Guild Wars 2

Wow… u must be liek… Bhawb’s biggest fan!

To try and keep user politics/trollinz to a minimum though, as mentioned earlier the Bug has been around for awhile. It showed up when Anet fixed a previous bug where Chillblains wasn’t properly effected by Greater Marks (it laid down a larger mark, but enemies weren’t effected by it on the outer edges because the effect itself was still localized in the small center).

My assumption would be, due to how the previous fix I mentioned effected the ground targeting, is that they made a change in the code specific to Chillblains when you have Greater Marks. Likely what they did was increase Chillblains default radius which had the double benefit of increasing the radius of the ground targeting graphic at the same time. But because the code they used to do this was rather specific in its implementation for Chillblains (probably made more complicated by the Particle Effect needing to expand as well), they probably couldn’t blanket this change for the entirety of the Staff Skill Bar without making the effected area of each Mark greater than the ground targeted area to begin with.

Long story short, they simply compounded the bug by making the fix so specific to Chillblains, it’s likely gotten more convoluted to fix then they originally intended. But hey, who am I to give Coders the benefit of the doubt? I’m no Bhawb!

In continuation with Narcemus’s point on the Mad Realm, we also know that Charr can be sent to the Realm of Torment (source). So it’s not unimaginable that other races have cross overs in the various after lives in the Mists.

That would actually be called a bug fix. This may seem like semantics, but people use the word nerf way too loosely and the two things are not interchangeable. To illustrate using the post made by CHIPS.

Had the Trait previously said “Critical hits have a 66% chance to cause bleeding. Grants 1 stack of bleeding for 5 second.” and ANet (stealth or in Patch Notes) changed the functionality to 1 second, this would be defined as Nerf as they are reducing the effectiveness of something that had previously been working as intended.

A bug fix, would be how the trait reads “Critical hits have a 66% chance to cause bleeding. Grants 1 stack of bleeding for 1 second.” and ANet prevented it from procing for a 5 second bleed. This is reducing the effectiveness of something that was clearly not working as intended (seeing as the Description reads 1 second, you have no reason to assume that 5 seconds would have been the intended functionality).

Please, for the sake of not sounding melodramatic, do not attempt to use the word Nerf to describe a bug fix. I actually stopped reading your post at that point CHIPS because it begins smacking of blatant sensationalism that, in my opinion, draws into question the credibility of the rest of the post, regardless of whether or not you made valid points.

Definitely in agreement that the lack of Signet change., however I think the change they made to it was to keep the passive in line with the other passive stat boosts.

The problem I have with Signet of Spite is just that it’s not worth activating. The steep cool down for such a brief effect is just disappointing. You can’t even really use it as a Bleed Source. Though the buff in the Power Stat is welcomed, I’d be more interested in seeing it’s effective active ability buffed somehow or that 90 second cooldown jiggered a little, because otherwise there are far better signets to use in the meantime.

Boon Hate for Warriors: +3% Damage for each unique Boon on the character

Protection: Inbound Damage is reduced by 33%

Number of Unique Boons in the game: 9

So even if you’re maintaining every boon in the game, the Warrior’s Boon Hate Grand Master Trait will not ever completely overcome the damage reduction received via Protection. This is also neglecting the fact that one of the 9 Boons blocks the inbound damage and disappears, making the maximum number of boons that you could potentially have on you while receiving direct damage to 8. Access to Vigor also means more Dodging, meaning more damage negation.

So yeah. I don’t foresee 5 man Warrior teams in tPvP popping up in the forseeable future because of this change. Nor do I think Guardians are going to disappear even with this change. All this does is give Warriors a shot of actually being useful in the current Boon spamming Meta.

As for Necro Boon Hate, Bhawb (maybe Bas? I’m too lazy to look up the response right now you two :P) rightfully reminded me that we not only have Corrupt Boon, but Well of Corruption, and Spinal Shivers, as well as the Chill of Death trait to proc Spinal Shivers automatically. We gots lots goin’ in the Boon Hate department… but the more the merrier.

What’s the point of making a 1.5 second cast time if the caster is invulnerable for the casting? That’s basically adding insult to injury.

Necro: Hey! Hey look! I’m about to cast this spell and guess what? You can’t do squat about it.

The point of Cast Times is meant to offer opponents an opportunity to do something during it. Be it reposition themselves in relation to you, to dodge accordingly, or to somehow interrupt the cast time time.

Also try to remember that this spell is being cast in Death Shroud. How are we supposed to look like dust when we’re already covered in black smoke that floats about our bodies as we move.

Though I do like the idea of a Condition (you’re spot on with the attempt to make us last longer in a fight) that weakens physical Damage, I think 33% is just too strong. Remember that this debuff will be working alongside game mechanics that are already in place in the game. Just imagine that if a Necro and Guardian show up, all damage would be roughly cut in half. (It wouldn’t be a straight up 66% because the inbound damage would be scaled back by 33% and then the protection would proc on hit resulting in 33% less damage of the already reduced damage. I suck at math too much to figure out the exact number.)

Not sure if trollin’…

But on the off chance you’re not, you’re probably not going to be rejoining the game in the forseeable future. I’d check back in April 1st, 2014.

Honestly (haven’t read the entire thread) but I think it would be more fitting to have a Weapon Dependant DS skill reflected in Life Blast. I love the idea, and I think it would make people view Death Shroud as something more than just an ‘OH kitten’ button but attempt to use it strategically.

As for that 5 skill, I feel like with all the ‘boon hate’ changes that the necro may start lagging behind and a Condition that punishes Boon Spam would actually fit nicely in the current meta.

A Condition that Shortens the Duration of Active Boons or even one that pings damage every time a boon is applied.

Don’t have a lot of time, but as Bhawb said increasing HP has no negative effect on healing effectiveness because Heals are hard numbers and not by % means that you will always heal the same. In addition Regen also ticks individually, so you’re not healing faster one way or another except you are given the illusion of healing for more because your health bar refills quicker.

The only way this change negatively effects Minions is in the Fractals as it means Agony will do them more damage making it harder to heal minions effectively.

1) Didn’t use the Dev Tracker actually. I just browse a LOT of Forums, even for parts of the game I don’t actively participate in (PvP and WvW in this case) because I like to stay on top of Class Perceptions and Balance Issues that could effect other parts of the game. I found this thread yesterday in that meandering.

2) If you’re demanding for a Dev Response to something, why aren’t you watching the Dev Tracker? That’s what it’s there for. To Track Dev Response to issues. Yes, I realize the majority of them are by Gaile in the Account Issues forum, but the fact remains it’s your best source of watching what the Devs are up to on the Forums.

3) Low Priority =/= Doesn’t Care. It means that at the moment, there are simply more important things to work on such as class balance issues and getting sPvP up to snuff. This is a world where limited resources mean that you have to pick what you do wisely, and because they do not pick what you want to do first and foremost doesn’t mean that they don’t care it means that they can’t do it yet. The fact that the subject itself is a point of contention means that it’s been a debated topic on numerous occasions. You don’t have numerous debates about something you don’t care about.

Even Lesh, One Day Ago

1) I agree that targeting has been a point of contention around here since everyone has a different opinion on how it should work. We have not forgotten about this issue, but it is pretty low priority, unfortunately. This polish would fall under the umbrella of a combat team.

Source

Implying the Devs don’t know or care about this situation… but then I guess following the Dev tracker takes a lot of work for some people.

flow.6043:

Similar ideas have been posted before.
6% lf gain + 1minion spawn on an auto attack cycle sounds overpowered, also we would lose our only long range attack.

This! Staff is currently our only long range weapon, and that includes the Auto-Attack. Worse, this change to auto-attack would require a complete overhaul of the Staff Weapon Skills to change the fact that you’re suddenly making our most utilitarian long range weapon into a melee weapon.

And then you realize that this change would follow with everybody putting their Toughness and Healing Power attributes together because they offer the best bang for your buck.

Also I’d like to point out that they aren’t technically speaking immune to dragon corruption.

Though they cannot be turned into Risen, they can be killed by Dragon Corruption akin to a poison. This is seen as a physical effect by those Sylvari living in the Lynchcroft Mere in Kessex Hill. So ‘immune’ is a bit of a subjective term in this case.

I guess if you don’t follow the Lore of the universe then yes, LA makes no sense what so ever. But that’s like taking a plane to a Japan after the Tsunami and wondering why everything’s been wrecked.

LA, along with the entire coast line north of the Orrian Peninsula was hit by a Tsunami. LA and entire villages were washed away. People were displaced and homeless and desperate, and with no Lionguard, it would quickly become a land ripe for the picking for pirates and brigands. And where better to base your operations than in the submerged capital of a city?

I’m gonna tell it straight as a vet Guild Wars 1 player. The Art Direction in this game is fantastic. The point I give you is Orr, but that’s to be expected because Anet have always loved their ‘Abandon All Hope Ye Who Enter Here’ endgame (Imperial Palace was the exception that proved the rule). From the depressing colour palettes of Straits and Malchor’s to the sudden bright and vivid tones of the Cursed Shores, the place is just down right depressing and I genuinely do tend to avoid those maps more than any other.

The Guild Wars Universe has always maintained my interest by the amount of humourous content it has. And maybe it’s because SAB is a throw back to my gaming as kid, but I like it. It’s Pastiche and if I’m able to spend hours in there whacking at bunnies with sticks then all the better.

Also I seem to enjoy most everything that you seemed to hate. So I’m not gonna go much further because frankly this entire thread is really just an opinion discussion. Not that it’s bad, we’re all welcome to our opinions, it’s just very difficult to form a constructive debate around it because of how closely we hold our opinions and tend to defend them. At the end of the day it’s all about taste, and I enjoy GW2 immensely, sorry to hear that you don’t.

I can’t really comment on the Asura as I have extremely little interest in them (I find them annoying to be perfectly honest) so that’s why I avoided touching on that point. Just don’t have enough info on them to make any statement so I won’t.

As as the Sylvari go, It’s not questionable whether it’s their ‘real’ form at all, it is their real form and nothing in Lore suggests that it would/could/should be otherwise. Even the Nightmare Court bear the same resemblance, with the only difference being Philisophical with the nature of the Dream. Also we do not fully understand why the Pale Tree created the Sylvari in humanoid shape, but she did. There are theories that their form was effected by Ronan’s grave and the settlement made by him and Ventari, but there’s nothing certain about any of this.

Secondly there’s no solid link between the Pale Tree and the Oakhearts or the Druids for that matter (I’m assuming you’re referencing the Druids from GW1). If there is a link between the Druids and the Pale Tree, it makes all the more sense for them to take humanoid shape because the Druids were originally a tribe of Humans who forsook their humanoid shape for something closer a kin to nature before abandoning their bodies altogether.

Anyways yes, things tend to be more loosely set up and open in MMO formats because of the amount of people playing. This often leads to stories getting more watered down and abilities being more widespread to allow for more options while playing. The choices at the beginning give you RP options, but at the same time, don’t limit you in case you wanted to play or change those options later in the game. And the fact that Racial Skills are all weak in comparison to the Class Skills it’s not gamebreaking to have access to them all. There are pros and cons by making such a system, and having less impactful decision making is unfortunately one of them. If anything, I’m guessing some of these decisions are reflected in that neglected little instance that is called the Home Instance.

@Humans: Being blessed by a God and only worshipping that God are two different things (as Zeefa already pointed out). Humans often pick a favourite deity from their Pantheon, but that doesn’t mean you those who love Grenth above the others stop praying to Dwayna and Melandru.

@Norn: This goes along the same line as the Human thing. Following a Spirit doesn’t exclude the others from you. The ability to ‘Become the Bear’ isn’t something relegated to Shaman of Bear. The Norn revere all spirits of the Wild (save for Sons of Svanir who seem to be the only ones that solely revere Dragon), and so they draw on them all for strength. It just so happens that many follow one Spirit more fervently than others. This doesn’t mean that those who follow Bear’s teachings suddenly forget everything about Wolf and Wolf’s teaching.

@Sylvari: There’s nothing to suggest the Sylvari would have any transformative power in the Lore (before GW2 release and after). Mind you that doesn’t mean much considering just how much of the Sylvari’s creation is still a mystery, but I would argue that their tendency to wanting peace above all else doesn’t make turning into a jolly green giant very lore friendly.

@Charr: Getting to summon the Charr Warband you pull together in the Personal Story would be snazzy indeed. To play devil’s advocate though, you can technically get that elite without having finished your personal story so I can understand where complications would arise in implementing it. I’m no programmer, but it sounds like it’d be a complicated task indeed.

I’ve been under the impression that more emotes will be added as time and resources free up for it.

Coming from GW1, a lot of the old Emotes don’t do anything, but also don’t give you the ‘not an emote’ text that normally accompanies an incorrectly typed emote.

This goes for stuff like /flex and /pout and all the old instrument emotes that filled the game (miss playin’ that mean air guitar solo).

So I think there is hope, just gotta patient with the Devs. As much as I want these emotes back, I’d much prefer the mechanics of the game to be better tuned than they currently are.

There’s a simple means of implementing Dueling in the game without actually annoying people like myself who don’t care much for it.

Give us an Auto-Decline feature so that player’s can’t pester us with Duels. Badda-boom badda bing, I no longer have to care about people sending me duel requests and life goes on.

Alternatively have it set up in an area outside PvE if the thought of open world dueling is really that blasphemous to people. Either in Heart of the Mists or LA would work fine in my opinion.

1. A. Why would you put a leap on the Scepter. It’s a ranged weapon that is best suited for keeping opponents at a distance… and lookit that. It has an AoE cripple to help you do just that. Arguably speaking, the weapon best suited for any kind of leap towards target would be the Dagger.

B. It’s not that your idea is too much akin to Spectral Walk (though it definitely is), but that it’s basically a carbon copy of Portal without the Team Functionality.

To make my point clear though, the problem isn’t that we have lack mobility. It’s that we lack the ability to prevent other classes from disengaging which is more in line with what the developers want. However the current amount of cleansing makes this extremely problematic to actually achieve. We have chills and cripples, we also have them in the form of gap closers (spectral grasp and dark path) however something is not working in that these skills simply aren’t landing due to pathing/speed issues.

3. People keep telling me that I hate Reanimator. “Everybody hates it.” “Nobody likes it.” Please stop making these great sweeping declarations for other people. I find arguments to be more compelling when they don’t involve rationales that imply everybody agree’s with you already (if everybody everywhere agreed that this trait needed to go, Anet would have replaced it because they’d have agreed it needed to go. See the dilemma?). That aside, I genuinely don’t mind it. I don’t love it, nor do I hate it. It’s there and wholly tolerable. Moving on.

4. Stability is really the game breaker and I’m in agreement. We need access to this in order to be a proper attrition class. This is again linked to the question of ‘do we need mobility’. No, we need more adequate tools in order to sustain damage and remain in control of the fight. Necros have no means of escaping players, therefore we need the means to stay up and fighting because we don’t have a reset button. Every fight is a fight to the death because that’s the only alternative to winning.

So more reliable/effective snares + access to Stability would go a very long way to making us the Attrition class Anet keeps talking about.

ITT: People who don’t realize that if the Pick wasn’t soulbound, you would have completely circumvented a goldsink with a 10 dollar purchase.

No, the goldsink isn’t large by itself but that’s because there are other goldsinks available in game to keep the cost of other goldsinks to smaller increments. Many small gold sinks is better than fewer larger gold sinks. Were the Pick to be account bound, it’d require a readjustment of Merch Prices/Waypoint Costs to accomdate for the disappearance of the goldsink that the Picks provided.

These Goldsinks are a necessity to prevent your in game gold from becoming utterly worthless.

It’s not my fault if the ignorant plebs can’t bear the Nettiquette of a proper Web-Gentleman.

As amusing as this entire strain of thought is, I can’t see myself ever caring about people’s grammar and punctuation in a video game. The objective of communication is the transference of ideas. So long as I understand the idea that the other person is trying to relay, I don’t care how they go about doing it.

In 2v1 it’s rarely ideal to stomp, because going for the stomp means opening yourself up to the second person to attack you.

The better option is to use your PBAoE’s to deal consistent enough damage to the downed player to prevent them from reviving themselves, and pressuring the second player to either try and res his ally (opening himself up to be attacked by you) or to flee once you get the higher ground.

If you’re able to dance in and out of the downed players Downed State attack range then even better because it’ll mean he’s out of the fight as long as you can land a single attack every few seconds to interrupt his self-heal skill.

I’d also argue that keeping a player in the downed state is usually more beneficial unless he’s on a cap point because it keeps him out of the fight longer.

I’m in agreement that this is only tentatively considered ‘Lore’ because technically speaking nothing that happens in the RP community is considered Canon in the Guild Wars Universe.

Further, as you and Konig pointed out, Tarnished Coast is the unofficial RP server. There is no official RP server, and when Anet made that decision they made the decision not to worry about Character names being reflective of the Universe they made. They did however give the information to those interested to make character names to fit the cultures they’re in (Norn, Charr, and Asura all have an easy to learn naming methodology).

So basically I guess what I’m saying is the ‘Etiquette’ you’re implying does not exist, because the rules for it were never hammered in Stone. Not to bash the RP community, but the rules you guys have created for yourselves are, for better or worse, not the rules of the server at large. Until such a time as Anet decide to make an official RP server, these problems you’re having won’t be going away. The main topic at hand that I think you should honestly be tackling is a thread in the suggestion forum for Official RP servers.

Best of luck to ya.

What likely happened OP, is that the people in your group saw posts like the one Ezeriel just made and took it for the word of Gospel. Don’t be discouraged. I run exclusively Necro as well (my second highest character is my Guardian at level 65) and I’ve done at least one explorable path in every Dungeon without being considered Dead Weight.

Find yourself a good group of people in a Guild (if you’re in Anvil Rock, hit me up with PM and I’ll add you to the one I’m in). Alternatively see about joining the all Necro guild set up by Bas and Bhawb called ‘But of Corpse’ as they’ve done all necro Dungeon runs in the past.

The class can definitely see some wrinkles ironed out, but it’s by no means a hindrance that’ll slow your party down.

That being said, I will agree with what has been said by Ezeriel and others, that the there is an unofficial trinity of Warrior, Guardian, and Mesmer in PvE due to their ability to do Speed Clears of Dungeons. But if you’re like me and actually enjoy killing things besides the mandatory bosses in Dungeons, you should avoid those Speed Clear groups anyways.

Well considering there are ancient Orrian texts we can read, it should be safe to assume the language is some dialect related to Old Krytan, and one that’s close enough that all of our characters are able to piece it together and read it on the fly. That or we all have our own Personal ‘universal translator’ that was likely injected into us by an Asuran when we weren’t looking.

For weapon skins, I really enjoy the Kodan Weapons. The Ice Theme definitely meshes well with our plethora of Chill skills.

emon.1863:

i guess there are not so many cond. necro anymore. ppl just stop’d playing thous build – at least in Eu tpvp. plague is not but, but it more like not so effective as other skills – for example Undeath signet.

I think the lack of condition builds is more a symptom of the stack limits, at that would be my guess in PvE.

Why risk fighting over Bleed Stacks and risk losing out on damage when you could just forgo the bleed stacking all together.

That all being said, I’m glad we have some hard numbers on Plague Signet, as it makes for a great support skill in places like TA where conditions run rampant.

I tend to use them situationally at best, depending on what I need.

If I need a quick burst, I go for the Bone Minions. Low Cool down and decent damage out put makes them ideal for doing a quick shot of damage, especially when coupled with might/vuln stacking.

Bone Fiend would definitely be one of the best DPS outputs we have as far as Minions, coupled next to Bone Wurm. The Fiend wins though in my opinion because you don’t have to sacrifice it after the battle is over. It’s also helpful if you’re doing anything that requires Snares (I’m looking at you Volcano Fractal). Both of their abilities to attack from range helps with survivability.

Shadow Fiend I don’t really use a lot, but it does mesh nicely with Chilling Darkness if you’re looking for more Chill, but there are better options when looking to maximize your Chilling Darkness Trait (Well of Darkness).

Flesh Golem offers its own usefulness doling out decent DPS and the charge Knock Down can be great for keeping enemies down and helping to whittle away at stacks of Defiant along with your fears.

@Andele: Wat? They definitely have uses outside of Minion Master builds, just most require some forethought into the build before using them (Bone Minion being the exception). Though I have tried Minion Master since the Axe buff, I don’t actively use it and opt instead to use the Minions as situational utilities that can be useful depending on the situation at hand.

There aren’t words enough in the English to describe how little I care about dueling one way or another. Whether it’s implemented or not won’t effect me in any way shape or form.

However WvW is not the place for it. As mentioned, the Queues are problematic enough as is on servers, and this would simply exasperate an already existing problem. If it’s implemented, it needs to be done in either the Open World or in the Heart of the Mists.

Chill still effects all of their utilities, elites, and class mechanic. I’m also in agreement that Initiative does have its own drawbacks that I think including Chill would just add too much to that. As others have mentioned, the Thief’s finite resource pool means they can’t get as much out of weapon/attunement/kit swapping as other classes can.

If Chill did start effecting Thief Weapon skills it would have to be done more intelligently than just putting their skills on Cool Down. It would have to effect either passive Initiative Regen or Initiative Costs, and without having played a thief overly much I’m not if that kind of mechanic would be overly punitive to them or not.

Also @BadHabitz: I play a Necro almost exclusively, and if you spec into a Chill oriented build you can easily get up to 20 seconds of Chill before it gets wiped.

@Simmerless: The 1hp build you’re referring to is the 1hp BiP Necro (If you think it’s on the nose, just be glad ‘WAY’ wasn’t slapped to the end of it). The idea behind the build was that by using your Death Penalty and a full set of Superior Runes (Each Superior Rune in GW1 reduced your health by 75. Peanuts in GW2, but in GW1 the average health pool was around 200hp-300hp. Been awhile but that’s what comes to mind). Normally there’s no advantage to having 1hp besides trolling your team mates, however the Necromancer’s skill pool having Health Sacrifice skills benefitted from this. One skill in particularly, the original Blood is Power would sacrifice 33% of your health to give a huge boost to energy regen. Instead of having a cooldown for the skill, Anet figured its cool down was your health because you could in fact kill yourself if you spammed the skill. In terms of game mechanics, 33% of 1hp was 0. So by being the living definition of Glass, you were able to give your entire party a permanent energy regen buff.

I’d never heard of it being used PvP, but I could see it making its way there, though likely not into the high tier meta. Any form of Health Degen though would kill the Necro, even if you could prevent all direct damage to him. So very much a liability. The thing about this build was it was largely a niche farming tool, particularly in Voltaic Spear Farm runs. Due to the incredibly fragile nature of the Necro, it was very difficult to actively put this specific form of Battery into most builds, and keeping him alive could quickly become more of a liability, especially if your necro was terrible at positioning himself. So if I thought MM builds in GW1 were niche… well this thing is kind of like Hipster Niche.

I would like to clarify that Battery Necros were by no means redundant in general PvE play. I’m just saying that this particular Battery Build was.

Also in reference to the Elitism being mentioned(can’t remember who. too lazy to hit back and check >__>) (UWSC, SoOSC, etc…) you are kind of taking this form of Elitism out of context. This Elitism does exist in GW2 in the same manner it existed in GW1. The difference is it’s not as prevalent because it’s not as lucrative. The Elitism being described is specifically the Elitism that arises from people who farm the same content over and over again, and are coincidentally usually the same group of people who artificially gate content to ensure only ‘the best’ are admitted into their speed clear groups. In GW2 this is pretty much the domain of the ‘4 Wars, 1 Mes’ CoF speed clears. But because CoF is easy as hell to begin with, it’s impossible for them to gate an entire section of the game like was seen both Underworld, Shards of Orr, and other higher difficulty areas. Because the content is more or less playable by all brackets of players, they are unable to make as large an impact on the game as they had in GW1.

However as the game progresses, more forms of Elitism will likely become more prevalent. As mentioned above, Players will gate content, be it for farming or for general play. I think Anet decision to prevent people from inspecting one another was a good step towards preventing it for as long as possible to keep players from incurring gear requirements on one another. How many people here from GW1 had their Paragon kicked because it wasn’t running the generic Imbagon build? How many Necros for not running SS? Hell… how many Warriors got kicked because PermaSins took over for tanking? Eventually the PvX version of Guild Wars 2 and people will be gated for not running particular builds on particular characters in particular places. Thankfully we haven’t reached that point yet, but it will likely happen sooner or later.

I’m about as casual as casual gets. 3-4 hours a day on average, and I’ve yet to see a single Abyss dye. Though I have gotten 3 Celestial Drops. So take what you can from that, but it really is a slot machine. Keep pulling the levers and you’re bound to hit payday eventually.

Josh Foreman.8250:

This is something I’ve been looking into over the past week or so. It would be great to have as rewards, and/or as gemstore purchases. I would LOVE it if you could only unlock some incredible Mega Man or Sonic knock-off transform skin for beating various places on hard mode. It’s just a matter of figuring out how much time is involved. Might be a pipe dream.

Re-skin Primeval Armor to cobalt blue. Put on large white goggles instead of the eye slit. Make the boots bright stinkin’ red, with white accents.

There, Speedy the Porcupine is born. Make it happen Anet.

I’m in agreement with Konig on the idea that Grenth likely didn’t kill Dhuum out of some sense of mercy, or fear of consequences, or even because he couldn’t. I think very much that he could have ended Dhuum once and for all when he first subsumed him as the new God of Death. He did it because he wanted to make a point. The schism between the two is afterall, entirely philosophical after all. Dhuum believed that Death was a finality, an inevitable end that must be met and cannot be turned away or fled from. He was the Omega Death, the End.

While Grenth did feel that Death would eventually come to everyone, he allowed for much more ‘play’ room through the form of ressurection and allowing life to be prolonged were it able.

My personal gut feeling is that he defeated but didn’t kill Dhuum as insult to injury. “You are defeated, but you will not die. You will not receive the release of your own final death, but suffer in extended life.” It would be the biggest back hand to deny somebody like Dhuum from even fulfilling his own outlook on death.

Also another thing people forget about GW1 is that a great deal of the skills were extraordinarily situational. Necro was my main in GW1 so I’ll use that mostly for my examples.

In terms of build variety, there were lots and lots and lots for generic PvE. However a great deal of the skills became useless in certain PvP formats, as well as End Content PvE. For instance Minion Master Builds (generally lauded for their usefulness in most PvE maps) go from super powerful to dead weight without access to dead bodies. This was huge because there were entire maps with elementals that didn’t spawn corpses, or so few corpses in the area that once your minions were dead there was no way to replenish them. This also went for builds that used the Wells because without bodies you had useless skills in your bar. So all of these skills became useless for areas like HA (post Minion Factory Nerf), the Deep, etc…

The other thing you have to remember is that there were a fair number of carbon copies. These skills were put in place because some players wouldn’t have access to them if they had bought only Nightfall or Factions, but were still deemed useful enough that they ought to be included.

And though I do hope more skills are eventually added, I’m in no rush for them. I think what the Devs are currently working on is successfully implementing their original goal of making all of our current skills useful in all situations depending on your play style, and there’s still a good deal of work to do on that end before I think it’s ready.

My biggest hope is for new Elite Skills, especially as a Necromancer I’d appreciate something less Form driven for an elite and more utilitarian than a Flesh Golem.

I’m in agreement that the hearts for the most part are lack-luster. The biggest pro to them I find is the removal of useless ‘back and forth’ quests outside of the personal story. You know the ones I’m talking about. The quests of ‘Go kill 10 badgers. Now go give the skins to my friend. He’ll likely send you back to me with what he owes me.’ Their main job though is to help direct you through the world, which I think they do their job superbly. ’I’m level x, where should I go next. I should probably go to level x heart since I’m still not high enough to complete my story mission’.

I think one of the biggest things people often forget is that the Hearts weren’t even part of the original design for the game. Originally the entire game was meant to be played by Orr, in that you were supposed to follow Event chains through the world as they progressed, watching as those stories unfolded before your eyes.

The hearts were implemented because the Devs found at the Demo booths at conventions, players would ignore areas or be utterly lost as to where to go next in terms of playable content for their characters. The Hearts are supposed act as guides on which area is suitable for you to level up in next and what level range you should expect from the Dynameic Events in them. They’re also generally anchors, where many Dynamic Events either lead to or begin at.

Long story short, they’re training wheels for when you get to Orr where you have to learn how to progress through the map. I think the problem is that because they’re everywhere but Orr, it would have been better to slowly ween them out of the higher level areas before Orr before having them disappear entirely.

Luke.4562:

Nowdays, for some people, to make information (about their own opinion) and putting them under public domain means to say unequivocally the truth.
The problem is people who put too much effort and time in this class or feel themselves being pro let them develope a major attachment to the Necromancer for a self esteem problem, this is THEIR moment to show their ability, they won’t never say you the Necromancer is broken, it would totally deny their self confidence.
They feel safe in those well known bugged shell, instead of looking far for the real potential.
_ Maybe Necromancer NOW has some kind of potential, but it’s not what come out from a focused project, it’s the result of a chaotic ecosystem grown out of scraps. _

Listen to me, man: Guild Wars 2 has not came out yet for Necromancers, what i suggest you it’s to give it a try to see yourself if it’s ok for you now.
Otherwise let’s wait for a big change again.

• Sweeping Generalizations of the people who disagree with you
• Generalizes them in a way that makes them seem like they have no idea what they’re actually doing
• Effectively word it so that there are two camps: People who love the necro and suck at the game, people who don’t play necro
• Proceeds to give no advice what-so-ever, or describe the class in actual game mechanics

Man, the last time I saw something like this is when my Prime Minister said that anybody against the Albertan Oil Sands was either a hippy or a foreign celebrity. Less

I mean c’mon bro, you could at least try and be constructive instead of backhanding any part of the community that doesn’t agree with you. It’s why I enjoy reading posts by CHIPS and Kravick and others who actually make an effort in giving the specific reasons why the class is hurting in the community. Why don’t you do the same?

I’ll tell you why there are no elves in Tyria.

The Elves departed from our world a long time ago. They sailed on their ships into the West to live among the Gods. There they shall wait until the end, when the Halls of Manos are opened and the elves both living and past will be united among the lost souls of man among the statues of dwarven lords great and small.

The dawn shall come again!

Honestly, as much as I enjoy elves in fantasy mythology, they’re not something that you should just crowbar into a game because you can. And as mentioned, Sylvari do a good part of filling in the role of ‘caretaker of the world’ archetype.

Dagger off hand has two roles, depending on the style of play.

In a Power Build (Dagger/Axe mainhand) you’re looking to use it for its inherent defensive capabilities. Dagger 4 being a blind and a cleanse coupled with Dagger 5’s Weakness helps reduce damage output of enemies. The bleeds provided by Dagger 5 are negligible in damage and shouldn’t be counted for much.

In Condition Builds (Scepter mainhand) it takes a more offensive turn. Dagger 4 opens up to not just blinding targets, but can be used to take off any self-inflicted conditions from Corruption to stack them onto Enemies. Often used in conjunction with Blood is Power or Epidemic. Dagger 5 being another source of bleeds and its weakness helping you to stay alive as you spam conditions.

So. In terms of viability, yes Dagger/Dagger is viable. However I think you’d find more utility in Focus (Boon stripping and Vuln stacking) or Warhorn (Mobility and Stun). The cripple/swiftness combo from Warhorn really helps keeping you in Melee range for the mainhand dagger.

Just popping in to make a quick clarification here to CHIP’s post.

All signets in GW1 had zero energy cost attached to them. The exception to this were some Necromancer Signets had a health sacrifice cost attached to them. I do realize CHIPs didn’t likely intend for it to sound like only Necromancer Signets had 0 energy costs, but the wording I found to be confusing enough for anybody unfamiliar with GW1 that I thought I’d post some clarification.

Also to be a nit pick Ether Signet had a Recharge of 45 seconds as well as Signet of Strength. I added this because I found it out when I went to make sure there weren’t any signets with Adrenaline costs before I posted my clarification. More of a ‘things you learn’ kind of thing. Anyways, overall still in agreement that recharge time on the vast majority of GW2 signets are extremely punitive for little gain, even when used correctly.

I’d also point out that Keystone Signet builds were laughably easy to use. Barbed Signet after its re-work was also an extremely simple signet to use (though the benefits were so much better than the previous iteration). Signets and using them =/= skill in all scenarios.

Anyways, for anybody wanting to learn more about signets from GW1 should go here. Overall CHIPs was spot on with the design change to them, and I’m left in agreement that

Jordo.5913:

The Charr were not villains though….if anything Humans were more villainous than the charr. When humans arrived in Tyria, they basically made camp in Ascalon and pushed the Charr north, and said get the kitten out. The Charr are just trying to take back what is rightfully theirs, thus causing the seering, and then to get back at the humans, the sinking of Orr and the Gods. Humans are just too stubborn to “lose”, when they have a place in Kryta to call their own now.

Okay, I’ve heard this brought up time and time again. Frankly. Not buying it.

Yes, the Humans kicked the Charr out of Ascalon. So what? Do you think the Charr haven’t done similarly to other cultures? They’re a Militaristic Expansionist culture. They tried to kick the Norn out of the Far Northern Shiverpeaks and failed.

Secondly, humans never ate Charr prisoners. Or pit Charr Prisoners into death battles against monsters with no weapons for sport. Or used them as slave labour. Or attempted genocide against the entire species of Charr.

Yes, I will say the Charr attempted to wipe all humans out of Tyria. I would argue they did not have knowledge of Elona or Cantha, and therefore after the searing when they pushed past the Northern Wall the Charr attempted to finish humanity off once and for all. Or are you going to tell me they had land claims on both Orr and Kryta as well (I’m sure the Centaurs would have something to say about that).

Were it not for the Mursaat and the efforts of Ascalon, the Charr came very close to successfully wiping out humans from the continent of Tyria. Not only that they scorched the land, destroying everything just to ‘get their land back’.

I will not say the humans are innocent of war crimes, of which I think Adelbern stepped too far in cursing the very people he had sworn to protect. But to go and say the Humans were more villainous than the Charr is ridiculous. And before I get a ‘but that was the Flame Legion’ as a common get out of Jail Free card, I will say that if the Flame Legion get to be blamed for all of Charr’s atrocities then humans get to blame Adelbern for the attrocities he’s committed that wasn’t in the name of all humans everywhere.

End of the story though, the Charr were not by any stretch friendly. Just in the contact with the Norn alone, it showed that if they thought they could conquer you, they would.

I think what this thread highlights the best is that being a MMO (Massive Multiplayer Online Game) is that as a developer, you cannot ever please everyone.

This game’s too childish!
This game’s too dark!
This game’s got too much!
This game’s got too little!

However to lay out this bag of snakes, age is mostly irrelevant. The best that you can achieve by giving somebody your age (assuming it’s your real age) is that you give them some kind of context to your personal aesthetic.

However not all ages share the same personal taste. The point is moot because just as there are plenty of people who dislike this content, there are equal if not more, in game enjoying it (just signed off after doing just that). At the end of the day, if you don’t like the content it really is a matter of turning off the game and finding something that better suits your taste. I’m not saying this callously, I’m telling you that you will have a better time in life if you just shrug your shoulders and go “Eh, whatever. I’ll go play Dark Souls instead.” There’s nothing wrong with that. That’s your personal taste in gaming.

I would argue that anything that has time and effort devoted into it’s making with any kind of aesthetic in mind can be considered an Art. I know this generally gets me in trouble, but yes I would argue that Cars aesthetically can be considered a type of Art, even mass produced ones, however Video Games (like Cinema) fall into a very sordid love affair with Narration. The Art in Video Games, and in conjunction Movies, Television, etc… is that despite having a Visual, the strength of the medium lies in its ability to tell stories. Even when those within the Medium try to push the boundaries of it, they are still invariably locked into the story which it tells (abstract or literal).

Do Video Games incorporate art? Yes, it is incorporated into the Story through the visuals used to narrate it. This is used in Cinema as well.

However as I mentioned earlier, the power that Video Games hold as a Medium are often its ability to tell a story to us (The Viewer/Gamer). I would argue that Cinema and Video Games share more in common though with Literature, for this very reason. Some games use story telling less than others (‘Casual’ Games on Facebook, Apps, the original Mario), however those very games are looked upon less for their Story and more for their raw ‘entertainment’ value (Similarly to any Michael Bay movie ever produced).

So to draw on my Car example, though not all Cars are considered priceless works of Art there exist some in the Medium that are exalted for their Aesthetic Design incorporated into their Manufacture. In that respect, there are many games that I would place alongside Caricatures you buy of yourself at Carnivals, there are indeed some that we can praise as wonderful artistic achievements in the Medium.

The best part about Art though is it’s ability to subsume almost any form and spark debate. Taste and Aesthetic Appeal are constantly changing, people hold different values over others and will laud onto some aspects moreso.

If you’re looking for an actual answer from me though, I suppose I would have to say ‘No, a Video Game is not a work of Fine Art.’ (take from that sentence what you will), however the creation of a Video Game is indeed a work of Artwork. I say this not just from the standpoint of the countless hours spent by artists making the Concept Art, but also to those rigging the 3D models into a tangible ‘living’ thing. This Game, as many games, are the vision of a group of Artists who had a story to tell. It’s up to the viewer to decide the value of the work put into it.

@Himei: To play devils advocate, making it so that each alt can earn a Laurel would actually bring in MORE revenue than preventing it. They’d make a killing off of extra character slots. It wouldn’t even matter if they were high level or not because you’d get a laurel for a reward regardless.

Even by making them soul bound, they would have to make everything cost more laurels save maybe the mini pets. The entire market would be saturated with Unid Dyes (every 5 days a person with 5 characters would be able to purchase 50 Unid Dyes).

Essentially what I’m saying is that this would through half the ingame market completely out of whack just to make a quick buck. They’re doing people a favour by not devaluing the Laurel by making it per character soulbound.

Besides, I hate keeping track of Karma on different characters as is, throwing in Laurels would be salt on that wound for me personally.

The Centaurs in the Guild Wars Universe have traditionally been very centered around nature. Even 250 years ago, their time spent in the Maguuma Jungle was very much in regards to protecting what they considered sacred, so their connection isn’t so much with ‘Earth Elementals’ so much that is a connection with the Earth Itself.

I believe it was also Grubb who mentioned that Elementals in general are basically embodiments of the land itself. So if the Elementals are angry it’s because the land is in pain or angry, if they Elementals are neutral it means you’re generally ignored as a potential threat. I think the suggestion with the Earth Elemental summoned at Shaemoor and in the Harathi Hinterlands is that the Centaurs general reverance for the land has given them the ability to call upon it in their times of need.

Also in regards to your second question about ‘only summoning the hands’, why do you think there’s more than just what we see? Elementals are not required to take humanoid shapes (ie Air Elementals) so why would this Elemental be forced to have more form than a pair of Giant Fists? At the end of the Day, Elementals can look however they please. They don’t visibly eat, drink, or sleep so there’s requirement for a more humanoid shape unless its desired.

And I think what a lot of the responses here in this thread are trying to get across is that a lot of the weaknesses of the Necro are blown way out of proportion. It becomes self-perpetuating where old bugs (which get resolved) are still harped about (ie people in december were still complaining about Chilling Darkness being bugged despite it having been fixed in I believe mid october/early november). This circular negativity eventually makes its way into the game and suddenly people everywhere think that Necromancer is in some seriously dire straights.

Thankfully this self-perpetuating negativity has lightened up since early December, as can be seen in other boards (Such as sPvP) the community is starting to realize that while the Necromancer still has some kinks that need to be worked out, it’s not nearly as bad as some people are intent on making it seem.

Hammerguard.9834:

I really hope we get to keep this. Necromancers finally have something desirable over other professions.

We won’t. It’s a bug, it will eventually get fixed.

Not that it’ll stop the community from yelling nerf when it happens.

As Caledore said, the Risen like to try and make you think everything’s already lost. Zhaitan very much seems to want to demoralize those who fight against him, a tactic made easier because he knows everything that his risen once knew.

Anyways, the line spouted by the Risen Priestess of Lyssa is brought into jeopardy when you remember there’s that Story mission that takes you to the temple of Grenth. One of the Reapers explicitly states what Grenth desires, and though we’ve never seen the God in Person, his Reapers are his most powerful avatars and speak for him.

Honestly, the Gods went silent for their own reason. Chief among them I’m positive that both Grenth and Balthazar are still having troubles at home on their native slices of the Mists (Dhuum and Menzies respectively). The rifts to the Underworld are solid proof that the Underworld at least is still a contested war zone between the two Gods and that Dhuum is either still struggling to return or potentially has returned and left Grenth backpeddling in his own domain (you know, since nifty players haven’t been around for 250 years to knock Rattles back to sleep).