I’m surprised how little people seem to be talking about wrath of justice especially given all the bellyaching going on about the loss of glacial heart. Adding immob to your next attack with an instant cast is incredibly useful. It’s like panic strikes from thief but you can actually control when it goes off.
I can definitely see the use of Wrath of Justice in PvP. Although for now I am going to be skeptical about the internal cooldown of this trait. They didn’t show the ICD, did they? In some situations, without ICD, you could even get multiple immobilizes in combination with Renewed Focus, Renewed Justice, scepter’s Chain’s of Light and the signet. That’s a lot of hard CC there.
I don’t think the builds are going to change that much. We see a lot of different traits incorporated together which means we have more trait points left to diversify. This is a good step in the right direction. The main builds will still be very similar though.
Some grandmaster traits are really disappointing. Especially the utility group traits such as Spirit Weapons and Inscriptions are not grandmaster worthy and should be moved down towards Master or have something significant added to them.
PvE
PvE is still going to be all about damage and utility. 6 / 6 / 0 / 0 / 6 looks ideal with greatsword/sword+torch. Traits like Symbolic Avenger, Right-Hand Strength, Radiant Fire/Retribution, Radiant Power and Indomitable Courage are must-have traits. Also torch might become more dominant now with changes to burning.
PvP
6 / 0 / 6 / 0 / 6 or 0 / 6 / 6 / 0 / 6 for a DPS guardian with hammer/scepter+focus. Now that Monk’s Focus puts all traits into one it will leave room for other traits. Retaliation is getting buffed with virtue of retribution and burning might play a more important role in the build due to stacking intensity instead of duration. Virtuous Mallet looks kind of displaced right now though so I don’t think it will be used anymore as it competes with Absolute Resolution.
0 / 0 / 6 / 6 / 6 for bunker guard with hammer/staff or mace+focus. Mace/focus looks more interesting now as mace receives more healing power bonus (up to 500) and focus gets protection. Shield still looks weak. Writ of persistence is stronger now with the other two traits incorporated. Retaliatory Subconscious gives aegis and indomitable courage breaks stun, two nice traits I will definitely be using when I bunker.
WvW
0 / 0 / 6 / 6 / 6 for zergs. Honorable Staff, Pure of Voice and Indomitable Courage are all necessary in group play.
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Virtuous Mallet trait fits best in the Honor tree. That’s where the other most used hammer trait is: Writ of Persistence. Although I wouldn’t mind if it stays in the Valor specialization where it is currently being used in the PvP guardian meta together with meditations.
There’s two things unclear to me though. What’s the reason for replacing Chill with Slow? Is there something we don’t know yet about the new elite specialization? Also what’s the thought behind putting this trait into the virtues specialization when the link between Virtuous Mallet and virtues is non-existent. It is doing exactly the opposite of a virtue. I would rename the trait “Vicious Mallet”.
TL;DR: I think ANet has some ironing out to do with logically categorizing the guardian traits to the right specializations.
Let’s not forget that things are changing still. Of course ANet is going to adjust how many stacks of burning each one of these applications will do. It’s not going to stay at 1 stack as it is now. It’s going to be about equal to the current duration. However, if we look at team fights this change is going to put us in a better position.
With the new specializations we will have the following burning applications:
Skills
- Zealot’s flame
- Purging flames
- Judge’s intervention
- Virtue of justice
Traits
- Symbolic power
- Radiant fire
- Amplified Wrath
Let’s not even forget about combo finishers and other ways to receive more burning. I think we shouldn’t worry too much for now.
It’s a tough decision and I understand now why ANet has not decided yet on how to categorize healing breeze, shelter and tomes. We have the current skill groups left:
Shout
- Healing breeze is basically a shout. Although the guardian doesn’t actually shout while breezing, it does fit thematically into the shout skill group. It’s a support skill just like the other shouts. Stand your ground gives stability to teammates, retreat gives swiftness+aegis and healing breeze should heal your allies.
- If they made Save Yourselves more significant they could turn it into an Elite skill. Then you have a full shout group just like the Meditation skill group. This would open up alternatives towards the currently heavily used Renewed Focus.
Consecrations
- Both Tomes should be consecrations. Consecrate means you declare something sacred. You consecrate from tomes to communicate your declarations. Also many skills of the tomes are shown as consecrations on the ground.
- If Shelter is turned into a consecration then we have three complete skill groups. It’s not that easy to justify why Shelter is a consecration though. Perhaps it has something to do with whatever is sacred needs to be consecrated with immunity.
Spirit Weapons
- They should make Bow of Truth a healing skill instead of a normal utility. Although not used by the majority of the players this skill should be reassigned imho.
- Currently no elite skill but why not just make Sword of Justice an elite and make it more interesting?
Looks like it’s going to be changed so it increases in intensity instead of duration as shown in the livestream today.
In some live streams the guardians were using Sanctuary and Tome of Courage to support the door breakers. The downside is that these skills take a significant time to recharge. So it leaves you defenseless throughout the rest of the match.
During yesterday’s stress test it was revealed that condition caps will increase in PvE. So far the only conditions that were affected by this change were bleeding and confusion. Game Design lead Jon Peters stated that conditions cause problems when players want to work together. He also said that this is not final and absolutely not the entire plan. Which could indicate that changes to burning are imminent.
So how should ArenaNet change the way the burning condition works?
Currently, it works as follow: According to Wikipedia burning only stacks in duration and is currently capped at 9 stacks. This means that only the first 9 applications of burning apply on the target.
Ideas to make conditions for Guardians more valuable in PvE:
- If they changed burning stacks from duration to intensity it probably would make burning too strong. Since burning has the highest damage per tick of all conditions. Perhaps reduce the amount of damage done per tick?
- Add additional burning AOE nearby enemies. Similarly to how the Permeating Wrath trait works. Burning currently does significant damage per tick on a single target applied in a small scale battle. However, burning becomes rather useless in larger battles where the stack easily caps. Perhaps this could put burning in their own “condition niche” while bleeding and confusion get their stack cap increased.
- Guardians lack diversity in conditions. Guardians do not have access to many conditions and rely heavily on burning for their condition damage. Shouldn’t Guardians at least be able to use more chilling?
- Apply burning to structures!
Do you think burning will change significantly in the HoT expansion? How do you envision it?
If they do give us a bow, it’ll be a short bow that has a similiar skill set as our Spirit Bow. Just like our off hand shield and spirit shield…
- AA faster than the scepter, half the damage. 900 range
- Barrage location with arrows, healing the area. 5s duration. Channeling: 3s 1200 range. 30s cd
- (3x) cleansing arrow that cures 3 conditions on yourself and allies. 40s cd
- Instantly pull targets towards you with a grasping arrow. 15s
- (Ward) Shoot a slow arcing, blue flamed arrow. Foes struck burn. Allies struck gain 2s regen. Arrow falls to the ground making blue flames in a 120 radius for 2s. Foes caught are burned. Allies inside gain regen 2s.
I think this is going to be close to what we get. Bow is the only spirit weapon we can’t use ourselves so it would make sense if we get that. Although I personally would have loved to see something like a polearm or halberd. If we do get a bow I’d like to see a bow skill that gives us more access to different conditions. For example, skills that add chill and bleeding. Although I’m not sure what to think of a Guardian with a unicorn shooting legendary shortbow.
I remember making a thread about how unused the shield is 9 months ago (including torch). For PvE shield will never play an important role because of the ‘focus’ on high DPS instead of defense. But even as a defensive weapon it’s weak.
- Shield of Judgment, protection duration of five seconds is so short! So we get the option for permanent protection on hammers and only five seconds on a shield skill. That’s 33% damage reduction for 5 seconds ladies and gentlemen. One of the most underpowered weapon skills in the game if you ask me.
- Shield of Absorption, I wish they’d allow us to move while using this skill like they changed the engineer shield. Also nobody in their right mind would want to stand still for 4 seconds doing nothing while your enemy is getting ready to do his next move. There’s not a lot of use to this skill unless you are about to capture a point in PvP.
ANet’s plan to introduce the 50% MF buff and extra bandit crests are not rewarding enough to compensate for the effortless way people can change to a better instance that is nearly complete. I think the idea behind the 50% MF buff is on the right track. It motivates players to stay on the same map after event completion. Unfortunately it barely adds up when you already have 400%+ MF with 5 stacks of perseverance.
Personally, I’d like to receive 2 or 3 shovels as an end reward, then people will more likely stay on the map to hunt down chests together.
Personally, I believe the best way to have a forum specialist is to have a forum member use his existing account. My reasons for this are:
- Transparency increases the credibility and reliability of these specialists. I believe forum specialists need to have a solid history on this forum to become a specialist. I understand this means extra work for the Community Team to select the right persons, but it will pay off in the end.
- The forum specialists need to carry a broad support among the participants on this forum. A strong support for a forum specialist strengthens the message they convey.
- Forum specialists need to be able to provide sharp constructive criticism that is on point without having a personal/corporate agenda.
I fixed it now by converting the gold to gems on a different character.
Edit: I also contacted support and received a reply that they are looking into it. That might have something to do with it as well.
(edited by Noah.4756)
I have the same problem as Zealex. I tried clearing my gw2cache but unfortunately that didn’t solve it. I am kind of hoping to convert my gold to gems before the deal on the Gadgeteer’s Gathering Package ends.
I am seriously getting carpal tunnel from all that clicking. I am just going to delete stacks like 107 Cold Weather Conqueror’s Minor Kits and 94 Bottle-Shaped Presents. I am not even farming anything and still it hogs up my inventory. It takes up a lot of my free time to just clear it. It’s not worth anything either so it doesn’t feel good to have to do all this. The developers need to balance the rewards so that less is more without too much shenanigans around it.
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I think the developers are aware of some of the problems and have recently made small steps to improve the experience for ascended armor. For example, the bandit chests in Silverwastes drop jute/wool/linen scraps while the bags of gears provide silk scraps. This makes it easier for players to be self-sufficient with the materials needed to craft Bolts of Damask, the most expensive material for ascended armor.
Do the players need to play for a longer period of time to farm for a specific legendary than a year ago? This is the most important question we need to answer in this thread, but almost impossible to quantify. OP seems to be sure of his case that it will take longer now because of the price increase of materials needed for legendaries. But there can be a case made to say that the opposite is true. Tier 6 materials drop more often thanks to increased magic find and huge farming events during the Living Stories.
I just love it when I try to join a party and because of the blinking I join a different group instead. Especially in the Open World Content LFG where the changes are so frequently that you can’t join any group at all.
Hello Evan! I know this isn’t exactly a post meeting your format requirements. Not sure if the Reddit link posted earlier in this thread is one of the external sources you looked at but I couldn’t describe it better than OliverTan has. I definitely recommend you to take another look at it.
TL;DR:
There are multiple facets of this chain event that are bugging out. Resurrecting Slashclaw, Maybri and the two NPC’s individually bugs the event (they need to be resurrected at the same time). Commander Neal bugs out if his conversation gets interrupted. After this Maybri can bug out if people interact with her before Slashclaw finishes his walk. Last but not least, Finley can bug out permanently if she dies during the Foulbear Kraal assault.
Now that jewels also affect your looks they should allow us to apply skins to jewels and make them part of the wardrobe.
IMO in order not to mess up stuff programming-wise, it would be cool just to “infuse” any ascended amulet in the forge with desired jewel and get an output item that glows when equipped. Programming-wise it would be just a matter of checking if such amulet is equipped, no other overcomplicated stuff just to check a color change.
I like this idea. I’d imagine you would have to throw in four items in the Mystic Forge:
1. The Poly-luminescent Refractor
2. Ascended Jewelry item
3. A newly introduced rare item from Fractals
4. High amount of ascended crafting material
Perhaps this could also be part of the upcoming ascended jewel crafting profession (lvl 500). If you look at the material deposit in the bank you’d notice the ascended materials are already there waiting to be introduced.
I got lucky today after opening many trick-or-treat bags and obtained an Oontz’s amulet. It’s a nice amulet that makes you glow.
I’d like to use the jewel inside the amulet but the (first world) problem is that I have ascended gear and on top of that don’t use celestial stats. Does ANet have any plans to add a mystic forge recipe to turn the jewel into an infusion and/or change the stats on the jewel?
It’s rising because the prices got so low that people have less incentive to park alts there.
Got any quantitative data to back that up?
I’m trying to point out that not every discussion should turn into a scientific research project and people should be able to make statements based on their personal perceptions, especially on a gaming discussion forum.
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Although I generally do not like to make statements with regards to drop rates without a large sample size I tend to agree with the OP in this case. From my personal experience chopping saplings near Orr statues does not drop as many foxfire clusters as it did before.
This confuses me because I feel like the Community Manager is hinting at the opposite. Which makes sense because if something was changed it should be shown in the patch notes. Although some changes are not always described in the patch notes (most noticeable for dungeon changes).
You can’t base perceived changes on qualitative observations without there being sufficient quantitative data to back it up. The thing is that the human mind tries to find patterns in things and quite often it’s in things where there are no patterns to begin with.
So you’re basically repeating what I said in my first sentence. Concluding that it’s just patterns of the human mind is equally as likely to be the case as a change to the drop rate of the foxfire clusters. We shouldn’t ignore it just because we can’t back it up with quantitative data. Although I personally believe it would be a lot easier if ANet came with a clear statement whether or not it has been changed.
Although I generally do not like to make statements with regards to drop rates without a large sample size I tend to agree with the OP in this case. From my personal experience chopping saplings near Orr statues does not drop as many foxfire clusters as it did before.
This confuses me because I feel like the Community Manager is hinting at the opposite. Which makes sense because if something was changed it should be shown in the patch notes. Although some changes are not always described in the patch notes (most noticeable for dungeon changes).
Light armor is a lot more expensive than the other ascended armor types. I believe it’s a price difference of around 130 gold. Don’t expect changes anytime soon though. It has been like this for almost a year.
Of course you could farm the cloths but it will be a tedious process which you have to repeat every day for at least a month.
I’m also from The Netherlands so it looks like we have a common denominator here.
I’m afraid that this lag today is worse than ever before. Constant skill lag and disconnects. Already posted my information earlier in this thread.
That’s a good question. A couple of other daily ascended materials are currently way too easy to acquire. Especially the Elder Wood Log price is making a huge dive in the last month due to people farming Foxfire Clusters. But I think it would be more wise if ANet did something about the statues in Orr surrounded by many trees.
I wouldn’t mind seeing some sort of balance for the ascended armor throughout all weight classes though. Anyway, we can make all kind of suggestions here but in the end it’s up to ANet and they are keeping a low profile for now. Personally, I prefer to see more short term changes to imbalances in the economy instead of the way things are now.
If your team doesn’t do enough damage then it’s no surprise you die and die. Guardian will be the first to go down then. You could go a bit more defensive with pugs, something like 4 / 3 / 0 / 3 / 4. This gives an extra buffer to do more dodging and healing. I also don’t shy away from hammer 3 / 3 / 0 / 4 / 4 if the team is inexperienced (low AP).
As others have said, that first boss in CoF P1 can dish out some heavy damage. Not much you can do about that other than to use all of your blocks and dodges and hope he dies before you do. Also make sure you have Wall of Reflection ready to reflect the other minion’s flame balls.
Consider a player that has outfitted multiple light armor characters in Ascended gear….how do they react to this “change” you propose?
I paid the full price for this game at launch. Now the game is quite cheaper but I do not expect to get some kind of discount. I think the same should apply to those that already have outfitted their character with light ascended armor. It would not be the first time that changes in the game caused certain prices of items to either drop or rise.
The design philosophy behind the Bolt of Damask and ascended light armor were not thought out perfectly. This is why the current crafting prices for cloths are out of hand. I strongly feel that steps need to be taken in order to restore that balance. Because in the end balance is one of the core focuses of ANet to support this game, next to introducing new content, to keeping customers satisfied.
- The Netherlands
- Every day a few times at least
- Gunnar’s Hold
- Randomly getting lag spikes. While getting this lag spike I can still run around the game but the skills don’t work and every character runs into walls. After a few seconds the game catches up. If I’m lucky I’m dead if I’m not lucky I get disconnected. It usually happens to at least 1 or more persons in my party at the same time.
This is something that started happening since the last patch.
BUT… If there’s enough player disgruntlement over it, I wouldn’t rule out ANet making some holistic changes across the game to increase cloth supply. (It could be something as dramatic as increasing the amount of cloth scraps from salvage by 50 – 100%, or the ability to downgrade cloth from higher tiers to lower.)
The problem is that ANet has not communicated about it for almost a year. The only thing that has been communicated regarding this subject was done by John Smith who stated that “the overcorrection of silk was intended”. Currently a Bolt of Silk is at 10 silver. Way higher than any other crafting material.
It costs 132 gold to craft an Ascended Light Armor Chest (77 gold for Silk Scraps), it costs 84 gold to cast a similar Ascended Heavy Armor Chest (38 gold for Silk Scraps). That’s a difference of 48 gold. That means someone who wants to make a light armor chest has to run, give or take, 40 more dungeons to get the same set piece.
I want low level crafting materials such as Wool Cloths and Soft Wood Logs. These things are pretty hard to get as a level 80 unless you go and farm low level areas which is not something which I enjoy doing.
There are many skills out there that have duration icons above your skill bar. All boons have this and also some skills have it. Simple example is Guardian’s “Purging Flames” that shows how long the buff lasts. But the Guardian’s summoning skills such as Wall of Reflection or Shield of the Avenger do not have these. Making it difficult to determine when the skill is running out.
Knowing the duration of some skills is crucial in some occasions. For example, in the Uncatagorized Fractal with the harpies where Wall of Reflection plays an important role in reflecting back the big lightning balls that do knock back. If you get knocked back it basically means you fall and die.
Wall of Reflection and Shield of the Avenger are just two of the Guardian’s skills I mentioned that do not have any duration indication. I’m sure there are many other skills that are also simply cast without any further information on the buff icons.
I think another QoL improvement would be if skills such as the Wall of Reflection would slowly fade away on my screen when they are close to ending.
I don’t know the numbers but I think it’s safe to say that the current percentage of ascended light armor wearers is significantly lower than the amount of medium and heavy ascended armor wearers. Which is obviously caused by the huge difference in prices to craft the different types of ascended armor sets. It wouldn’t even surprise me if it causes people to play different classes and light armor is becoming more of an elitist class for the rich upper segment of hardcore players.
This should’ve been patched and changed already. Posting this while waiting for the third time watching the dialogue. BOOOOOORING (and annoying).
John Smith has commented in ways that suggest it is no accident that Damask is pricier.
I could say the opposite and it would not make it less truthful. John Smith can say a lot of things but if he doesn’t come with a solid argumentation to back that statement I’m gonna go ahead and say that the current Bolt of Damask prices aren’t where they should be.
Although I appreciate the effort of the developers to communicate with us more, this is actually one of those answers that should’ve kept silent. Why you may ask? Because with this answer the griefers now know that they can get away with their questionable actions.
Unless this was already the case and I never realised – “Focused Mind” was silently buffed and now gives AoE fury (max 5 limit) on meditation use.
That could help med guards in roaming parties more useful along with the new shadowstep.
This is a huge silent buff. I wonder if it was intentional? Meditation guards are now more useful in parties. Providing fury and targeted healing with MI.
Week 2: A Fresh Start
Our second week of September 2014 Feature Pack reveals is focused on improving the Guild Wars 2 experience for new and veteran players alike!
Anyone have any clue what this could be? It’s pretty vague and it looks like it encompasses general changes to the game that affects all of us. Perhaps something guild related?
This has to be a bug introduced by the latest patch because this has not happened before. Now I get this specific crash multiple times a day.
Anet please, just stop trying to buff ai builds no one wants another spirit ranger in any pvp, whether its hotjoin, soloq or teamq. I actually want to fight a player and not lose to ai/passive effects in pvp. After all, it is call player vs player for a reason. If I want to fight ai I go do pve.
I agree. I don’t like the idea of a spirit pet guardian either. I certainly don’t hope it becomes the strongest build in any gamemode. If I wanted a pet class I would’ve made a ranger or necromancer.
I did path 2 yesterday and it didn’t bug out once and Detha died several times.
So you did it once and it didn’t bug, good for you. I did path 2 more than 100 times and perhaps it only bugged out 5 times. A hint; the bug has nothing to do with Detha dying.
What worries me more is that apparently the developers have no clue what they are doing when they are receiving the feedback on this bug. With the last patch they changed the behavior of Detha during the event but left the bug untouched.
This thread is so full of misinformation it’s unbelievable.
First of all, it is not just a 50 gold difference. For example, the difference between Zojja’s Doublet (Light) and Zojja’s Breastplate (Heavy) is already 33 gold. That’s just one piece of armor.
Second of all, for all the people who are saying that the change is intended. Please don’t be sheep and just repeat something just because “an economist” says so. He never said why silk prices are intended as they are and it just doesn’t make sense balance wise to agree with his statement. Light classes are getting shafted because of this imbalance and the forum keeps getting flooded by new threads like these.
The thought that lowering the price of silk might increase the price of the lower level cloths is true. It shows how imbalanced the whole supply mechanic is of cloths. While trees can be cut and ore can be mined there is no reliable source for cloth. As long as this isn’t changed light classes will have to pay a higher margin and these threads will keep making their return.
I like doing dungeons but I definitely don’t think they need an increase in reward. If anything they should lower the gold rewards to stop the already ridiculous gold prices in the market. Silk prices are an anomaly, although John Smith has said that it is intended I strongly disagree on this subject. The crafting of ascended light armor is significantly more expensive than the other armor classes. I can’t comprehend the idea of how cloths are balanced in this game.
It’s not I just did it. You’re probly doing something wrong, you need to save the npcs before you get to Goldenlight Hallow and after you’ve rescued the magister.
I did exactly this but it still bugged out on me. After I rescued the Magister I went straight to the three soldiers nearby, killed the monsters, clicked the three of them. But when I went to the next soldier the achievement icon disappeared. I never got near the lab located at the end of the quest.
Noticed that this fix wasn’t in the patch notes. Any word on if it made it in, or is it getting pushed back another two weeks?
I tried it out but it’s still bugged for me. Although there are a few people saying in map chat it’s working for them. Not sure if I want to try it again now though. Think I’ll wait for now.
I saw a mesmer using a staff but apparently she has electric effect (from bolt) surrounding her body. She didnt have bolt’s footstep effect.
Does this mean Bolt’s Electricity Aura still takes effect when you are not wielding it and equipped as 2nd set weapon?
Not sure if anyone understand me: This is the assumption.
Mesmer currently using Staff weapon 1 and stash Bolt as weapon 2.There is a glitch right now with some effect, if I have bolt out, switch to my second weapon set, and change weapon, the effect from the bolt will show. My explanation are probably bad :P sorry.
You’re correct. If you have Bolt on swap, all you have to do is draw your weapon and change to another weapon (with Bolt still on swap).
My question is, does this neat little bug also work with other legendaries such as The Juggernaut?
This has happened twice in two weeks to me. The first time we were able to fix it somehow as Tzark suddenly moved again. Probably because we were able to pull aggro on him from a spider but I’m not entirely sure. The second time I wasn’t able to fix it and was forced to leave the dungeon empty handed.
As for the cause of this bug, I think it has partially to do with Warmaster Grast dying due to the spiders and gravelings. So make sure you kill the little spiders that follow you up the stairs. Also killing the burrows too fast might be responsible for the NPC not following closely. Having two Elementalists in your team with ice bows and FGS makes you extra vulnerable to this bug.