Guild Wars 2

PvE

1. Balancing (between classes, traits, utilities, runes, sigils, stat inequality, retaliation, confusion)
   -> Condition dilemma/ heal dilemma/ tank dilemma (not holy trinity, but a bit balance)
2. New content (maps, mobs, dungeons, paths) >> temporary content
3. QoL/ color blind mode/ UI customization

LHound.8964:

but i can’t understand the reasoning to they shouldn’t be used together…

Set1 (2 superior fire):

• 51% chance to do a flame aoe on critical 5s CD

Set2 (1 superior fire + Opal Orb):

• 30% chance to do a flame aoe on critical 5s CD
• 20 Precision (+ 1% crtch); 14 power; + 2% critdamage

mixing the 2 superior fire sigils barely does anything. You still can’t cause 2 flame attacks within 5s. The chance is slightly higher. Instead better use a passive sigil/ orb.

You are using the mantra burst build for PvE ? And it actually works ?

Since you’re missing reflect, try 10/30/0/30/0. Sure, you lose a bit damage, but it comes with great survivability and reflect. The 3 charge mantra is just too expensive and might even hurt in some situations (the old mantra question “I used one charge in the fight; what now?”)

Major Traits:

• pow 10; Phant dmg
• prec 30; sword CD/ manipulation length/ phant fury; mantra CD/ deceptive evasion; deceptive evasion/ mantra dmg (basically choose 3 out of 5~6)
• vit 30; clean on heal/ glamour cd/ feedback on res; heal on mantra; focus cd

Generally; just try removing points from the additional charge trait, you might still like it.
Reminder: Mantra dmg doesn’t work with phants

@TC reflect
yeah, it’s a joke, but it works surprisingly well (not as good as other reflect skills ofc) when you place it correctly. Usually you just have to plant it on your feet and tell your party to also do so.

LHound.8964:

Let’s use 2 Sigils of fire for this example:

• Superior Sigil of Fire - 30% Chance on Critical: Trigger a Flame Blast for AoE Damage
  (Cooldown: 5 Seconds)
• Major Sigil of Fire - 20% Chance on Critical: Trigger a Flame Blast for AoE Damage
  (Cooldown: 5 Seconds)

Questions:

.1 – Can i use two of the same sigil (ig: Superior) at the same time?
.1.1 – If i can use them at the same time what would it be the critical chance? Additive or combined probability? Would it be 60% (0,30+0,30) or 51% (1-0,70*0,70)

.2 . If i can’t use them both, if i use Superior on Main hand and Major on Off hand,
.2.1 – Additive or Combined -> 50% (0,30+0,20) or 44% (1-0,70*0,80)

As said before

You can use any sigil combination as you like (except for two different stacking sigils). Not sure if you can use two times the same “+ x% dmg (on y race)”.
You can also use two Superior Fire sigils.

But once any sigil goes into cooldown, no other sigil with a cooldown will trigger.

The calculation might be like:

• Critical
• Check main hand
• If “on crit” present and no cooldown active, roll a die
• If rolling successfull, apply effect and apply general cooldown.
• Check offhand
• If “on crit” present and no cooldown active, roll a die
• If rolling successfull, apply effect and apply general cooldown.

So generally the main-hand is preferred.
.1 Most likely, but still not good
.1.1 51%
.2 Most likely, but still not good
.2.1 44%

So using two sigils of fire at once (if they work) would act like a single one with 51%/ 44% chance instead of 30%. That’s why it shouldn’t be done.

Effectivity Rules

• Use one sigil with cooldown and one without.
• Do not use “on crit” sigil on one set and one “on weaponswap” in the other

Then using that food would remove conditions upon swapping medikit.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Food#Condition_Removal
the lvl80 is kinda expensive and the lvl70 one is missing in the list, but 80% condition removal on medikitswap sounds reasonable.

If you’re somewhere with alot conditions, use the food which grants cleaning on heal (80%/100%; 10s CD). I don’t know how well this works with engy, as it’s most likely to be tied to #6 and might exclude the toolbelt. (But … does “on heal” trigger when you swap to med kit?)

@Engineer
With my engineer I sometimes have problems with conditions, but that’s personal preference, not technical. I rarely use elixirs, which can remove conditions. And traited every elixir removes them.
Furthermore the healing turret’s active skill removes two conditions and the elixir gun’s #5 also removes a condition (1?) and creates a light field with a projectile weapon.

@Mesmer
Mesmer is my main character and pretty much the one with the least condition problems. His active heals are pretty strong (H/S) when comapring to other classes. Instead of having extra features, it just heals alot (exc for mirror). While mesmer also has several possibilities to remove conditions via utilities, I only need Mender’s Purity trait (clean on heal; no CD). I use Healing mantra and mantra recharge trait (peculiar, but also works without the recharge trait). So for me I can remove two conditions instantly (while attacking, knockdowned, launched, reviving and casting other skills) and get healed, too. Traited the general recharge is 8s + 1s + 1s + 2.75s = 12.75s; untraited 14.75s per two conditions (+ heal).

@generally
ANet tries to not make the classes similar. Every class has a completely different playstyle.

I use Well of Blood in a Well build. It’s pretty acceptable when you look at the amount of traits you have (ground target, recharge, siphon). It’s also decent for a bit group support.

But lately I rarely played my necro lately.

ANet is subtilely telling you that condition damage is inferior…

I accept your suggestion, but I’d prefer other means. I’d like to see those floaters popping upside or towards the side instead of being below. Furthermore I think placing the icon behind the floater would fit better.

Since they did re-enable reta-floaters for phantasms, I can see them again.
Are you playing on sandy background or such ? I can “clearly” identify reta-floaters.

Or do you mean incoming damage ?

It “doesn’t” matter where the sigil is put in. Sigils also procc on utility crits.

Beware that all sigils share any cooldown and you can only have one sigil-stack of a kind.

Pyroatheist.9031:

I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that in order to do that, they’d need to completely rewrite almost all of the code regarding phantasm interactions with stats. Currently, phantasms ONLY pull primary stats excluding vit. They don’t even pull secondary stats. Transferring damage modifiers to the phantasms could be excessively difficult.

They inherit basic stats (exc vit), crit damage, boon duration and condition duration. If you consider the last three as “basic stat”, I don’t see why “+ x% dmg” wouldn’t fit in there, too.

I know the technical difficulties. The later three are static values, they don’t change incombat. the basic stats are directly inherited and the “+ x% dmg” is different to both types. The sigil (of force) is special since you could swap your weapon while the phant is out. Empowering Mantras or Compounding Power (+ 3% dmg per illu) are also factors which can change any time.

Xyonon.3987:

they could do it cheap – if a weapon with +5% dmg sigill is in use they just at a *1.05 at the end of the phantasm dmg calculation. It’s a common “if, then” command.

As I explained before, there’re multiple reasons it’s not “that easy”. Any effect on the mesmer would cause another “if then”. This makes the code ugly, slow, vulnerable to bugs and hardly to maintain.

Yet, I agree that they could make a workaround and add the mesmers’ + x% dmg to Empowering Illusions and Phantasmal strength. It’s still a non-static value and it wouldn’t fully apply the bonus damage, but I think it’d help alot with a reasonable amount of patching.

downscaled area ?
different weapon swap ?
used to party buffs ?

You gotta sum the classes which get full benefit, medium benefits and almost no benefits from ascended weapons:

Full benefits:

• Warrior
• Guardian
• Shatter Mesmer
• Ranger
• Elementalist

Medium benefits:

• Sword Warrior
• Mesmer
• Shortbow Ranger
• Thief

Benefits?:

• Condition Necro
• Engineer (Kit or conditioneer are most)
• Conjure Elementalist

As you can see, most important classes did get their + 5% bonus, others recieve negligence and a few almost complete ignorance.

ANet is telling you to go Zerk Warrior or Guardian in SO many ways …

Generally I’d accept this suggestion, but the current implementation of condition duration is an addition of + duration and – % duration. If they multiplied, I’d request a cap of – 50 condur since you can only stack up to + 100% condur.
But even with – 100% condur an attacker with + 50% condur will deal 50% of his original damage.

All condition floater look the same now. Previously (pre15th) retaliation and confusion were special … basically to tell …. some ppl that they should rethink about attacking.
Now conditions have a bit smaller floaters with an icon in front of the number showing the condition icon. For Reta and Confu it’s a bit harder to see, but it’s great for others. Additionally they finally summarized stacks. 25 bleedings don’t flood the screen anymore, but you see a single number each tick.

Personally I think the icon should’ve been at the end of the floaters, but I guess they tested both.

Well, it’s most likely like Pyro said: technical and historical reasons.

At first illusions did not inherit condition duration. Sharper Images did not increase with it. It’s just that Illusions are entities on their own and deal damage on their own – with their own stats. That’s why sigils/ runes/ traits don’t trigger when you phant attacks, while they do for every other classes; and also why their damage isn’t listed in the combat log.

The reason why they didn’t change/ fix it … they see no reason to.

Bosses which cause Agony are immune to it – due to reflect.

Yes, the skill has always been a hidden ace. But it’s still too situational, you need an ally downed and ranged opponents. And the inspiration line is the one with the best traits, you don’t want to miss …

So general support > situational super support

^
Yeah, but that makes a 2s AoE stability even more pointless. The main use of the skill was the stun breaker (+2s “protection” from other stuns). I don’t like clean mantra because I have mender’s purity, so I use stability mantra for stunbreak and fear. Alot bosses tend(ed) to use fear multiple times in succession and stability helped a bit (well, you had to time it since 2s is just a waste). I could always use my healing mantra to cancel fear (unless is removed another condition), but I bound stability mantra to not having use my healing or slotting a redundant mantra.

As I said … pointless change. 2s stability is useless and I almost never use cleansening mantra.

@Medic’s Feedback
k, didn’t know this

Actually, the damage is not listed in the tooltip, since it’s not the regular ChaosStorm. It’s the Descend into Madness (trait) change, which creates a CS on falling damage. So until this has been fixed, avoid standing on the bottom of cliffs.
As for WvW … I guess it’s hard to do so with flame rams.

But well, we can expect a fix soon, it’s pretty broken.

cyyrix.6105:

If you designed a build around this bug, you made a poor decision. In all truthfulness, you’ll probably find a more powerful build now that you aren’t using this bug as a crutch.

Maybe all those pistol-trait abusers should look at the new Descend into Madness-trait. I think it’s intended and worth to trait around it now.

Valarauka.2719:

I do love the Medic’s Feedback change though – it was already an amazing trait, this just makes it even better!

They just updated the visual appearance, not the actual duration. Feedback has always lasted ~1s longer than its visual dome. They just fixed that on Feedback and Medic’s Feedback.

Fanolian.8415:

skcamow.3527:

Browsing through all the trait facts, one good thing I noticed is they finally clarified what wastrel’s punishment is. “Increased damage to foes not using a skill”. That’s not bad actually. I think many, including myself, thought this meant foes needed to be stunned or dazed.

That means it’s pretty useful in PvE.

Except if you’re using Illusions …

squallaus.8321:

The increase 300 attack distance when traited is mediocre compared to the reflect gained by focus skills when traited. Only by having substantially higher combo finisher chances will it then be on par with the focus in terms of gain from selecting the trait.

Well, Focus has always been the strongest one. But at the same time its secondary effect useless on 75% of PvE mobs. Cleaning and additional range always has its benefits.
I guess the 100% combo finisher was oneof the reasons to nerf confusion in PvP.

squallaus.8321:

I think they should at the very least increase the % by a fair amount like to 50% when traited becuase 20% is really bad. Now it’ll just give an extra 1 or 2 stacks.

That’s what you call “spoiled kid”.
even one or two stacks deal quite the noticable amount of damage in PvP. It’s just that confusion is useless in PvP. They should balance it to 300~400% of its current damage (same with retaliation) for PvE.

juno.1840:

Actually I liked your definition better squallaus. I don’t think Pyro’s is accurate with regards to “multiple hits of damage over time”. That’s typically not a requirement for channeled skills. Take Mantra charging for example or some of the Elementalist staff skills.

Well, ANet is lacking a precise keyword table. Channeled skills are such as Mes Scepter #3, but ANet also called the trait “Protected Mantras” as “while channeling mantras”.

But what Pyro said is correct in for most descriptions, including the projectile finisher explanation. “Channeled” skills usually are multihit skills, but you can further generalize and specify at the same time saying:
“Charging is the preparation of a spells effect” and
“Channeling is having effects while the castbar is present”.

Both effects use the cast bar as visual indication, but one has its effect after the castbar is finished and one while the castbar is not finished. Like Mantras (former) or Scepter #3 (later).

Helios.3598:

This change hurts, regardless of whether it’s considered a fix or a nerf. I guess the scepter buff offsets the change somewhat. Traited, we can now apply 5 stacks of torment every 8 seconds that lasts at least 8 seconds.

Well, if that skill only was usefull in PvE … Mobs need to attack much faster (and weaker) for confusion, retaliation and block skills …

Alissah.9281:

I think they should make confusion from combos last 10 seconds base. Its just not worth it to waste a projectile and get 5 seconds.

I find that almost every combo effect is too weak. None of my party actually “micro-organizes” combo fields/ finishers during dungeons. I mean … 2s burning at 20% chance ? Chaos Armor for 3s in PvE ?
Sure, there’re some nice ones (Water healing and fire might), but they the minority.

@Mantra update
as an active mantra user … I love the tooltip updates. All mantras now show the restorative mantra and mender’s purity effect. I still miss the blue indication of reduced recharges, but well.
But the aoe abilities of mantras … well … they have ? it’s so weak. I’ve tested it multiple times on junglewurm, does the aoe stability even break fear for allies ? or does it give them stability which does not remove fear ? I have to use cleansening mantra … which is no stunbreaker …

So generally … for my mesmer
nothing changed

“Most” guild mates appear “offline” when hovering their names. This prevents the “right click” to allow “invite”. To solve this left click that person for a whisper. Then your client checks if that person is online and allows you to right click. It’s really awkward and hurting your QoL (quality of life).
The option to join another’s party is far rarer … I usually use the [P] menu to join one.

GW2 servers don’t need downtime. Patches will be inserted live and you’ll be forced to re-login (incl updating your client) sooner or later.

Don’t use fast ground targetting. When you press the button once, your mouse shows a green or red circle to tell you if it’s in range and in LoS.

But generally, I’d like to see that feature. Furthermore one that displays the range (in numbers) of the current target.

There are small issues with mantras, but the casttime isn’t one. The long casttime (other classes have long casttimes/ channels, too) is acceptable but requires micromanagement. If you can’t micromanage your gameplay, don’t use mantras. Play a Ranger or Warrior. I had no problem when the casttimes were longer (they have been shortened twice by now).

I suppose the biggest issue is “what to do when you only have a single charge left”.
Another issue it a viability of some. MoP is useless without Restorative mantras. DazeMantra is useless in PvE. Stability mantra is weak. But I except some changes in that area today.
Other issues are, that protected mantras is uber weak, Harmonious Mantras is hidden in the domination tree and Empowering mantras doesn’t affect our illusions.

How do you get 113% critical chance ? even with rampager (max prec) you shouldn’t reach that high.

Your thread topic says “critical damage”, you didn’t add chance and damage, did you ?

Infusing old MF rings will most likely result in giving you a “free to choose prefix”, accountbound, infused ring.

Infusing rings or backs will make them accountbound.
Technically, the mystic forge does not “upgrade” your item but give you a new one.

It’s been like this for ages and reported and eplained tens of times. But noone seems to notice the tons of existing threads.

Reason:
It worked at once. Players ran through it 4 times getting 4x the swiftness duration. And the current fix is to not give any swiftness when you already have some.

^
that’s basically what Nina said. And questioned “why”.

“Why is the sky blue?”
→ “I believe the sky is blue.”

I also thought of this issue, but there’re multiple problems.

• Preevents
  Most bosses need events to be completed (best example would be KarkaQueen). Hard to realize a synchronization.
• KillDuration
  Boss usually have a spawn restriction after it’s been killed. With most bosses having a timer now, it’d work fine, but those without don’t have to be killed on several servers. Like if noone would kill the Dredge Champion on server a, it’d prevent spawning on any other server (after it’s been killed once).

You can use an infused one and an uninfused one, too.

Instead you want to compensate ignorance ?

Yes, I’d approve a function which would make the word “unique” to appear in red, if you’re already using one.

I’d prefer a more radical solution.

Instead of giving every class the + 25% movement signet, remove it from all. Or replace it with “+ 25% movement in combat”. This will give everyone the opportunity to use the signet or not. Currently it’s rather forced on them.
Instead give everyone the passive ability to get + 5% movement speed ooc each second (max 30%). If necessary, give signet users (and similar effects) 15% movement speed at the beginning of ooc.

If one class in the game doesn’t need more weapons, it’s the Warrior. Out of all classes they have the biggest weapon choices (afair).

MysticHLE.7160:

It shouldn’t matter even on the off hand. It works fine for me, I carry Energy Sigils for all my chars’ weapon sets.

MH/ OH does matter when you got a weaponswap on both of them. Basically all sigil trigger “prefer” the MH.

That’s why every second poster here asks the TS for the other sigils in the other weapons. The sigil is unlikely to be bugged, but misused here.

The event always fails. I think due to technical reasons. But the guild still gets credited if at least one person gets his rewards (once per week ofc).

The “could start again” might be a different matter. If you could restart it without activating another, you simply made the puzzle of another guild. They activated and you ran inside. You got credited for the run, but the guild itsself not.

I saw this some time ago, so
+1

There are multiple useless things in PvE

• MoaMorph
• Veil
• ChaosArmor
• Retaliation
• Confusion
• Interrupt
• Illusion of Life
• DazeMantra

Yet, I use MoaMorph on the JadeMaw’s tentacles. To attack them melee w/o stability or to ress a nearby ally.

Mesmer is a medium good healer. But at the same time he sacrifices all abilities, since he’s constantly charging.

But remember that it’s “when you cast a mantra”, not “when you use a charge”.

Well, I just tested some things myself. Basically same tests as the TS.

• Attacker: pSword
• Power: 916 (min; 0 traits)
• Weapons: SteadySword (258) & PvP Sword (905~1000)
• Setup: Tested Steady/Steady; Steady/PvP; PvP/Steady; PvP/PvP
• Values: 50 non-crit attacks averaged

• St/St
  642.24
• St/Pv
  646.04
• Pv/St
  645.88
• Pv/Pv
  654.1

Summary:
(At least in PvP with 916 power,) the weapon power does nothing.

Probable explanation:

• Phants have their own weapon
• Since weapon skills use the Atk of their weapon (skill #4 uses offhandAtk; skill #2 uses mainhandAtk) and Phants do not count towards weaponmastery, they simply use a different formula.

GW2 is no grinding/ farming game….

It’s all about foresting and mining.

Endgame = looks or achievement points

The question “anything beyond that” is pretty pointless. Why paying 1k Gold for mjölnir or infinite light if it’s just looks? …

Daily JP completer:

• Open a chest of any JP with any character

Daily JP discoverer:

• Enter three different JPs with any characters

Monthly JP completer:

• Open 12 different JP chests with any characters
  Hint: If you do the three JPs in LA with 8 characters 30 days (240 chests a month), this achievement credits you for 3 JPs.

First off, thanks for the testings

1. I don’t get the difference between Col6 and C7. It shouldn’t matter in which hand you’re using which weapon. I assume the difference of the result is just the variation. But having 1.03 avg damage makes it difficult for getting formulas.
2. Instead of power and attack, list power and weaponAtk.

Results:

1. In pvp, the weaponAtk is completely ignored. Steady weapon with 258 atk (didn’t they have 11?) and normal weapon with 1000 atk dealt the same damage.
2. In LA the white weapon dealt more damage than the blue, green and yellow one. That’d be odd.
3. No need to get formulas when a weapon with less atk (white) deals more damage than a weapon with higher atk (yellow).

xXJonoDXx.3061:

I made a mesmer for pvp

That’s the main problem.

The answer is:
“there is no simple answer such as ‘power is better’”.

If you have 100 power and want to compare + 10% vs + 100 power, the + 100 power is obviously better since it basically doubles your damage. But if you already have 1,000,000 power and compare the same, th e+ 10% crtDmg will obviously better since the + 100 power will barely have any effect.
Or … what’s the point of adding + 1,000,000% critdamage with 0% critical chance?

You need to insert the original values into the function
Or
For some players the + 100 power will be better and for some the + 10% crtDmg
Or
It depends on your stats

I’m not gonna discuss every point you stated, but just saying some general points

• If you wanna go support (AoE heal, AoE regeneration, AoE stability, AoE clean), don’t go Domination 30. Just a waste of points. Instead go Dueling 20 and Inspiration 20.
• The only Build which uses Domination 30 for an additional mantra charge is the PvP mantra burst build (30/30/0/0/0 +10).
• Devs said Stability mantra will get an AoE effect. But they didn’t say it’ll be an AoE stun breaker. And 2s are really weak. You need alot boon duration for that.
• Dueling VI – Protected Mantras: useless.
• Don’t use scholar runes or sigil of force if you intend to damage with your phantasms

Afaik it doesn’t matter which hand is using what weapon. The stats are added anyways and the weaponAtk … dunno. The only difference in carrying two swords is, that the effect of the sigil in the main hand is applied first.

The only way to check if the weaponAtk affects the damage is to go into the mists and check normal and steady weapons. They have “the same” stats except weaponAtk.

Dasboba.1652:

I’m pretty sure they’re balanced this way so that additional phantasm damage is solely based on investing in traits.

Unlikely. Illusions didn’t inherit condition duration at first, but it’s been implemented by now. I expect this to be rather a technical (coding) issue, than a design choice. I don’t see a reason why phantasms shouldn’t benefit from + 5% damage (sigil of force), + 3% dmg per illusion (trait), runes of the scholar or race slaying potions.

Xyonon.3987:

The only thing noone here could tell me definitly, is: How are they affected by weapon damage? :/

I’m pretty sure they are affected by weapon attack. Just go into the mists and test normal vs steady weapon.
Exact formulas are under investigation.