You don’t see a cutscene with them riding one, you don’t see them in town or in the world riding them. They are always along side the “mount” so no, they don’t fit lore. Theoretically, could someone jump on the back of a doylak and ride it around? Sure if the game mechanics allowed that option. Does it happen? No. Why? Because there is no need with the recently introduced asuran gates and caravans/escorts seem more appropriate when the escorted is defending their transport, not sitting on its back waiting in hopes that some random player(s) will join them and fend off the ambush.

And even .0001% movement bonus is more than 0%. Running a zerg with group swiftness is working fine and takes coordination if you don’t want the zerg slipping further back. Add mounts and suddenly some people have a hard time keeping up. Whats your excuse for those people then? They should just get a mount to keep up? No. Aesthetics are fine because it just lets you look cool/funny. Exclusive bonuses aren’t fair to those who don’t have the time/money to invest to get them. This is a casual mmo for the most part being that time invested won’t statistically make you superior to others. Whether you have a Pearl broadsword or a twilight, the weapon damage is the same but the twilight sure looks nice. Do legendaries grant any stat bonus? Nope. Neither should “mounts” if added.

Shootsfoot.9276:

Devata.6589:

Doomguard.5094:

Mounts should be like the flying broom is now, no extra speed and no available skills. Purely cosmetic.

Why no speed boost? Not on a mount in city’s you can have a permanent speedboost because you can get boost every few meters and outside of a city you also have a lot of options to get speed boost and then what is the problem if the speed boost of a mount would be a little faster then you now have with the available speed-boost?

I don’t get the problem.

During the beta I did see people saying it would be possible to skip content and that it would decrease the world-size but waypoints do that even more.

And about the people saying that mounts should have no speed-boost.. Somehow I have the feeling that where the same people (or at least a lot of them) that use to say there should be no mounts at all.

About the flying mounts. I don’t think we will see those anytime soon because of the way the game is build. All maps are instances and you should need to get rid of that when introducing flying mounts. I don’t say they will never do that but it’s a big thing. Looking at the lore flying mounts would make a lot of sense with the choppers flaying around, the zeppelins and of course the dragons.

“Make it a Gem Store purchase with some mounts as a rare/holiday/event drop.”
But if they introduce them please DOT NOT make them only Gem Store purchase. For a lot of people collecting mounts and mini’s is end-content buy buying them from a gem-store does take that away. It’s no problem if some mounts are in the gem-store but most should be available in the game.

WoW having something in the game makes it an automatic “No!” in this game to a lot of people due to some irrational fear that it automatically makes GW2 a WoW clone and spawns elitism, as if it isn’t already rampant in this game anyway.

As I’ve said before, having mounts as rewards for achievements, random drops, and gem store purchases would make a ton of money for Anet.

I really dislike this waypoint system. Just being able to click on a map and go to a waypoint from anywhere in the world makes no sense in the game at all.

WoW isn’t/wasn’t the only game with mounts. Many games have mounts.

Mounts simply don’t fit lore, and anet breaking lore doesn’t make them “different” it just makes them irresponsible. The broom was hardly a start to mounts, they wanted to put out some fun town clothes and they succeeded. Just because the broom is between your legs and it moves doesn’t mean its a “mount” as other mmos have used. It is a town clothing item and offers nothing but looks which btw, is what end-game for gw is about. Looking you’re best and showing off any acheivments you got (titles, achivement points, minis). If you want a speed boost, equip that signet of yours or find something with perma swiftness. Outside of that, just dance in LA like every other person who thinks mounts are necessary does.

I’m fine with mounts, but if they start releasing mounts and LA just gets cluttered with people who have absolutly nothing better to do than shove their doylak’s behind in your face while your trying to click the tp npc, then I demand an elephant gun to gun them down and put their “mount” on a 48 hour cooldown.

Also they deserve absolutly nothing but for looks, like the broom. It isn’t a speed buff, it doesn’t allow you to dodge on it, it’s just to look “funny” or entertain some people in game. Town clothes serve the purpose of looking strange, so mounts can fill that spot but no speed buff, no over-sized animals, nothing but simple stuff that also fit lore. Come to think of it, I don’t ever see any npc of any kind mount anything but a machine… Asurans hopping inside a golem doesnt count, norns walk along side their doylaks, charr are the mount, humans just run (logan joke, HA!), and sylvari are too in tune with nature to consider enslaving any animal for a “mount”. Don’t really see mounts fitting lore…

And devata, the point of no speed bonus is there to not make mounts a necessity. If you had an actual bonus from a mount, wvw would drastically change as the few who have time or money to get a mount would suddenly be trampling the mists and the rest would be left behind in the dust. Wp do take away from content, but keep in mind you had to go there on foot to get to that wp at 1 time didn’t you? If you had a mount with a speed boost you could run past mobs faster than before and just run through poi/wp/events and finish maps in a fraction of the time. In open worlds where there is tons to explore, mounts work. With how small and closed off zones are, there is already too little to really explore aside from looking for the hidden jp here and there.

If you wana ride a doylak with no speed buffs and get kicked off at the first hint of any damage just so you can look “cool” for a couple of seconds then w/e. But big kitten no to any speed buff from any “mounts”.

I think if anything, you should be immune to blind while downed. That or make every profession have some viable downed skill that doesn’t rely on a slow, predictable attack that can easily be dodged/ignored.

And you can be cc(expect vapor form, because it’s kitten) Ever launch a downed player away from their ally who was ressing them? It’s elegant and hilarious you can play some orchestra music in the background and create a video.

out of combat like gear swap yes. BUt in combat trait swap? That would just turn ele from a nuke to a solid block of concrete explosives. Traits are supposed to be unique and define your build internally, allowing trait swap in-combat just defeats the purpose.

Work on profession balance in wvw and pvp :)

The idea behind the Claw Of Jormag event was just brilliant. The massive beast swoops across the sky causing mayhem and although not much, the fight takes place in 2 different spots. To some extent they should share this mechanic with some other boss fights. Same with behemoth where it’s pre-events start all over Queensdale actually feeling like a “world event”.

Shatterer could be in various spots along the brand and start pre-events to push back invading branded or have part of the fight where it flies into the sky and you must destroy the large swarms of branded (contesting the wp nearby so you must actualy run) but not making it a full trek across the map.

Also you shouldn’t be able to blind any of the dragons. They attack slow, and it is very easy to put a blind on them. For how large they are, you honestly should always have to dodge its attacks.

Elites are supposed to be (not all are, take a look at basilik venom or signet of rage) tide turners. You’re only supposed to use them in a desperate situation and something like rampage fills that criteria. I honestly don’t think rampage is at all weak, but I do agree the 3 minute cooldown is a bit much. 26 seconds is plenty, but atleast 150 cd would be a smart step. Rampage isn’t about killing the enemy through dd, its about surviving and crowd controlling large groups and/or taking a point/objective.

Racial elites are very different since they are more cosmetic than a bonus. Regardless, a 4 minute cooldown on something that ALSO deals just about nothing and requires you to stand still for each attack is very disatisfying (don’t even mention human elites). A mix of better improving the current elites along with adding new ones to fill the shoes of those who don’t see the current elite’s viable for their build would do some good. Even with buffs/adjustments, some elite skills simply don’t fit some builds (excluding racials since those can be on any profession).

P.S. I really, REALLY wish they brought back capturing of elite skills. I don’t care to get 10-30 levels or sp and simply purchase an elite skill. I miss the adventure gw1 elites brought where you had to find a unique boss (some had more than 1 source) to learn said elite. Too late for that however unless they add more ; ;

Falling to your death is you’re own fault. Falling damage is entirely avoidable, you should have to know the enviroment you’re fighting it. Some classes can take more advantage of this such as necro or warrior but thats the game. If someone can actually force you to fall to your death then they outplayed you most likely, nothing wrong with that. Plus it adds stategic initiations to those who think ahead and strays away from the dull circle face off many people try or the pathetic “insta-gib” encounters where you just turn around and melt their face off for being a kitten.

Without food buffs, or banner buffs, or any outside buff for that matter, I can get 106% crit dmg on my thief. Thats with eagle runes too and not ruby orbs which would bump it to 110% I believe.

No there is no cap to crit dmg % except for how much gear holds.

And crit dmg base is 50% bonus dmg. So you don’t take 100 and add 150% of 100, you just take 150% of 100 which is 150 dmg with a crit and no crit dmg. If you have 100% crit dmg and you crit the 100 turns to 250 then.

Runiir.6425:

Kal, you hit it on the head and here is another thing I have noticed on my own ranger time and time again…even if your pet is dead and you go down…your dead and untargetable pet cans till revive you with number 3 down skill.

Who else gets an unkillable, unstopable revive?

Finishing them off? Everyone can do that. Most downed states are extremely predicatable and with little practice you can down anyone with little work.

1. Start finsihing move. Enemy notices it.

2. Enemy is likely to use a teleport/cc ability to stop you. So dodge

3. Resume finishing.

4. Enemy dead.

Ranger can only Aoe daze (assuming they arn’t blinded which is plain broken. Should remove blind on downed people) After they waste that its another few seconds b4 they can start that invulnerable revive which unless their underwater isn’t actually invulnerable. Ranger pet being bound is w/e. The pet however is such a large part of range that it should bring more to the table than being something you have to take care of. It should take care of itself to some degree and allow the ranger to either focus their own dps or survivability.

It’s not about nerfs, its about adjustments. I agree, without d/d or s/d or w/e the ele is very weak in terms of staying alive and dealing great damage and/or support. Its no one’s fault that d/x or s/x is strong, but thats not to say it is fair to other professions.

Take into account how well a d/x s/x can burst people (and yes, s/x is extremely predictable and you have to be brain dead to get hit by dt). It is comparable to a thief in full power/crit damage gear yet they can spec through traits to outlive a necro if they master that build. Buffing everyone to have 1 build comparable to a d/x or s/x ele would just lead to non sense exploding fights like d3 and that isn’t exciting or entertaining to those who want a challenge or variety.

At this point, a mix of nerfs + buffs is what is needed imo. There needs to be adjustments to the “over used” builds as well as adjustments to the “useless” builds and skills. Biggest problem is, they occur once a month. Why? Probably because there is a lot on the table for ArenaNet to work on and expecting weekly patches isn’t a good use of their resources (a dev once said, when a patch is released it affects the whole team. Hotfixes are only made when an issue needs to be addressed immediatly like a exploit or serious bug). Truthfully, I think it’d be nice to see bi-weekly pvp balance patches but then pve and wvw users will be upset that they don’t get that kind of attention (not calling them whiners, its just how things work) and anet is getting their limbs yanked in various directions that even a spider can’t work with.

As it stands, through guild missions and wxp there is plenty to do but some others may want more so pvp will never get the full attention it deserves unfortuantly (which is the core of profession balance imo). Can only wait patiently by their side.

Kunshu.5281:

Was reading through this forum and don’t really have anything to add, but the Order of Whispers pistol has a suppressor attached to it. :P

Yes, but it doesn’t silence the shot unfortunatly. Would be neat if it did but still no true silencer for a thief to use (or engineer if they want).

Kaimick.5109:

Personally unless your specing into making your pet stronger through traits, I don’t see why your so upset at the pets. Yes they need work I agree, pets have a bland taste to them. Although if your not worried or hate your pet let it die ignore it. If your not specing into buffing your pet then the pet doesn’t have that great of an effect on you.

Personally I agree with Runnir, Rangers are built with the pet, I get you like the ranger, but in Guild Wars the rangers had pets also, and they were not really all that beefy there either. In my opinion Pets are stronger in utility in Guild Wars 2 than they were in Guild Wars.

That’s the problem though. If you ignore the pet, even when not spec into them, you get weaker. They are a large part of the dps that ranger’s have and unless you keep them alive (best done through utility/traits) your effectivness in combat is much lower than other professions. That mixed with ranger having no blast finisher makes them fairly weak for groups. They can try to support dmg with the pet alive, or they can try to throw out weak little boons at people but they can’t criss cross those in any way (been suggested too many times; make maul a blast finsiher!). Spec into spirits is just a waste, they die way to quick and simply don’t bring enough to the table to take up a utility slot unless you’re on an invulnerable ledge.

KStudios.2850:

Runiir.6425:

It honestly feels like most people who hate or claim the pet is a debuff just are not cut out to play a pet class. Are the pets perfect? No. They SHOULD require some micro management, they should not be this perfect ai you don’t have to maintain. This is the class mechanic, if you don’t like micro managing a pet, don’t play a pet class.

Then get it off my favorite profession by making it optional! If I wanted to babysit I’d start a guild… I get so utterly sick of the “well this is the way it is” argument. I’m glad you guys are willing to accept being shackled to mediocrity as a class. I am not. I LOVE the ranger. I love the concept of ranger. My main in the original GW was guess what? A ranger. Back when I had the choice to just ungimp myself and lose the fleabag entirely. It sickens me that we’re not even living up to the standards of the same profession in the prequel to this game, when we should be surpassing it. I’ve pushed the class literally as far as it can go, and am unimpressed. .

Same :/

I enjoy ranger weapon and utility skills but lets face it, the pet is too large or a part of the ranger. If the damage output it had was adjustable to either let you or it have the large® portion of the dps then I’d be fine. But like op said, does a warrior with no adrenaline get weaker? not so much. Does a mesmer get weaker with no clones? not really, unless they spec’ed into their clones being their main dps which idk if thats entirely effective. Is a ranger weaker when it’s pet dies and/or can’t hit the target because it attacks too slow? YES!

Pets are strong if you spec into them (bm), if you don’t your ranger is near useless. Such a large crutch, GW1 ranger was soo much fun with the different kinds that could be made. Whoever said a ranger can’t run without a pet? I don’t see it written in stone anywhere..

This isn’t about difficulty managing a pet, many people have no issues micro managing. It’s about the pet being the such a large part of damage and its inability to survive well unless you take up utility skills and pet swap immediately. But when you pet swap to a melee pet said pet needs to return to the enemy and right there is a few seconds of lost dps. Also most pet skills are extremely slow and easy to spot (arctodus or drake breaths). If some people enjoy the bm builds, thats fine. No reason to hate someone who enjoys something for what it is. I don’t mind the pet being there, but I do mind that if it is dead/I choose to ignore it I end up losing my overall effectiveness in battle. I made a post like this awhile back on ideas of how to fix the A.I of the pet with player set options

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/suggestions/Ranger-Held-back-by-pet/first#post1733809

Guardian

Empower Virtues: Recharge all virtues and in the next 6 seconds, you can cast each virtue up to 2 times (2nd cast becomes unavailible after 6 seconds. Cd 240 seconds.

Engineer

Guided Missle: Pull out a 1 time shot rocket shot. Upon contact with an enemy, a structure, or after its full distance traveled it explodes launching foes back and burning them.
Blowout- 450
Range- 1200
(Units covered): 1200 units in 1 second.
Burn- 3 seconds
Explosion Radius- 200 units
Cooldown 90 seconds.
Max targets- 5

Aside from orb balance, will there be other class balance in the april patch? Don’t need specifics but a little light at the end of the tunnel would really help pvp players at this point. It’s felt like
some professions could really use some more viable builds and some builds need tweaking for awhile now.

Anatolian Turk.4057:

NinjaEd.3946:

Elementalist
Orb Of Energy: Turn into a targetable ball of energy replacing your health pool. If you survive for the next 5 seconds, erupt dealing heavy damage, blinding foes, and returning to your old life pool. Additionally recharge all weapon skills. No skills or actions can be taken inside in this form (you can only move around). Dieing with the orb active returns you to your old health pool and puts all weapon skills and attunements on a +2 second cooldown. Orb health is equal to your max health. Cooldown 240 seconds. Combo Finisher: Blast. -W

Just remove all elites skills on eles i rather use one extra utility skill than an elite skill.

That wouldn’t happen and here’s why.

Elite skills are supposed to be “oh no, turn tide I must. Morph into giant beast I will”. The current balance, although not that great (lets be honest) is centered around everyone having 1 healing, 3 utilities, and 1 elite skill. If you suddenly allowed 1 healing 4 utility, think of how many builds could become ridiculously overpowered? They have it this way for the opportunity costs and to make players think of their build. Problem is, not many elites are useful and several elites serve no purpose at all but to look flashy and die shortly after.

That is why I made this thread. They may not be taken, or ever discussed on a table in ArenaNet’s Offices, but it sure beats trashing their system because of a few skills that come around once every 90+ seconds. Feels like the current elite skills need to be adjusted (as the thread is made for) and the room for some others to fulfill all builds profession X can make (also what the thread is for).

Ofc number values arn’t any part really, they can be adjusted at any time. Just throwing ideas at a wall of text to see what feels right. Truth be told I want ele to be deleted but it wouldn’t be right to ignore their need for better elite skills or elite skills that are more useful that the current ones.

Me too, I wished when they opend up Southsun Cove it was an actual boat ride there (the first time) and then you go around unlocking wp. I dont mind the wp system but I do think boat rides in certain cases are necessary and open up new content. Teleporting around only feels normal using the asuran gates but not to get from Metricia Province to Blazeridge steppes in a click.

I’ve been thinking of some new elite skills per profession for some time now (no one asked, I just enjoy brainstorming ^^). There have been numerous posts regarding replacing the elite skill with the option of another utility. There have also been numerous suggestions to either “just change some elites” or “nerf them” or in great detail of what they think should change about a certain elite skill. Well, feel free to post those things here but do so with a valid reason (so no because," It’s op"). (-W means unusable underwater, +W means usable underwater)

Warrior
Blood Rage stance: For the next 8 seconds, your attacks steal a small amount of life(not added dmg, portion of your damage is turned to healing)but you consume life each swing. Multi hit skills are half as effective. If you miss, you will lose health but hitting will grant much more health than consumed. This is meant to be a counter to the stance. Missing only consumes half the health cost per swing on multi hit skills. Cd 120 seconds. +W -Stance-

Guardian
Staff of Guidance: Summon an arcane staff to defend you. Command the staff to release a foe fire storm at your target’s location and release a fire torrent at it’s location. This destroy’s the staff. Attacks once every 5 seconds with an aoe foe fire ball that leaves behind a small fire field for 2 seconds. Causes burning for 2 seconds. +W

Ranger
Vine wrapped arrow: Your next arrow based attack will cause vulnerability, and immobilize. Cooldown 45 -W seconds.
Vulnerability (5) for 10 seconds
Immobiize for 2 seconds

Engineer
Experimental Jetpack: Dash forward, launching foes you come into contact with and granting you swiftness afterwards. Blowout 400 units. Swiftness duration 20 seconds. Dash distance 600 units. Cast time 1 second, 1.5 seconds to cover 600 units.Cooldown 150 seconds. +W

Thief
Art of Stealth: Throw down a large smoke bomb that grants stealth to allies for 10 seconds. Smoke bomb radius 450 units. Stealths up to 10 targets including yourself. Smoke field lasts 3 seconds. Cooldown 120 seconds. Combo Field: Smoke +W

Elementalist
Orb Of Energy: Turn into a targetable ball of energy replacing your health pool. If you survive for the next 5 seconds, erupt dealing heavy damage, blinding foes, and returning to your old life pool. Additionally recharge all weapon skills. No skills or actions can be taken inside in this form (you can only move around). Dieing with the orb active returns you to your old health pool and puts all weapon skills and attunements on a +2 second cooldown. Orb health is equal to your max health. Cooldown 240 seconds. Combo Finisher: Blast. -W

Mesmer
Signet of Despair:
(Passive) When you are affected by confusion, apply confusion on hit to foes. (1 stack for 5 seconds.)
(Active) Teleport onto your foe and gain an etheral aura. Cooldown 60 seconds. +W

Necromancer
Touch of the Dead: Grasp your foe and transfer conditions to them, and steal boons. Charge up for 1.75 seconds. Channel for 2 seconds. Transfer all conditions the first second, and rip all boons a second after (so can be interupted). Range 180 units. Cooldown 150 seconds. -W

(Side changes)
Mortar: Fix the trait that increases mortar range (Elite Supplies) to actually increase the range. Additionally reduce cd of mortar from 120 to 90 (reduce mortar duration so one cannot summon 2 mortars).

Signet of the Wild: reduce the cooldown to 60 seconds. Too much of a loss for using the active currently.

Artillery strike: Increase range to 900 units. Increase damage to scale off power more efficiently and deal double damage to structures.

Power Suit: Seperate life bar. Once killed, shoot out and become stunned for 2 seconds.

Avatar of Melandru: Increase duration to 30 seconds and grant increased healing power. If it can’t deal damage atleast let it heal a small amount.

Hounds of Balthazar: Leave behind a fire field for 3 seconds when killed.

Become the Bear/Wolf/Raven: Allow movement while attacking.

Dual.8953:

The game isn’t all about dps. Utility, support and control can be equally if not more useful, when facing adverse conditions. Eles, Guardians and Mesmers wouldn’t be where they are if it was all about DPS. So no, a DPS meter isn’t needed, and it would have a potentially toxic effect on the playerbase. It’d only serve to overly simplify player’s understanding of combat in GW2, causing them to disregard many of its finer points.

Dps meter isn’t about your effictivness in combat, it’s just a reference for people to compare 1 build of theirs to another. a damage taken meter would be the same thing, it comes down to dungeon mechanics. These meters just help you get a value to compare with rather than a feel. If I saw a thief enter my party and they had X amount lower dps than me (lets just say x is much lower than my y ) I wouldn’t say, “gt**”. I would let the dungeon go on and also make sure said thief knows the dungeon path. If they can live and continue damaging the enemy who cares what armor/dps they have?

Chrispytoast.3698:

Runiir.6425:

If you think GW1 skills were balanced you are living in a pipe dream, there is a reason so many builds were complete trash in GW1…

Yes you could make a build that was absolutely horrible or one that worked well. The point is you got to try things out. For free. You didn’t have to pay to have your traits re-speced so you could try out a straight damage build, a condition damage build, a 55 monk.

Most skills didn’t get used. But ANet tried very hard to make it so that at least in PvP builds were balanced. Utility skills take over some of your skills so you do not have all attack skills. Most utility skills don’t get used though.

I use my utility skills very often.

But still, I agree more freedom was enjoyable. But with how many skills there are atm that are already useless, some utility/healing/elite skills should imo be redone. Weapon skills are meh, the idea is a skill kit you use for X situation. The only thing that sounds intriguing is the option of different chains for melee weapons.

1 thing that amases me is that people assume thieves are “unkillable” because they can burst them down immediatly.

In order for a thief to burst someone down “in 3-4 hits” they need to get berserker’s set because without it their crit chance isn’t high enough which is what they rely on for good burst (and the little crit dmg helps. Remember crit is 50% more damage. If you’re not critting often, crit dmg means next to nothing). With that chuck full of info said, think about how weak their defences are? Thieves don’t get protection, they don’t get good regen, they don’t get retaliation, they only have stealth which just removes targeting them. Pop an aoe or a channel skill like rapid fire and watch them die slowly and laugh. Same with condition builds because good condition builds will destroy thieves that think they can just run away in stealth.

Thieves are extremely easy to counter, and if you’re kitten enough to run berserker’s on a low hp pool or light armor profession then thats the risk you take for going up against 1 of the best burst profesions. HS thieves? They can try, I mean I run rampager’s ranger and I killed 1 without him even hitting me for more than 4k because I know my profession. I’m not even spec’ed to survive burst with a immunity skill or anything, I just know how to avoid generic bursts like HS. You should seriously ask people how to counter things, or practice some more. Don’t think for a second thieves are “too strong” when the majority of the community is aware of how weak they are (I say major because people in game shout out and in forums they are constantly shutting posts like these down with “L2p, signed”. It isn’t an opinion, many people know thief is weak)

The only build thief can run that can’t really be countered is s/p but they don’t kill you. They just annoy the kitten out of you. If they can’t kill you then what have the accomplished? Nothing. Just move on or await an ally to join in and kill them in a couple seconds. They won’t do any damage to you, they just pretend that pistol whi kitten trong and laugh as they hop around doing 1-2k.

Because there is only 1 real counter to a good bunker ele. Strict power from a high burst profession. Otherwise, they go invulnerable in rtl or mistform and then burst you down faster than a you can say “whaa….?”.

If mist form and rtl were affected by cripple/chill then I’d be fine but for how effective these 2 skills are and the fact that EVERY ele in pvp uses them is getting annoying and repetitive. I see very few varieties of professions but ele has to be the most blan ever. Ranger probably up there with them tbh but not nearly as bad. Either new weapon selection or adjust 1 of 2 things (not both).

Their survivability (mostly trait related)

or their burst (mostly skill kit related)

They should have to spec in 1 of these to get said build, not get the best of both worlds in that kitten disease build that every ele runs. Good bunker ele will negate any condition build out there except another bunker ele of the same skill but that just ends in a draw most likely. Like I’ve said b4 they are hard to master, I see some horrendous bunker eles. But the good ones are literally unkillable 1v1 once mastered.