Guild Wars 2

Still heavily supporting this.

Rename the current ‘Primal Echoes’ Adept Major to ‘Natural Mender’ and keep the staff skill cooldown reduction effect and add the +2% Outgoing Healing effect (up to 10 stacks)

and change ‘Natural Mender’ Grandmaster Minor to ‘Primal Echoes’, 0.75s Daze on wep swap on 8s CD.

So, we got ‘Sigil of Speed (PvP)’, the original one (20s swiftness on foe kill), but we got a brand new, super awesome, ‘Superior Sigil of Speed (PvP)’ which is 5 seconds of swiftness and 1s of Quickness on weapon swap (9s CD)

The naming. So confusing.

Why not call the latter ‘Sigil of Quickness’ ? We got 2 totally different Sigil of Speed now, and the wiki doesn’t even recognize the latter!

Also small suggestion;

• Change the 5s swiftness to 2.5s Super Speed
• Change the 1s Quickness to 1.5s

And, is there any way to get it in PvE? Again the wiki has the old Sigil of Speed article and nothing on the new one.

Edit: PvE version is Superior Rune of Agility, craftable by Scribes, available on TP for 39gold at the moment of this edit.

Confirming,

Rune of the Dolyak DOES generate astral force.

And man, SotW + Rune of the Dolyak + Natural Healing = Holy Astral Force Generation BATMAN

I think you should create a seperate thread for your upcoming skirmishing feedback

About traps, I agree they are still a bit underwhelming. The traited traps aren’t too good either, the cripple effect is very redundant especially for Frost as you mentionned.

An idea I suggested way back was to add a unique on trigger effect for all traps when traited, and of course some tweaks to base traps.

Spike Trap

Core

• Up the base direct damage by 10-20%
• Reduce the base cooldown to 30/35s
• Have the launch effect work with Ancient Seeds trait

Traited

• Cripple for 4s on trigger (1s is ‘wasted’ on the launch duration so its effectively a 3s cripple)

Flame Trap

Core

• Really fine as it is.

Traited

• 4s Blind on trigger

Viper’s Nest

Core

• Buff base direct damage by 20%
• Apply 2 poison stacks per pulse

Traited

• Apply 4s weakness on trigger

Frost Trap

Core

• Make it a stunbreaker (instant, but keep arming time of the trap)
• Lower base cooldown from 30s to 25ss

Traited

• Apply 5 stacks of vulnerability for 8s on trigger

Other suggestions were to Boon strip foes when traited, or transfer one condition from player to foe on trigger when traited, or condition damage reduction when standing on own trap.

Irenio CalmonHuang.2048:

Going to be investigating this. It may require some change to Smoke Assault, since the active skills are intended to be a little stronger than the passive skills.

You can balance (nerf) Smoke Assault appropriately, the smoke field on demand is what we’re asking for.

Even a 30% damage reduction and removal of might on hit on smoke assault is fine by me. Although, I expect some additional on-use effect for the Smoke Cloud skill (maybe a 3s blind ON use ?)

Please, make the guild message in the guild panel shot chat links as they do when they appear in the guild chat.

Or at LEAST just change the chat link string to the appropriate name/item/skill etc

Currently, it DOES appear when its posted in the chat box, but its still the chat link strings when viewed in the guild panel. See picture for example.

Mesmer GS also has a damage bonus based on distance.

Maybe Staff auto could get something similar…. Like burning within 400 range… Plz.

MoC Druid focusing on interupts. GS and Staff for Mobility. Not much burst but chain interrupts while the pet eats the prey

Daze For Days (Daze4Dayz?)

And yeah smokescale, godskitten Metapet!

Superspeed for 3s on ancestral grace activation

Kodama.6453:

No one is calling numbers, so I just want to ask:
What is the new CD of glyphe of unity?

30s

After much play and thinking, the AF decay ITSELF is not THAT bad. It’s just the mix of VERY LOW AF GENERATION + All the gates.

If they wanna keep the AF degen, just make it at LEAST 3 to 4 times faster to generate it. Make the CAF skills worth it, and the glyphs too.

But really, remove the degen.

Seed of Life is a LIGHT FIELD WOOO

• Trait Glyphs >> Ancestral Grace >> Pop an instant glyph UPON arrival = AoE Retaliation, baby!

• In CAF – Pop Seed of Life >> Lunar Impact for AoE Retal

Nice nice

Awesome

They really have to tweak AF and how to generate it etc and maybe tweak damage coefficients and I’ll be super happy

Add an effect that generates AF when you’re struck

Celestial is about healing, would fit with taking damage to generate it or something

But yeah I’m very very sad about Druid’s state right now

Lower by 5% to add concentration and expertise wouldn’t be THAT bad

How to dest-Roy an elite spec

I fail to see the logic behind this change. AF is extremely slow to generate, HIGHLY depends on staff, they added a CD to the transform, and the Astral skills are very underwhelming. Also, forget about the celestial form glyphs… The Risk vs Reward is really awful.

I’m sadly quite disappointed at the Druid’s current state, please Irenio, you’re my only hope

Since they added ‘concentration’ and ‘expertise’ attributes, which affect Boon Duration and Condition Duration, do you guys think the celestial stats should get them too?

Whew totally forgot EBG wasn’t getting changed, thanks a lot.

A lot.

With old WvW maps getting removed, what’s gonna happen with the tameable Juvenile Wolf! (It’s currently the ONLY place to find them)

Is it gonna be in the new WvW Maps? Is it gonna be in some HoT Maps?

Don’t forget that one!

I pretty much have a collection of thematic characters/in-game cosplay characters, thought I’d start sharing!

First reveal is my Zero Suit Samus character, something I haven’t yet seen in-game

It’s an Engineer for the zappity-zap pistol skill, first choice was thief for all the acrobatics (Samus is a solid acrobat), but I have a LOT of thematic thief characters (will post them one day)

Here’s a gallery!

Also needs its CD lowered since it now dies on active skill use.

Lowering to 90s would be awesome

I really loke your suggestion of swapping natural Mender with Primal Echoes’ Daze on swap.

Would still like to see some damage modifier but swapping the traits like you suggested would be amazing

• Jungle Stalker: Saber
• Eagle/Hawk/Owl: Dagger
• Wolf: Carver
• Fernhound: Mender
• Red Moa: Momo/Jason Mo Moa
• River Drake: Electrys
• Salamander Drake: Pyrus
• Reef Drake: Confucius
• Jaguar: Bagheera
• Brown/Black Bear: Baloo
• Tiger: Shere Khan
• Krytan Drakehound: Scooby
• Shark: Javelin
• Any spider: Slingshot
• Any devourer: Catapult

Good changes to the Celestial Avatar, the 10s CD and the half AF on early end. Good tweaks on AF generation. CAF weapon skills could still use some more ‘offensive’ support effects -

Cosmic Ray

• Small damage component
• 2s Vulnerability (AoE)

Seed of Life

• Small damage component on burst
• 2s AoE Weakness on burst

Lunar Impact

• Stun weakened foes (instead of daze, but of course keep daze, synergy with Seed of Life)

Rejuvenating Tides

• 2s vigor per pulse to allies

Natural Convergence

• Blind on final pulse
• Make it a Dark Field

I understand Grace of the Land is on the line of CA-specific traits (top line), but I’d love to see some additional effect not purely tied to it, such as….

• Gain stability whenever you heal an ally (1 stack, 3 seconds stability, 3s cooldown, not dependent on CA form) – Think juggernaut trait for engies, its tied to the flamethrower, in this case, tied to the Staff, but also heals from rezzing, etc. Would make you a super dedicated rezzer

Sweet Changes!

I will miss the old Lingering Light and Grace of the Land though, but happy with the tweaks

Irenio CalmonHuang.2048:

There’ve been some changes to Druid staff, glyphs, traits and Celestial avatar skills.

One change I can mention is that Ancestral Grace will now end as soon as you reach your destination rather than having to wait out the animation. We weren’t able to do this before with point-based movement, but an awesome programmer threw together a way for us to script it in.

As Belzebu calls out: You’ll have to check out the rest of the changes on the 23rd!

Thanks for the mini update! Glad to see everything was looked at!

Yes.

/15lettersOrSomething

In terms of comparison,

• Engie turrets can also grant boons, are ranged, have 2 ‘active’ skills (F1-F5 skills), have 4 different traits, and for the longest time were immune to condis
• Scrappers are getting Gyros, mobile turrets. Again 2 ‘active’ skills and 3 different traits
• Warriors have Banners, indestructible summons that can be wielded (mobility), grant direct attribute bonuses, can be traited for perma regen.
• Heralds can grant perma Swiftness, Fury, Might, Regen up to 5 allies (and of course are mobile)

Boy do I wanna run Spirit Druid… But the current state of spirits is very sad… A few tweaks could make them viable.

Base Changes

• Rework player priority (will often apply effects to NPCs, Other Spirits, Pets, etc before player characters)
• -33% Condition Damage reduction – Poison and burning now stack, and bleeds stack much higher, so conditions are more potent
• -20% Direct Damage reduction – they get killed by the wind, and there are more and more AoE skills
• Mobility – Come’on. A profession focused on mobility? Make it traitable like before but please bring back mobility.
• Make most boons last 3s per pulse. They die quick, and they die on active. see details below
• Make them activate their active effect on death – perhaps traited
• Make most of them create a field on active use/death – details below

Water Spirit

• Make the active/death create a Water Field 3s
• Tweak the healing coefficient
• Add a small 5% healing efficiency passive bonus? – this healing skill feels very lackluster

Frost Spirit

• Make the active/death create an Ice Field 3s
• Add a damage component to the active
• Change traited Boon to Fury

Stone Spirit

• Lower passive effect recharge from 10s to 8s
• Change traited Boon to a 1 stack, 3s stability -protection + traited protection feels a bit redundant despite the boon’s utility

Sun Spirit

• Make the active/death create a Fire Field 3s
• Change traited Boon to a 2 stacks, 3s Might

Storm Spirit

• Make the active/death create a Lightning Field 3s
• If spirits become mobile, swiftness is good. Good alternatives are also 3s Vigor or 1s Quickness (only Boon not to pulse for 3s base)

Spirit of the Wild

• Make the active/death create a Light Field 3s
• Change the traited Boon to Resistance, 1s every 3s
• Lower cooldown to 90s – since it now dies on active like other spirits. 120s is darn long

Either Zealot’s (Power/Precision/Healing Power) or Celestial (Minor to all Stats) with

Rune of Altruism (+175 Healing Power / +10% Boon Duration / 3 might and Fury to 5 Allies on Heal)

Unknown Effect

• Does sigil of water and sigil of renewal activate the trait Lingering Light? Seeing as they don’t generate Astral Force

I forgot, Thief auto pistol also applies bleed

‘if in the right spot’

Other professions don’t have this condition

And yes, Warrior, Engie, Thief, Necro (condi convert) can all get quickness too

It’s intended.
/thread

On the upside:
Any on pet-swap effects trigger when entering combat with stowed pet (if the effect is not on CD)

That means, with Clarion Bond and Zephyr’s Speed:

• 6 stacks of 15s might
• 15s Fury
• 15s Swiftness
• 3s Quickness

….but yeah, I want that Opening Strike too!

Most of the traits are gone but

• + Base 70% chance on hit
• + More damaging stacks
• + ‘Bigger’ burst skill

But but

• - Can’t move.
• - Die on skill use
• - Die if someone sneezes on them even when traited

The ONE trait

• Doubles their health – they still die withing seconds. I feel developpers forgot that now BURNING stacks, POISON stacks, BLEEDS stack much higher so conditions wipe them instantly)
• Makes them grant a pulsing boon that they FINALLY balanced a bit… it was 1s of the specific boon every 3s… How useless is that… Now some of the boons are 3s every 3s. Still crap. 1 stack might is barely noticeable.
• Larger AoE for active skill. – but they still die. And no CD reduction.

Let’s compare other autos that grant bleeding:

Engineers with pistol

• 3s base bleed
• AoE 120 Radius
• Affects up to 5 targets
• 900 range

Elementalists with dagger

• 8s Bleed
• 300 Range

Warriors with sword

• 2 chains
• 8s Base Bleed
• Cleave 130 Radius
• Affects up to 3 targets

Necros with scepter

• 3 chain + 1 poison from third chain
• 4 and a half seconds
• 900 range

Rangers with shortbow

• Needs to hit from back or side
• 1 target
• 3s Base Bleed
• 900 range
• 0.54 seconds rate of fire

I actually really love the positional aspect of the shortbow. That said, it is pretty underwhelming. Some nice utility, but not by much. My dream Rager Shortbow Setup would sound like this:

Crossfire

• Base 2s bleed per hit – Engies have a bleed on auto 900 range, and it can affect up to 5 foes. Warriors have a bleed on auto, melee range, twice from chain, and is 8s base duration. Elementalists have a bleed on auto, 300 range, 8s base. Necros have a bleed on auto, three times from chain + poison on third chain, four point five seconds base, 900 range.
• If hit from back/side, 4s bleed instead
• 10% more base damage

Poison Volley

• 5% more base damage
• Apply Weakness if hit from back/side – not much for the outgoing target damage reduction, more about the slower endurance regen.
• 1s longer base poison duration

Quick Shot

• 10% more base damage
• 6s swiftness base instead of 3s – 3s base is a joke
• 3s Quickness if hit when retreating – would become a great escaping weapon skill

Crippling Shot

• 10% more base damage
• 4s base crippled duration (up from 3s)
• 2 stacks of Torment 5s if hit from the back/side – becomes more punishing towards escaping foes, crippling + tormenting, and torment is a movement-related damaging skill

Concussion Shot

• 10% more base damage
• 2 Confusion 4s – a small damaging condition somewhat related to concussions. The 1s is lost from the double damage while target uses skill as he’s at least dazed. But the ticking confuse damage counts

I really want the shortbow to be like a stalking weapon, and a better skirmishing weapon. I want it to punish escaping targets, and it needs a bit more punch.

Like others said, it goes on ICD as soon as its activated.

Also, to clarify, it activates on CC’d foes.
It does NOT activate ‘on CC’, meaning you need to deal a direct damage hit after the target is dazed/stunned/knocked down/launched so a direct hit after pet-induced CC will activate it or even ally-induced CC

Excellent synergy with Primal Echoes on a staff with on-swap sigils that deal direct damage!

The bleed and immob pulse is very slow though, definitely a small speed tweak (or longer base immob)

Yeah the description is a bit confusing,
It ‘heals allies’ thanks to its regen only (and cleansing I guess)

It’s been like that since day one but I’ve always used it with Warhorn for a nice burst heal

Now as a trap it’s less ‘responsive’ and a bit too situational :/

Daniel Handler.4816:

When I was in spvp/stronghold I noticed that not only would I keep Astral force upon entering the pregame ready time, but when the match stated any life force I spent would reimbursed.

This is completely bugged as necros cannot keep any force they generate in the pregame ready time.

Yeah as mentionned in the list, AF also persists through downed, defeat, logging out and changing zones.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Off the thread topic, so lets not get carried away, but imo this should heal for the same amount as it was going to damage. Reflection is a 100% negated damage to you plus 100% returned damage. This needs to punish as much by healing. Essentially the same.

Yeah that could be a perfect fix too, imagine using it on a Kill Shot… Yummy
Not too fond of the limited range of the healing projectiles or their speed either but I can live with that. (although kinda weird to see such low range on the healing projectile on a 900 range skill heh?)

I totally want Seed of Life to grant Weakness to foes.

The build has really nice potential, I’m really waiting on what they’re optimizing on the druid

Also love that Ancient Seeds affect foes hit after their CC effect, as such, canine knockdowns or the smokescale knockdown will proc the trait.

And how awesome is it that you can cast Glyph of Equality when in Ancestral Grace ‘form’? Man I loved that in battle.

Solar Beam

• Like Heimskarl mentionned, burn for the duration of the attack (0.33s or 0.5s burn per hit), so the burning stops as soon as you don’t use it. Would burn any 3 foes it passes through. If deemed too powerful, add a range criteria; only burns foes within 450 range or something.

Astral Wisp

• Make the attack phase a Projectile Finisher
• Apply vulnerability to foes that the wisp passes through (1.5s CD per foe)
  OR
• Apply a short blind to foes that the wisp passes through

Ancestral Grace

• AoE daze of 0.5s upon arriving at location. – In PvP, it’d become a solid ‘rush to downed ally’ skill as it’d potentially cancel stomps for a split second. Does Daze put the player in combat? I love the lack of damage for the fact it doesnt put the player in combat

Vine Surge

• Make the vine last slightly longer and apply cripple effect to foes that cross it. Double immob time, add base cripple. Does it need an additional damaging component? Bleed? Torment? Torment would be interesting as a damaging condition as it’s movement related, and this skill is movement related. Not sure about the condition removal though

Sublime Conversion

• Make it last longer and/or add an ally condi to boon effect and an enemy boon to condi effect. Fits with conversion theme and adds more utility. JUST being a projectile convert skill makes it too situational – Sure the water field has excellent synergy with Ancestral Grace, but yeah

I’d really love to see this glyph have a damage effect per second, as many foes in PVE have slow attacks

Something like X damage every second to tethered foes, and of course the damage dealt when struck by such foes.

Same for the celestial version, I’d love to see a pulsing healing every second in addition to the heal tethered allies when healing self

The pulsing damage/heal would be minor, but it’d at least give a little something so you don’t ‘waste’ the skill if no enemies strike you for the duration.

Didn’t think about testing it, but

Does Natural Healing affect the pet’s healing effect from Cultivated Synergy ?

Does the healing per second affect Astral Force generation?

Also please fix the bugs

• Does not work on structures (Tequatl’s fingers for example)
• If you are blind while activating it, the entire skill won’t deal any damage
• If you activate it on an already blocking target, the entire skill won’t deal any damage (even if the blocking stance has ended)
• Still has many issues with ‘obstructed’ targets (for both the activation phase and the attack phase)

I was originally gonna suggest a 750 radius as it would become a pretty strong on demand AoE direct damage skill

Of the Mad King still has a Forty-Five seconds Cooldown on its effect too, so it can keep tis 900 radius and 16 hits (more on crit procs with it)

Ranger Warhorn has gotten some nice additions to its (5) Skill ‘Call of the Wild’ recently (Regen when Traited, increase to 3 might stacks instead of 1), but Hunter’s Call still feels lackluster. Now before we begin, let me mention something pretty interesting.

Superior Runes of the Mad King.

The 6th rune bonus spawns EXACTLY the same attack as Hunter’s Call, it’s even called ’Hunter’s Call’ in the combat log, only, it uses the old 900 range and it applies up to 3 enemies in an AoE. You see me coming.

Hunter’s Call Activation Time: 0.75s Cooldown: 25s
Call hawks to swarm foes around you.

• Damage (12x): 600 – Current Hunter’s Call is 36 dmg per hit for 16 hits, this one would be 50 per hit for 12 hits
• Humber of Targets: 3
• Duration: 4s – old duration is 5 seconds for 16 hits
• Radius: 800 – Yes, current HC is 1200 but needs a target. It’s a slight nerf, but its balanced as it affects ANY 3 foes in a 800 radius. Rune of the Mad King is a 900 range

So there you go:

• Remove the target necessity
• Make it an AoE 800 radius skill that affects up to 3 foes
• Lower the hits to 12 hits (from 16) but make the hits deal 50 dmg (from 36)
• Make the attack last 4s instead of 5s
• Activation time lowered from 1s to 0.75s

Such changes would add GREAT offensive utility against mobs, in PvP, in WvW.
Also, much like the mad king rune’s 6th effect (or current Hunter’s Call), it would obviously apply to stealthed foes, only the birds would remain invisible as long as foe is stealthed (as it currently works)