Guild Wars 2

Pariah.8506:

New skill ‘Summon’: 5 second cast, 180s recharge

Thieves summon a boar
Mesmers summon an ~illusionary~ stag
Guardians Summon a crab
Enginners summon a bear
Rangers don’t get to summon anything
Elementalists summon a firefly
Necromancers summon a grub
Warriors summon Zhaitan

looks like Anet balance to me.

try both….and play whichever you find more fun.

if they feel about the same to you, GO WARRIOR.
warriors are better at just about everything….in all facets of this game.
compared to all classes, they are at least top3 in any tole…in any facet…of this game.
this will not change anytime soon……since the balance process in this game is terrible….slow…and often illogical.

there are other classes in way worse shape than guardian…but warrior is so OP its ridiculous.

i fired up my trap ranger and noticed the potency trait is now +50% duration, down from +100%.

quickly logged out and switched to my guardian.

i didn’t realize traps were OP and needed nerfed.
Anet really does hate rangers.

many months wait for this balance patch……wow. consider me underwhelmed and not optimistic for the future. hope time proves me wrong.

best to just ignore these “updates” and just play (unless you are a warrior….then every update is like christmas).

i don’t run it much, but 0/15/30/20/5 can be a solid non-dungeon PvE AH build. allows you to go full zerk w/scholar runes and keep your health above 90% that much easier (you’re a boon producing machine anyway as a guardian). as long as you run shouts, its tough to die with other players around and you can still melt mobs fast.

its a good solo roaming orr build and great for world events.

yes.

rewards need to be improved across the board for this event. barely better than other world bosses as it stands.

how many tpkens it should take to get an ascended is debatable, but removing some aspect of RNG would extend/mainatin the life of this event.

Bhima.9518:

Smooth Penguin.5294:

Coldin.2840:

Smooth Penguin.5294:

Coldin.2840:

I think 75% should get more loot than some greens. If you asked most people stuck in overflows, they would say that getting Teq down to even 75% is not easy.

The guy was asking for a chance to get an Ascended weapon + a chance to get a Tequatl skin for each quarter life taken. That’s excessive considering that you don’t even have to win the event.

As for getting more loot for each quarter. I would argue that coordinated groups would then be getting way too much loot, since they can regularly get Teq down to less than 50% each time. Consider the fact that no other boss actually gives loot for not completing the event, a chest at the quarter HP bar is pretty generous of Anet.

Why shouldn’t there be a chance for an ascended weapon for getting him down a quarter health? Maybe it shouldn’t be 25%, but a tiny % chance would be nice for the amount of effort it can take a group of players to get him down even that far. If that means big coordinated groups are getting more loot, then so be it. If they aren’t getting that kind of loot, we will quickly see participation fall off after a couple weeks once all of them get their achievements.

Think if Scarlet Invasions were designed so that the champions did not give any loot at all, and your only reward at the end were the champion loot boxes the wave completions rewarded. I bet we would see hardly any groups bothering to complete it since they could get that same amount of rewards from one tour around Queensdale.

No other boss gives loot for failing simply because those bosses are very difficult to actually fail. Pretty much any group of players will bring Jormag, Shatterer, MK II, and the Fire Elemental down, even with their upgrades. So I would not say Arenanet was being generous, but that Arenanet already anticipated groups frequently not beating him.

The key point here is reward. You should get a reward for winning, That’s where the incentive is.

Should I get a Pact “Victory” token for /threatening Zhaitan on the airship? Should I get a JP chest for making it past the first few jumps? And lastly, should I get my Monthly Bonus after doing only half of the required 4 tasks?

Take away the incentive to win, you take away the will to win.

Problem with your conclusion: After beating Teq a few times, there IS no incentive to win because winning already gives you jack squat. I think the rewards for this fight should be upped at all 4 points (75% hp, 50% hp, 25% hp, 0% hp) by giving guaranteed rares at each step, 25% chance at exotic at 75%hp, 50% chance at 50% and a guaranteed exotic at 25% hp, with at least a 10% chance at an ascended chest when downing him. So if you kill him you get: 4 rares, 1 exotic, 50% chance for another exotic, 25% chance at another exotic and a 10% chance at ascended.

I agree that Daecollo’s rewards are too high, but the one point he makes that is absolute truth: If they don’t buff rewards people in the medium term will just stop doing this fight and it will be nerfed to increase participation. MOST of us don’t want the fight to be nerfed, ergo, Anet better bump up the rewards to keep people trying to down Teq.

agree…..whether you like it or not, events die when the rewards are not worth the effort. as much as i might do it for the fun or challenge, most don’t. we’ve seen this already with karka queen and jormag. path of least resistance is always followed by the vast majority. so when an event requires this many people to do…..it will most certainly die if the rewards are not improved significantly (not absurdly….but it should be much better than normal world boss events.)

the 25 stack limit is another issue.

but they should make some of the world/ fractal/dungeon bosses more resistant to direct damage (meaning, much harder to beat with direct damage) through specific mechanics (such as timed shields the block direct damage but are extra susceptible to conditions).

Rising Dusk.2408:

100% chance for an ascended weapon is stupid and invalidates too many of the other mechanisms for acquiring ascended gear.

It should simply be a 100% chance to acquire 1 “Tequatl Token” when you beat him, and only if you beat him, and with X number of these “Tequatl Tokens” (probably on the order of 20 to 30) you can buy an ascended weapon with his weapon models’ appearance that you can double-click once to choose stats on.

That way people who are REALLY good at doing the raid can work themselves toward ascended weapons, it’s still uber difficult, but the rewards become worth it because you’re actually making progress toward something meaningful.

i don’t mind this at all.
not sure if its 20 or 50 (time will tell, but it looks like this event is quite beatable if large guilds can get into the same instance) but removing the rng element would certainly extend the life of the event past the arrival of the next patch content.

Daecollo.9578:

Relshdan.6854:

Daecollo.9578:

Relshdan.6854:

agree with the OP’s sentiment…..but his/her suggestions are way too high and would destroy the crafting system and economy of many mats.

i’d go with more like TheKillerAngel suggests, but change killing Teq to:

4 rares and 1 exotic guaranteed
6 exotic boxes
25% chance for an ascended weapon (of which you have a higher proportional chance for a Tequatl ascended weapon versus other stats)

OM…

NO IT WOULD NOT.

CRAFTING ISN’T RANDOM, YOU GET EXACTLY WHAT YOU WANT.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Ascended_chest
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Ascended_chest
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Ascended_chest

25%-100% Chance to get ANY ONE OF THESE CHESTS.

DO YOU KNOW HOW LOW THAT IS?

It would make it REASONABLE.

Crafting Allows you to get exactly the item you want to craft. This would be a…
25% / 17.
50% / 17.
75% / 17.
100% / 17.

have always understood this………we’re just disagreeing on the semantics of “reasonable”.

if in the next two weeks, the event proves impossible for all but the largest servers (only two have done it once), then i may lean more to what you call “reasonable” for a 15-45 minute investment of time/money (versus the significantly more expensive and time-consuming, but certain, task of crafting ascended).

we will see.
the important thing is that the rewards are terrible currently, and the event will become a ghost-town after the achievements are earned if that isn’t fixed. nerfing the difficulty will not change that fact…..only an increase in rewards.

You also have to consider that many people have up to 5 level 80s. It will not invalidate crafting.

….yet that also lessens the sting of not getting the exact ascended you wanted….since you have 5 different classes with probably 2-3 different builds you might run in different game-modes.

again….you might be right……………..but if this event gets “figured out” and becomes a regular daily completion (doubtful, but possible) then your suggestion for rewards will get you what you want fairly quickly.

Daecollo.9578:

Relshdan.6854:

agree with the OP’s sentiment…..but his/her suggestions are way too high and would destroy the crafting system and economy of many mats.

i’d go with more like TheKillerAngel suggests, but change killing Teq to:

4 rares and 1 exotic guaranteed
6 exotic boxes
25% chance for an ascended weapon (of which you have a higher proportional chance for a Tequatl ascended weapon versus other stats)

OM…

NO IT WOULD NOT.

CRAFTING ISN’T RANDOM, YOU GET EXACTLY WHAT YOU WANT.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Ascended_chest
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Ascended_chest
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Ascended_chest

25%-100% Chance to get ANY ONE OF THESE CHESTS.

DO YOU KNOW HOW LOW THAT IS?

It would make it REASONABLE.

Crafting Allows you to get exactly the item you want to craft. This would be a…
25% / 17.
50% / 17.
75% / 17.
100% / 17.

have always understood this………we’re just disagreeing on the semantics of “reasonable”.

if in the next two weeks, the event proves impossible for all but the largest servers (only two have done it once), then i may lean more to what you call “reasonable” for a 15-45 minute investment of time/money (versus the significantly more expensive and time-consuming, but certain, task of crafting ascended).

we will see.
the important thing is that the rewards are terrible currently, and the event will become a ghost-town after the achievements are earned if that isn’t fixed. nerfing the difficulty will not change that fact…..only an increase in rewards.

agree with the OP’s sentiment…..but his/her suggestions are way too high and would destroy the crafting system and economy of many mats.

i’d go with more like TheKillerAngel suggests, but change killing Teq to:

4 rares and 1 exotic guaranteed
6 exotic boxes
25% chance for an ascended weapon (of which you have a higher proportional chance for a Tequatl ascended weapon versus other stats)

lol……whining about a fight taking 4 or 5 minutes instead of 60 seconds. some of these events were over before you could even get there from the waypoint. the extra hp was needed.

and maw is fine for a starter boss…..the vortexes are noticeable but easy enough to deal with as a starter boss should be. same goes for fire ele.

that said…I agree that there is a fine line in balancing time investment vs. reward……and that the higher level world bosses should have their difficulty tweaked by new mechanics and not just stat number increases or time-limits. it’s better than nothing, but still feels unsatisfying for some events.

if jormag had the same number of stages/mechanics, but could be done in about half the time….you’d have a nice sweet-spot. unfortunately, no matter how much “fun” or engaging a world boss encounter is initially…..you will eventually stop doing it if the reward doesn’t match the time investment. 5-10min is fine given the current rewards…………..but the new Teq will be a one-and-done for me unless they improve the rewards drastically.

while there may be some flaws with the “tuning” of the Teq event……the rest of the boss updates were SORELY needed.

the world boss chest events now have a nice range of difficulty (with Teq being the ultimate). there are still easy ones like maw, shadow behemoth, and fire ele (though you can’t play as mindlessly as before) that are good for casuals. and if those are too hard for you, then you can still follow the champ farm trains and get easy rewards.

GSSBlunaspike.4153:

Amins.3710:

Why would I want Retal when I’m being hit w/ Conditions?

Give me MIGHT when I"m being hit w/ Condi….
Give me Fury when I’m being hit w/ Condi….
Give me Stability when I’m being hit w/ Condi…

Not Retal..

We need more DAMAGE in our current Bunker Builds.

Bottom Line.

Problem there is you are wanting boons on condi damage. While most of the time the condi damage is coming from professions you don’t really want boons against. It’s just one more thing for them to steal, convert, or purge at your expense.

Now if they had something that wasn’t a boon that would be different.

well said………a necro will wreck you if the counter was boon based……….and we already ahve a condi conversion skill.

GSSBlunaspike.4153:

You are mixing it up with the PvE crowd though, and the difference in skills/traits/abilities etc needed for each are so completely different.

this.

CMF.5461:

I won’t argue the solid synergy in that tree. Toughness -> Precision, crit damage, fury

Of course you can only pick 3 traits, so you have to choose between faster meditations or toughness -> precision.

Master and grandmaster will always be focused mind and monk’s focus at that rate.

true.

but the choice is easy if you go dps….you take the med cooldopwn reduction (the tough to prec trait only ads you 3-4% crit chance as a non-toughness gear player).

i can see instead replacing some of my zerk gear with valk gear and actually have decent survivability with no loss to dps.

CMF.5461:

For sure it is a positive, but I omit the word significant until I see it happen.

very true.

i just feel good about a buff that adds fury (+ 20% crit chance) to a trait line that was toughness + %crit damage……….makes it almost a 3-stat line if you go meditations.

CMF.5461:

The best argument that fury will bring more positives is that it allows us to trait into things besides crit chance. But that just gets into min/maxing at that point and nothing game changing.

you may or may not be right…..it will take some theory-crafting and play once the changes are in to see if its genuinely beneficial.
too early to say this won’t be a significant positive.

Obtena.7952:

… they DID that by giving us more access to fury.

agree…….gives me other gear options (valk) if i wanna keep right hand strength…..or 5 points i can put into another trait line….not to mention possible other dps builds that include 2-hand weapons.

10-30-30-0-0 zerker meditations should be more fun now.

would love a passive punishing counter to conditions (since there is 2 to direct damage)……but it should be an option that’s worked into ALL classes….and it should be proportional to the damage conditions do.

whether it is a signet passive or a trait….this really should be implemented.

Bailey.6892:

Kirschwasser.3972:

Aegis looks amazing on the Dragon Jade shield, strangely.

no no it does not.

yes, yes it does.

that said, and option to toggle the effect on/off while out of combat would be nice. even just removing the effect while in cities would be acceptable.

when a limb is rotting……you sever it from the body.

reading through this forum tells me this very small community is almost impossible to please and completely toxic to engage in discussion.

i’m sure they know how to balance the game best for themselves, but they ruin it for the rest of us (the vast VAST majority) with every QQ.

sever the rotting limb…………either separate the skills (preferable) or end sPvP, because the rotting limb/spvp communtiy is ruining wvw and PvE

spvp is ruining the game for the rest of us.
if you will not split the skills, then end it please. only a tiny tiny tiny fraction of the playerbase even uses that mode of the game.

meh…..just annoyed i didn’t finish before this update….otherwise, i look at it as a free 30 achieve points that i’ll get this month.

mostly run 20/20/0/0/30 shatter build…..GS + Staff

ranking based partly on overall strength/effectiveness and whether it facilitates a fun playstyle.

1) deceptive evasion………..ridiculously useful for survive-ability in pve (mesmer is brutal to level until you get this trait) and wvw……..and for shatter damage/on-clone death traits.

2) iPersona……..makes our class mechanic shatters amazing (stronger mindwrack and the on-shatter effects of the others entirely on demand without clones).

3) Prismatic Understanding…..incorporating stealth skills into your playstyle makes boon sharing builds amazingly fun (and extremely rewarding) to play. don’t use it on my main builds, but it is way too great not to list.

4)Chaotic Dampening……mesmer staff is my favorite weapon for any class (despite skill 4 being terribad), and this allows me do all the things i love quicker.

5) Halting strike…..Makes me want to play a more tactical shatter game. F3 becomes a mini-mind wrack and GS5 ends up pretty fantastic….and i just prefer it over the GS cooldown trait.

HM) iElasticity…..would be #5 if it worked on staff clones. I prefer using GS and Staff……so more might stacks on GS and more boons/enemy conditions on staff. Makes my build much more effective.

i don’t play fractals………..so i don’t care which fractal they add. and if i did care….there’s no way you can predict which will be the better fractal yet. either one could be great or lame.

i do know that WP cost reduction saves me in-game money for something i constantly spend in-game money on….while cheaper keys saves me gems on something i never buy with gems.

Kiel offers me the the only tangible benefit. so she will get my vote.

i agree the focus pull delay is lame, and messing with sword auto-chain was odd……but the nerf to sword skill 2 was reasonable. i definitely miss invuln……but it’s still a fantastic skill (just watch for retaliation).

still…..there are other nerfs that bother me greatly (IC moving to 25, chaos armor sucking on staff 4, confusion nerf, etc). so i agree with the OP sentiment………stop the nerfs please.

kind of agree.

I think the idea for Cutthroat Politics is brilliant…..but i almost wish it went farther and truly mimicked real world politics in terms of special interests groups/ one-issue voters.

one candidate could have been more catered to benefit sPvP and the other WvW.
one would clearly cater to dungeon runners and the other to open-worlders
the cheaper keys vs. lower WP costs was a good start (and the fractals are a wash because either way fractal people win)…….but if you do this in the future, make it a bit more “divisive”.

again, brilliant concept that i hope is used again later in the future.

another troll asking for some aspect of the mesmer to nerfed.

Anet will of course listen.
its just so tiring and disappointing.

can’t polish this kitten ……..the staff skill stinks, and the combo effect is only potentially useful with a boon duration build.

Anet: either make the boon/condition changes suggested above by OP, or lower the cooldown significantly……orjust replace it with something else.

as it stands, its a completely wasted skill slot.

agree with OP………..in that i love it. i’m just not sure how you make it worthwhile after you get all the crystals as a permanent zone. i’d rather see them make it a multi-year event (maybe the ship visits 4 times a year) with different puzzles/events.

after player for a few hours (shatter build w/ no boon duration), i can say chaos armor is way closer to perma-swiftness, than perma-protection……………..guess skill RNG works both ways.

maybe it works better in a +boon duration build………….does prot stack in duration if it procs again in time (i’ve never seen it proc twice in a single chaos armor).

if it does, at least i can see some use for the skill on a boon duration build

you can buy scraps with gems…..so in essense you can buy the new helmet/catcher back skins………………which is what everyone whined for during DB.

anyway……the new zone is fun and the elemental jumping skill mechanics are awesome.
the new achievement awards are great as well……..earnable skins, something q whole bunch of other people whined for.

….and you can still win these things through the RNG that always existed.

i see no reason to whine about rewards now……………you can get these skins in all ways (rng, gem store, earned).

the overall achievement is a little jump-puzzle heavy………but its a nice change of pace.

DuckDuckBOOM.4097:

Relshdan.6854:

you now have 0 seconds of prot if no one hits you during its duration (so no effect at all)
you now have a 33% chance to get 3 seconds of prot if you get hit 3 times during CA duration (will not happen very often).

useless skill at current cooldown.

If you don’t get hit, you didn’t need chaos armor to begin with. You were just spamming a skill and wasting a cd.

Edit: In case you guys missed it again, the blind didn’t work before. Prot is also still there.
Edit 2: Nerf to staff 4 but buff to staff # 5 then #2

if i’m taking on a couple people, i’m going to use those dodges/evades regardless………and when they are on cooldown, i then had a guaranteed protection as backup. now i don’t………….i must rely on random chance.

again…i understand the buff to combo chaos armors…..but the nerf to staff 4 with its current cooldown is large.

you can try to minimize the nerf by saying that you’ll get a blind with a prot, and you might………but you can’t guarantee that……….you might not get either, and thus you truly wasted a cooldown.

that said……its par for the mesmer course now. we get nerfs and nothing else (some big and some small). i’m not even that mad now….its expected.

juno.1840:

DuckDuckBOOM.4097:

So lets look at what it should be doing now and what it used to do.

Old: 100% chance of 33% reduction of dmg.
Now: 33% chance of a 100% reduction of dmg.

How do you get “33% chance of a 100% reduction of dmg” ?

Shouldn’t it be “33% chance of a 33% reduction of dmg” ?

this.
it’s a nerf to staff 4 anyway you slice it.

you had 5 seconds of prot on demand

you now have 0 seconds of prot if no one hits you during its duration (so no effect at all)
you now have a 33% chance to get 3 seconds of prot if you get hit 3 times during CA duration (will not happen very often).

useless skill at current cooldown.

very powerful, but kinda boring to use.
love it for DEs and world bosses, but most other weapons are more enjoyable/interesting to play………staff, sword/focus, sword/torch. if scepter’s auto attack was faster, even it would be a more engaging weapon.

what’s left for Anet to ruin next patch? my bet is its shatter spec’s turn to get the big nerf.

overall shatter damage reduced or mental torment trait reduced to +10 or 15% damage
sharper images trait changed to 66% chance

book it.
my displeasure with Anet’s “class balance” team (and bug-fixing team to a lesser extent) almost completely negates my appreciation for the rest of their development teams. they are terrible. truly bad.

Advent.6193:

I’m calling it now:
-DE placement (from 20 -> 30 Dueling. Still “grabbable,” but yer making a sacrifice in other build areas.)

definitely that as well.

I cried over the nerfs, but at some point the period of mourning ends and we move on.

for the heck of it, switched PvE build to a Staff-Sw/T 20/20/30/0/0 prismatic understanding/boon sharing build……it seams pretty good (though i’m still getting used to slower CDs on many skills). having a few different rune sets lets you fine tune it pretty well on demand (4 air/2 water for open world swift on heal….2water/2monk/2 grove for perma-prot….2water/4 altrusim +30%boon and aoe 3might stacks on heal….6 lyssa for mass boon spreading).

i think this is a new legitimate build type that will get stronger as more folks test it out.

TwiceDead.1963:

Question about this build:
Rather than using staff, would sword/torch be a good option? Since Torch comes with it’s own stealth, I mean. Or vice-versa: switching out greatsword for sword/torch?

trying a version that’s staff & sword/torch.
so far its fun…..but haven’t really settled on runes yet. like having swiftness attached to heal in open world PvE, but would switch the 4 airs to 4 altruisms in dungeon…or 2 monks/2 grove for perma-protection

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgAQNAW8fl0zKqnQTgGb9IipH9GyBckU4avWJF82FC-jADBYLERzUEYkFCREBwJPFRjtiZasVXBRXDT7SQVFLxWdAmyMa1A-e

Love it as well……….and agree with OP completely.
as for the achievements……i think they are varied enough:

kill X amount of mob
scavenger hunt/jump puzzles
story/dungeon completion
exceptionally skilled dungeon play

not sure where the complaint is? only need to do 12/20 to get reward, which allows you to skip the types you don’t like.

Agree with OP…………love this dungeon (especially Frizz fight).

Keep going in this direction. Please. fun and unique mechanics FTW
And ignore those asking for a nerf…..
while it might be tough for PUGS, there are already dungeons for them.

i’m a casual player who has only done a few dungeon runs ever………..and i LOVE this dungeon.
the laser beam/laser wall portion is fantastic fun and not even that difficult…….and the end boss shield mechanic/ cannon AoE actually requires some utility and skillful movement.

Most fun i’ve had in any of the “event dungeons”, because it was challenging, but not in a “random 1-shot die” kinda way………skill always prevails, which is exactly how it should be.

if you want to faceroll through dungeons in your pure zerker gear/stats, there are already dungeons in this game for you.

PLEASE DO NOT NERF THIS. Anet got this on right.

they will nerf shatter.
very simply…..if the nerf makes playing my mesmer significantly less enjoyable, then i will move to a class i enjoy playing more (probably necro or guardian).

i will be sad, as i’ve crafted multiple armor sets, The Anomaly, Whisperblade, Vision of the Mists, and used a halloween scythe skin on my staff……….but its just a game and fun will always trump “duty”.

great post.

fifteen characters/

no.
too much invested in gear weapon skins……..but more importantly i’m a shatter build, so only sword2/focus4 took a noticeable hit (and to be fair, sword 2 was OP…..though they should’ve just kept the CD the same).

will drop focus in wvw……and try some different shatter specs.

now…..when the nerf shatter next patch, then it will probably be back to guardian or necro for me.

i just watched my staff 1 bounce from the enemy mob to a non-activated dragon hologram object…..i was about the same distance away from the mob as the object.

is this actually fixed?

not fixed……i just watched my bounces go from enemy to non-activated dragon hologram object.

XRay.1920:

they’re gonna break it again anyway when they attempt to fix phantasmal haste

no doubt…….so enjoy it for the few days it works.