Anything that emphasises team-fight positioning gets a tick in my book aanyway
So, the current system then. It rewards positioning and careful field placement, since field spamming will overwrite the intended buffs. Want multiple buffs? Time your fields or move out of the first before casting the second one. Timing/positioning is there at the moment, precisely because of fields overwriting each other. Coordination is rewarded at the moment.
Allowing field-stack blasting or even pre-selecting the favoured field will destroy this and mainly strengthen the mindless stacking. Field blasting strategy would come down to “drop all fields, blast all”…
Players do not only drop down fields to get combo’s though. They also drop fields so they gain protection or blind enemies. So there are two different aspects to combo fields which can cause a conflict. It is not always clear which has more priority. I think the current system is too complex to maintain proper coordination.
Another negative thing about the current system which blocks coordination is that it is not always clear which field is on top. I had moments where I think I was blasting a fire field but instead I was getting something else. I believe the developers could make this information more transparent to players. For example, they could make the top field more shiny or have the name of the combo field floating on your screen.
Actually I’m a little shocked that you think your playerbase is full of scrubs, who don’t know how to play – but if I think a little longer about this, maybe you are right…
It’s common knowledge that most players in any kind of game are casual players. Usually the loud ones on the forums are a small minority. I remember it took me quite some time to use combo’s effectively. Most players probably don’t have a clue what they are doing with their combo fields and finishers.
I’ve been advocating this build for some time as well now although I’ve been getting a lot of critique saying it is selfish. One thing I did is that when I ran this build I removed one of the meditations and replaced them with wall of reflection or purging flames only when it was needed.
People should not forget that the light field from the hammer auto-attack can also regularly remove conditions if you have players in your team with physical projectile finishers. Which happens more often than you think.
You could drop Monk’s Focus (because it’s basically a crutch trait), and use it to get Master of Consecration. If you also drop Elusive Power, which I don’t consider that good, you have another 5 points to spend somewhere else. This way you can build something like 10 / 0 / 20 / 20 / 20
Sure I can run dungeons and get 1g per path per day but not everyone is running every path to every dungeon. You have AC 1&3 and CoF 1&2. Not only that – but if you die once because you haven’t been playing the game from launch and you can’t anticipate every mob’s attack you get kicked from the group… Don’t get me wrong, I rarely die in dungeons from stupid things like that but lets get real…
I do a lot of dungeons and one thing I noticed is that it does become easier once you get a routine in them. Try to read up on wiki/google/youtube if you don’t understand a certain boss or path so you don’t die and become insecure. Dungeons are a reliable source of income and once you get the hang of it you can make about 10g a day.
Another thing is to join the right groups, especially when pugging. Don’t just join any group. Try to ignore the groups written in caps lock and spelling mistakes because they are usually a big warning sign saying you will have a bad time. Instead, join those with clear and well written requirements that fit you.
There’s no easy way to get rich. You might be able to make an extra buck from speculating on the TP. This is mostly from buying temporary items (such as wintersday items) which you can sell later on in time when they have been removed from the game.
All good points. Just want to make sure you guys do the exercise and think about the drawbacks of self priority. I just want you to do that to understand what we need to do with every decision we make because it will help you make more informed suggestions. Overall, I agree this seems like a big win, but in order to do something here we need to vet the entire decision and all edge cases, etc.
Jon
I can also see the skill cap in each. Actually coordinating your combofields in a teamfight can help immensely and it is punishing by spamming them as said by OP in which someone else messes up his combo.
Here is my idea. It isn’t something as simple as prioritizing. It is the meta. I’m sorry to say this again kitten many have brought up, there are a lot of mechanics in Gw2 that are very very spammy. Just the way it is. Ignoring the many, combofields is one that is spammy. There are so many combofields being cast during battles it is ridiculous. This also adds to the problem of watching PvP. People say that the screen gets cluttered, rainbows everywhere, headaches, etc. I think reducing the spammability of combofields could greatly alleviate OPs problem.
The problem isn’t prioritizing. The problem is how much they’re able to be employed on the field.
But what exactly is your solution to the problem then? Combo fields are closely tight to skills that also do damage and have other side effects such as blinds, protection, etc. In some cases they are even part of auto-attacks. Players spam them because they are also beneficial in other ways than just being a combo field. For example, although the guardian’s hammer auto-attack Symbol of Protection is a light field which is not very useful in PvE, but the protection aura allows everyone inside the field to take 33% less damage.
I believe the spammy mess is caused when multiple combo fields are stacked on top of each other and you don’t know exactly which field you are going to finish. Especially in the current situation where it’s hard to see which combo field is on top. I think that by letting players customize the priority of blasts this could alleviate the problem and also make it look less chaotic.
That’s true. I guess one way to get around it would be to only allow one combo to happen per field type, per finisher. By that I mean, say you have ten fire fields, a blast finisher wouldn’t give everyone an instant 25 stacks of might but just the usual 3 stacks.
Another way to do it would be to limit the potency of fields that are underneath the “top” one, but still allow them to go off. For example, if a water field is underneath a light field, have the combo heal be less potent than it would be if it was on top. Although this is still suboptimal, since it doesn’t allow people to be fully in control of their finishers.
If I’m reading this correctly you’re saying players should be allowed to use combo finishers on multiple fields as long as the combo fields are different. This might be a little bit too overwhelming in big groups such as WvW zergs. But it does solve the problem though and it is pretty easy to implement.
But making the combo fields underneath less powerful won’t solve the problem where unwanted fields get the full benefit while the fields that are on the bottom only get the partial effect. You’ll still have those fire field blasting Elementalists getting mad at the hammer Guardians so to say.
Would definitely help hammer guards, since swing #3 ruins the purpose of using it for blasting.
That only solves part of the problem though. There are other examples which don’t involve fire fields which still require attention. For example, Symbol of Swiftness going over Static Field where players want swiftness but will receive retaliation instead.
I understand the Listing Method will be the most complicated solution but it does have potential. Imagine having a new tutorial which teaches you how to use combo’s. Let’s say you receive a temporary weapon with 4 blast finishers and you need to finish a few tests. For example, follow the NPC to the hospital and use a whirl finisher on the NPC’s light field to cure the ill people. Upon completing the full tutorial you unlock a tab on your hero panel (next to utilities and traits) which gives an overview, in the form of a table, with the different combo fields and their effects when a finisher is used. This table can be customized to prioritize certain combo effects over others.
This is even moreso in the case of “fields you create take priority”, you simply do not create a field untill you are ready to combo in it.
This would be true if the sole purpose of the combo field is to use it for the combo finisher. But many of the combo fields are skills that do damage and are placed regardless of the combo field effect. For example, guardian’s hammer auto-attack automatically places a Symbol of Protection every 3 seconds which overwrites the Elementalist’s fire fields to blast might.
As a frequent player myself I would prefer the ‘List Method’. Perhaps it could be added to the General Options tab under Combat/Movement. The biggest disadvantage I see with this is that there are so many different combo’s (9 combo fields and 4 combo finishers). It will become a very complicated list which could cause confusion among players.
Just allow us to blast them all, when several fields are in the same location.
This sounds great although I think it’s wishful thinking. Having multiple combo fields activated at the same time is too strong. There are 9 different fields with 4 different blast finishers (some overlapping of course). For example, think of the implications in PvP where capturing points is the main objective. Everyone would just cast all their combo fields on the points and things would become overwhelming.
I think we need to stay close to the current situation, where one combo field is activated at the time. The problem is there are useful skills (such as Symbol of Protection and Black Powder) which create not so useful combo fields. This is where we need to find a solution.
I agree on this. When I drop my fire field as warrior and blast, I want the Might, I don’t want the random condition cleansing from a guardian’s Light field when there even aren’t any conditions.
Combo fields put down by yourself should always be prioritized, yes!
Blasting a light field doesn’t cleanse condis.
Yeah, it’s far worse. It gives retaliation. Shivers
I wanted to make a similar post but here it is already. Good to see like-minded people. I hope the developers pick this idea up.
Personal combo field should prioritize over other combo fields. This would make combo fields a lot less frustrating and cluttering. Shouldn’t be too hard to implement I think?
Without actual testing, it’s going to be horrendous for damage. No Zeal, No Multipliers, only intermittent high crit rates … this is probably only marginally better than 0/0/30/30/10
OP’s test already takes into account the variable that you have 100% Fury up. Therefore testing a Fury build will not come out positively. However, comparing it to an AH build is blowing it out of proportions imho.
I am interested in knowing how a build such as 10/25/20/5/10 would pan out. Because realistically, not every party you join has a constant up-time of fury, especially if you’re pugging. With the new meditation heal it leaves space open for other utilities for specific encounters such as WoR and PG.
Ascended mats were a bonus to champ bags to accommodate the rising need for ascended crafting. Riding the champ train is not considered regular gameplay and by doing this extensively, you will aquire more mats than intended for the regular game player.
If it clogs up your inventory because it is not tradeable its not the economies fault but your own due to excessive gameplay. Just delete it, if you run out of space.
I can’t remember doing any champ train in the last few months yet here I am with an inventory full of bloodstone dust and empyreal fragments. Just deleting it doesn’t cut it as I mentioned in my previous post. We don’t know whether they will become useful in the future.
I’m not sure if you’re fully aware of the meaning of economy, but there is no economy involved with ascended materials because they can’t be exchanged. Perhaps if they could be exchanged, even only by vendor, it would take off some of the pressure.
The developers did not calculate the droprate correctly or they have something in store for us to use the ascended materials in the near future. Either way, the current situation is far from favorable.
full zerker guard is still a face roll in pugs, if you are having issues then it is probably your ineptitude of mechanical understanding not the pugs
I also use full zerker and I can certainly tell the difference between a good and a bad pug and how it influences me as a guardian. Blaming it fully on the ineptitude of mechanical understanding, or whatever fancy words you want to use, is not what I’m personally experiencing. If encounters take twice as long you’ll start running out of utilities. Anyone will have issues at that point, especially those using glass cannon builds.
Also OP mentioned he is new to the game. Anyone recommending full zerker for him is not able to relate how difficult content can be for new players. I think using knight gear with zerker trinkets would be the best starting point. Zerker gear with soldier trinkets works, only you’ll miss out on a lot of precision and critical damage.
I also have a bank full of ascended materials. I get a lot of empyreal fragments from doing dungeons daily. Also the amount of bloodstone dust I get is greatly exceeding. The general problem is that if players are considering crafting ascended items they already have more ascended materials than they really need.
So of course some people are asking me: Why don’t you just delete them?
This is where the real problem for me kicks in. I have no clue what the developers have in store for us in the new year. For all we know the ascended materials could be one of the key requirements to craft the new precursors. Why else do we have so many of them right now? Seems like we’re missing a piece in the puzzle of a greater plan here. Perhaps we will need a full stack of refined ascended materials. So if I would delete them now I would risk the chance to having to farm them again.
We all saw what happened to Bolts of Silk. At one point they were just a trash item for vendors. Now players are screaming to increase droprates on them. I’m not going to make the same mistake twice.
HONOR – Also, an ok line (The best line).
I only feel that Battle Presence (XII) is weak as GM trait (I can have a similar effect with only 5 point in Water line with Ele). I have no suggestions to change in this line.
The thing I don’t get about Battle Presence (BP) is that if I had to choose for a support build I’d go with a Hammer and pick Writ of the Merciful (symbols heal allies). Writ of the Merciful is a master trait (not GM like BP) and therefore could save me 10 points. Also the symbol heal applies to myself where BP doesn’t give me any benefit.
Battle Presence doesn’t really belong in the Honor tree. It effects virtues so technically it should be moved to the Virtues tree. Then perhaps they could make BP reduce recharge rate on Virtue of Resolve to make it more attractive.
How is the damage reduction calculated for builds like 15 / 15 / 0 / 20 / 20 ? Does it take into account that it’s a hammer build and therefore include the damage reduction from the Symbol of Protection?
I must have missed it then. It makes hammer really good, DPS-wise.
I’m getting GS levels of damage on a 25/25/0/20/0 hammer spec. It is literally like less than a percent less. GS/Hammer swap is probably better than a GS/Sword swap now even. Although again, the difference is very minimal so it’s really a question of whether you want that extra vuln + might + prot at the cost of kittening with everyone’s fire fields.
As a consolation you could always start off with Purging Flames + Hammer Skill #2. That way you and the Elementalist can still supply your party with might stacks at the start of each fight.
It still would be nice if player’s own combo fields would prioritize over others. This would fix some conflicting combo issues I think.
Guard’s crit damage boosts are in the toughness tree, not ideal either. I’d love to have crit dmg in Firearms but its workable without IMHO. Had some great runs with 10/30/0/0/30 Rifle/SD burst but I don’t run much PvP lately. I actually like it this way, promotes build diversity.
Blood~
yes it is actually very ideal for the most standard guardian burst build — guardian meditation builds. even if its not a burst build, almost every guardian build goes 30 into valor for either AH or MF. guardian is a prime example of crit damage being in the ideal tree.
Every class has their weaknesses. Perhaps it is better to look at the bigger picture. For example, guardians have condition duration and condition damage in their damage trees. But at the same time they only have one condition (burn). I don’t think any guardian who plays this game has focused on conditions either. With this example I also think engineers shouldn’t be heavily focused on critical damage.
You can play damage Guard?
Most of the solo queue I get into if I have anything that says damage people automaticly go “Great a damage Guard” with profound sarcasm since that usually is folloed with insult too if we lose, because automaticly is my or any other guards fault.
Since then i go Healway with M/S and Staff if we don’t have bunker, if we have I’ll go GS & Sword/F
Tell me about it. Don’t think I’ve ever received more verbal abuse in map chat and whispers when I used a meditation build. Things like “lol this guy is using a new meta?” and “dps guardians are bad” (filtered out the swearing).
The video demonstrates that DPS is in favor of Scepter so it is at least something not many of us expected. I’d like to see the pure DPS difference between the GS / Sword+Focus and GS / Scepter+Torch rotations. If the damage of scepter is really that impressive other things related to the build, such as signets and off-hand weapon, could be easily adjusted. The build lacks support though and personally I wouldn’t feel safe using it around pugs.
But this is not how the average game goes for many people. Here’s your random average Joe video: http://youtu.be/o0G3i9DLhUE
I use zerker gear myself with a hammer build when I’m pugging but I seriously wonder how people are able to survive in average pugs with the number 1 DPS build in OP’s list?
Staff is one of Guardian’s most diversified support weapons. The skills obviously indicate it is a support weapon and should not be used to combat bosses or single target enemies. When I’m PUG’ing AC or TA I find the staff to be very useful. I expect the Guardian to do stuff like pulling spiders, pulling bosses and destroying poison plants, etc. I’m not expecting for any damage to come from Staff although the empower is somewhat of a consolation.
Skill 1: Auto-attack is good for fights against big groups of scattered enemies or pull aggro from multiple enemies (such as AC Path 2 graveling defense)
Skill 2: Easy to pull bosses from long-distance to a stack corner (Kohler)
Skill 3: Swiftness, to get across risky trash (AC Path 1 end)
Skill 4: Empower, buffing team before switching to main-hand (don’t forget it also heals the party for a significant amount)
I hope the developers pick up on this. I am in the process of crafting Light of Dwayna but would be disappointed if I had to craft another ascended back item specifically for fractals.
It feels like for whatever reason the silk prices are intentional. A few patches back the number of scraps required to make a bolt was increased to 3 where every other bolt is 2. Further 100 silk is required per ecto combine. Twice the amount of every other ecto combine.
There was a time, before ascended armor was introduced, when silk prices were equal to vendor prices due to the fact there was no demand for silk. I think this is why the developers initially increased the amount of silk scraps from 2 to 3.
But the introduction of ascended armor changed this and now created a high demand in silk, but also other cloths. I believe the developers made a mistake by increasing the amount of silk scraps from 2 to 3 needed to create bolts of silk. Looking at the current market development this needs to be readjusted to its previous state.
I consider myself someone who plays a lot. I haven’t had problems with crafting the time-gated t7 materials such as Lump of Mithrillium and Glob of Elder Spirit Residue.
But today I ran out of Silk and I am unable to make my daily Spool of Silk Weaving Thread. You need 300 silk scraps in order to craft the Spool but during my daily activities I can only get around 100 scraps.
I tried farming silk scraps in Frostgorge Sound but at the rate they are dropping I would probably still not have enough by the end of the day. Therefore I am forced to buy the silk scraps from the trading post for around 4g. I can only imagine everyone will be doing the same as demand will exceed supply. Which will soon lead to inflation of silk prices.
If I see a hammer guard in a dungeon, the first thing I tell him to do is swap to sword/focus. That is the guard meta; there is no reason whatsoever for him to be using hammer in dungeons. If he doesn’t, I kick him. Why? Because I have no tolerance for: 1) players who spam useless combo fields, and 2) players who don’t play the meta for their class. It’s the same for thieves and engis who use Stealth Fields when I’m stacking might; they get 1 warning, then /kick.
You’re partially right that sword/focus is currently the “meta” for guardians. However, there is currently definitely a niche for hammer guardians. Go ahead and take a look on the guardian forums. I’m sure there will be many experienced guardians who will disagree with your /kick.
Perhaps it does not fit into your “speed clearing dungeon team composition” but in other cases hammer is better. Therefore I find your reply somewhat uninformative. Fractals and pugs is not something you do with a sword/focus because it requires the guardian to go fully offensive while most parties are looking for a support guardian. You seem to be very font of maximizing DPS but in that case you might as well not take a guardian in your team at all and replace them with a warrior, because that also seems to be the current meta.
The hammer with its permanent protection buff (so it’s not just a useless combo field as you like to call it) is the best defensive buff a guardian has while still maintaining DPS. Together with projectile finishers it can give the party all the defensive buffs they need.
I’m trying to figure out how to combine a hammer build while having an elementalist in the party. Your solution of simply kicking it is quite arrogant while I believe there are solutions out there that works in the interest of both classes.
I play a hammer guardian and as you might know the hammer auto-attack creates a permanent light combo field which gives protection to allies standing inside. In combination with a blast finisher this leaves the party with a lousy retaliation buff. Although the permanent protection is nice I’m not sure if the team needs another defensive buff, especially when an elementalist can give offensive buffs.
Does a hammer guardian make it hard for elementalist to cast their fire fields and get the proper blasts off so they can provide the party with might/fury/vulnerability? Should I perhaps change weapon when I see I have an elementalist in the team using this build?
Having combo fields overlap is far from ideal and I believe it conflicts with other party members to provide the buffs they want. Perhaps Anet could make the fields stack so that finishers apply to all fields, although that might make it too strong.
Once in a blue moon I use it to res the Lord in WvW when it’s surrounded by a zerg of 50 enemies and I need to buy our server some time.
Don’t think I’ve ever used it in a different situation. The cast time is too long and the cooldown is too long. I don’t feel like Signet of Mercy has an actual benefit over manually resurrecting a player other than the range (which isn’t even 1200).
It’s definitely not the best time for casual players to acquire ascended armor, especially for those who wear light armor. I think the developers could have been more inventive regarding the crafting of light armor. For example, by introducing Bolts of Damask earlier into the game or by adding a separate material for light armor which is not used by other armor classes.
The only thing I can see in favour to make ascended armor rely heavily on Bolts of Damask is that it makes the GW2 economy more healthy. Rich players are spending a lot of gold to buy Bolts of Damask because of the time-gate restraints. This makes ascended armor an effective gold-sink, thereby warranting that the inflation isn’t spiraling up. For those that can’t afford ascended armor I advise to be patient since it’s mostly a matter of time before you are also able to craft it.
Run Boon Duration – Sheild 4 turns into 9s of aoe protection….
The AOE on Skill #4 is not exactly AOE though. It shoots a wave in front of you and only has a range of 600. It would definitely be an improvement if skill #4 was AOE.
The 100% up-time of Fury is slightly optimistic since For Great Justice lasts 8 seconds with a 24 second cooldown. Which means you’ll need 3 warriors in the team, or 2 warriors and a ranger to keep that fury running. Unless you’re in a good group where you kill things in 8 seconds of course.
The Dev’s want us to blow Stability just so we can use our heal…..
Oh Wait.. we typically don’t HAVE stability in a mediation build…. let the x/x/30/x/30 build begin! Good to know I have to blow a 65s cooldown just to use a kittenty kitten , POS though out ability.
There are two meditations which are stunbreakers though, one of them makes you teleport straight to your enemy. Nevertheless, I do realize that despite the stunbreakers enemies can retreat the moment they see you cast the heal making it risky when fighting 1v1.
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This answer from the Support Team makes no sense to me. Why would dungeon sellers be considered real money traders when there’s no real money involved? I would take the answer from the Support Team with a grain of salt even though I’m not a big supporter of the whole dungeon selling thing.
Shield of Judgment gives 5 seconds of protection every 30 seconds. Why would we use this when Hammer gives us permanent protection.
Shield of Absorption is supposed to absorb projectiles for 4 whole seconds. Why not just equip the utility Wall of Reflection and get 3 times the duration and reflect the damage back to the enemy while having the skill on a lower cooldown. Or again, use that Hammer to knock your enemy back while doing damage and still have a lower cooldown.
The alternatives are just way better. I feel like there is no need for the shield and that is what needs to be changed in order for people to start using shield again.
I don’t know what kind of WvW strategy you use but I actually prefer Shield #4 than Hammer’s Symbol. Sure you can have a permanent Protection with hammer, but you can’t use it as an on-demand boon when a huge zerg coming towards you, vice versa. On top of that, it’s a Symbol. You have to stay in the radius in order to get the boon. In WvW you can’t afford doing that. I pair my shield with mace and I love Symbol of Faith, but do I stay in the radius for 4+ secs? No, I leave and enjoy the AH self-heal from allies who pass the symbols from a safe distance.
I use Staff+Hammer in WvW zergs and Sword/Focus + Staff for roaming. I find myself up close many times when two zergs clash. In those situations I am able to use the hammer to lock enemies in and proceed to engage them. I could see the potential of the Mace + Shield in WvW when you use it as a defensive back-up weapon although it feels unsatisfied in comparison to our other weapons due to long cooldowns and short durations.
But what if I want to keep my precious utilities? Wall of Reflection does not heal or knock back. No thanks, I’ll keep my shield.
After trying every Guardian weapon except torch, I chose mace and shield as the best sustain set for my Guardian. So what if many people can’t use it? It doesn’t mean it’s weak. Remember that Shield is an defensive/support off-hand weapon. From that definition, it’s already doing a fine job. If people want to do some DPS, they should pick a different off-hand weapon.
Wall of Reflection is a very strong utility in WvW where a lot of the players in zergs are using ranged projectile weapons.
I think it’s important if many people feel like they can’t use the shield. There might be a niche for it in WvW but I feel like the shield should be playing a more prominent role for a class that is symbolized with a permanent shield on their left arm.
my issue is ppl who don’t know wtf they are doing and refuse to communicate
simply example that sadly happend quite few times
I have to agree with this. In my experience it’s the new players who shoot themselves in the foot. Most of the time when I see a guy with around 1000 AP join my team I already know we need to lend him a hand, but will they say anything? Of course not. He will just keep quiet (sometimes even refusing he’s doing it for the first time) until the whole team get’s wiped out.
I’m usually supportive and won’t kick for every little mistake but the hypocrisy and arrogance of certain players has led me to make titles stating “Lvl80 Experienced Pls”. Even then it’s not uncommon that people can not read and are either not level 80 or inexperienced.
This would allow people to basically survive everything D;
The game is already in a state where everyone survives every encounter. Everyone is focused on maximum damage output by using Berserker gear. I don’t see how having access to every trait would change this. Personally, I think it could create a more challenging experience where people can further adapt to specific encounters.
I think the main problem with the shield skills is that they don’t offer anything which our other weapons and skill can do way better. For example:
Shield of Judgment gives 5 seconds of protection every 30 seconds. Why would we use this when Hammer gives us permanent protection.
Shield of Absorption is supposed to absorb projectiles for 4 whole seconds. Why not just equip the utility Wall of Reflection and get 3 times the duration and reflect the damage back to the enemy while having the skill on a lower cooldown. Or again, use that Hammer to knock your enemy back while doing damage and still have a lower cooldown.
The alternatives are just way better. I feel like there is no need for the shield and that is what needs to be changed in order for people to start using shield again.
Light Fields – Would it be nice if leap and blast finishers on light fields cure conditions instead of applying retaliation boon to allies? I think this would be helpful against the game’s current condition damage meta. Don’t get me wrong retaliation is a great boon, but it won’t help you from condition spammers. In addition, guardians already have so many ways to access retaliation.
It would definitely be nice, but maybe a bit too nice. Even though we cannot use the light fields to cleanse conditions ourselves, any other class with projectile finishers can do that for us. If you use a hammer and you’re in a party with a ranged class like a thief, mesmer or engi (using pistol off-hand), or an elementalist you’ll notice that projectile finishers will be flying around your head and no condition will survive for longer than a second. Besides that, we already have pretty good access to condition removal.
Having better access to CC would be more than welcome though. I noticed that our Tome of Wrath has a good CC skill but the duration on the Tome is very short and the cooldown very long which makes it too unreliable.
I’d say you should pick your traits depending on your team composition and environment.
If you’re planning to ‘pug’ a dungeon like high level fractals on a sunday afternoon then you might be better off with your more defensive trait build of 0 / 0 / 10 / 30 / 20 and you’ll still have 10 points to spend on whatever.
If you think you have a very strong team going on in an easy dungeon you could consider going more offensive and drop the trait points in Valor and Honor and use them in Zeal and Radiance instead. Personally, I don’t think Zealous Blade is considered that strong and you might be better off with a build like 15 / 15 / 0 / 20 / 20 for a more offensive build.
if you could change trait points you could go from dps to tank and back.. right now you cant really. which is the point.
besides.. what does it matter? everybody goes 100% damage 100% of the time anyways cus efficiency.
I see your point even though you’re contradicting yourself. People won’t switch from tank to dps to tank because they want damage. But there are two situations where my suggestion would be a welcome change:
Certain traits work better against really tough bosses. For example Subject Alpha requires a lot of dodging. It will be even more challenging and at the same time rewarding to find the perfect builds for certain bosses such as Lupicus or dungeons like Dredge fractals.
You join a team with only warriors and after the first wipe-out you feel like a supportive trait build could be more beneficial to the team.
I do want to make clear that I want to prevent the situation where players feel they are forced into micro-management of their traits. Therefore I think having templates of your favorite trait builds could help a lot to simplify these adjustments.
Keep in mind you have to reset trait lines but you have a variety of on-the-fly changes you can make in any major trait bubble. It’s not a total lock-in.
You’re right that it’s not a total lock-in and I was more talking about trait points rather than trait slots. The way the Instant Trait Reset from the gemstore is designed it seems like resetting traits is something they rather not want us to do easily. But then why would they allow players to change trait slots, but not redistribute trait points?
The 1 second cast time is annoying and conflicts with earlier changes by the developers to make Meditations instant casts. The thing I like about Shelter is that the moment you cast it you stop taking most damage. Therefore it leaves more room for errors, unlike our other heals.
When traited towards Meditations it increases the heal by 2100 to around 3800 and gives almost 5 seconds of Fury. It’s a risky heal in 1v1 but it certainly comes in handy when you’re involved in larger team orientated battles.
I think the problem is that because technically every profession can play any role, if we were able to trait whenever we pleased it would mean that people could adapt to any situation perfectly, taking a lot of challenge out of the game.
On a more lore-focused point, a character can easily change armour / weapons or decide how to act (utilities) but might not be able to change their knowledge (traits). So it makes sense in that context.
I feel freedom to change traits whenever we please would make many aspects of the game too easy.
I do agree with you that there’s a risk involved where people might get the feeling that they explored every corner of the game and then get bored.
But I have the feeling that the challenge you’re speaking of is already gone. The game is mostly about repeating content (not counting the living story updates). I think opening up the traits could challenge people even more to adapt their builds to the team and find better synergies. Therefore broadening the challenge by understanding trait mechanics and not only boss & skill mechanics.
well I’m already running a variation MF build and was running 4 medi’s when I was testing littany.
I prolly should have said that at the start man sorry.
but my experience with it still stands. if it was instant the you could pop it and burst and no one would see it comming and it would be sick. at the mo it can work really well but it does have thr major flaw of cast time telegraphing its use.
I use traveller runes in my build so no dire need for swiftness, if that helps.
Is this for pvp or wvw mainly? I have been trying to use focus #5 to cover my use of litany(that or distance and the blinds) the issue is that it is hard to pay attention to the average amount healed in the middle of battle and the combat log doesn’t track it. Do you know if litany heals with condition damage as well?
Yes, all damage applies to Litany of Wrath. Condition, retaliation, etc.
