Guild Wars 2

Captain Unusual.9163:

I’m not at all surprised by this. It would have been nice to get the 10% bonus all the time, but it would make no sense whatsoever for the Axe Training trait to be the best trait when not using axes.

eww…..you’re defending this kitten trait.

giving it a condition (vuln on enemy) for the 10% was good enough for a master trait. as is now, you have to spend a trait to make a weapon w/ garbage damage 10% less garbage….and still useless.

that would be terribad…..so i expect it to be true….would have been a good trait (pve) that 10% applied to any skill damage when enemy has vuln.

can’t have good traits/

Shiki.7148:

Relshdan.6854:

Cecilia.5179:

Bhawb.7408:

There are rumors that Karl is looking into the plague self-applied bleed, and making it one long duration application instead.

Karl? The ele forums were asking for Robert Gee because Karl has nerfed them so many times. I don’t trust his balance…

anyone is better than gee.

Nah I still think Reaper will be awesome (and the design IS epic) as long as they tweak the shouts a little. But these balance changes ruined my hope. For good this time.

good point…..reaper will be fun (until its nerfed) and i’m maybe unfairly assuming gee is responsible for the corruption skill/trait overhaul (super nerf)…..if he isn’t, then apologies and that person is instead the worst.

Cecilia.5179:

Bhawb.7408:

There are rumors that Karl is looking into the plague self-applied bleed, and making it one long duration application instead.

Karl? The ele forums were asking for Robert Gee because Karl has nerfed them so many times. I don’t trust his balance…

anyone is better than gee.

good news….and now a more reasonable basic offer.

absolutely…its still the best combat in any mmo….and as such, the traits/skills are being completely revamped for the base game…expac not needed.

wait until the expac is on sale.

ColinJohanson.2394:

Just want to clarify since I saw this come up a couple of times in this thread and we haven’t actually released our full official patch notes for 6/23 yet….

Ascended Gear will be staying 5% better than Exotic Gear. Gear beyond the tiers we already have are not going to be added and our existing tiers won’t change, they won’t be our main end-game form of progression for your characters/account for all the reasons we’ve covered before – it isn’t what we think Gw2 is about.

Masteries is being added to PvE to help provide this system as our form of progression for PvE moving forward, and the WvW ability system exists for WvW and will be what we use to expand WvW in the future.

To more directly answer some of your point….We are adding a system that lets you change the stats for your ascended gear next Tuesday – which will cost a combination of 10 spirit shards, piece you don’t want anymore, 5 ectos, and an exotic insignia of the stats you want to convert to. Legendary Gear will remain the gear that can freely change stats any time.

-CJ

this is great news….will this work on trinkets?

its never acceptable to harass a dev……it’s also really unfortunate so many were hurt by the reaction to a very poor decision(s) by very few higher-ups at the company they work for (or the company their company works for).

this, of course, doesn’t change the situation….but hopefully it gives those critical of the pre-purchase launch (which i’m one of) proper perspective on where/how to direct your saltiness.

we’ll get the character slot….its reasonable.

ProtoMarcus.7649:

The criterias seem to be

- Standing on it (obviously)
- Having a certain % of health (or lower)

if this is the case, and the skill goes on CD as soon as you drop the trap (not waiting until the trap activates)….this will be a pretty awesome heal skill

serenity.4712:

I would be okay with only an additional character slot. But your way works also =p

agreed….even though a new character slot should have been built into the expac

base game for new players….character slot for existing players….price stays the same.
seems fair/reasonable

this complaining is going to get us a free character slot added to the 50 dollar base package….book it.

its something that every previous GW expansion gave for free 9two in fact)…so it will be their concession (price will remain 50).

so keep it up

IM Zero.2143:

You’ll get the extra character slot and the extra $50 back in gems. $100 is less than my monthly cable bill. Also less than my phone bill. Even if new players are getting the core game free — won’t it be nice to have more people to play with? The two and a half years I’ve been playing has certainly been worth the original investment. It costs $150 to see freakin’ Taylor Swift. Would you rather have an expansion or go see Taylor Swift? Expecting mkittenred from Taylor Swift fans in 5… 4… 3… 2… 1…

it is by far the best deal of the 3 options…..

guild halls look pretty cool….but should have been in the base game. at least they’re om the way now.

still don’t think the features/content shown to us thus far warrants a 50 price tag….hopefully they’re holding back info that would change this (such as what challenging group content will entail).

can’t wait to see forums on 23rd……look at all these changes…..now imagine how many massive bugs there will be to fix….lol

azizul.8469:

i’ll wait until they sell HoT separately, no bundling, at lower price….

same….and we likely won’t even have to wait that long for it either, considering how poorly this presale is going over.

glad i got my personal guild bank already

one can argue the value of the content vs. price point, but it is a subject thing, so i’ll ignore it even though its likely the main reason for people raging.

i would imagine the lack of a free character slot w/ the relatively high $50 price tag (upping the price for most vets to $60) is why many are upset. offering new player s a free base game, but vet players nothing doesn’t sit well w/ many vet players.

most complaining assumed the 50$ cost was there because it included the base game, and that an expansion-only cost would be lower. they didn’t want to have to repurchase the base game to get the expansion.

now that we know that isn’t the case, the complaint is the fairly high 50$ price tag on a relatively small expansion that also won’t include a free character slot.

wow….there’s the confirmation i was waiting for. 50 + no character slot is lame.

until the inevitable sale, its on to Witcher 3 for me…

50 is too pricey for what we’re getting. IMO……depending on what “challenging group content” is, i’d be willing to go as high as 35.

oh well…if anet feels 50 is what its worth, its their game…..

Harrier.9380:

John Smith.4610:

InfinitytheSoulWarden.5963:

if you look at the world through the cold cynical eyes of economics

You rang?

Good one, but now’s really not the time I think.

agree….company you work for may or may not be kittening over existing players.

Vagelis.9562:

for people who have the core it will only work as an update and we won’t be compensated

i’ll wait for anet to confirm this before i pick up my torch and pitchfork.

Gnat.9405:

Where are you seeing the core is included? On the site it says the expac is $50.

http://buy.guildwars2.com/store/gw2/en_US/html/pbPage.heartofthorns

you are blind.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Content has been designed around exotic, not around ascended. The introduction of core specs isn’t changing that.

this.

considering the many skill/trait changes, i’m amazed so many are stuck on this silly +5% stats to ascended gear. not only that….but they are account bound. can’t get more reasonable and player-friendly w/ top end gear.

you all already have the trinkets (or will in about a month , if a new player, by simply logging in for rewards and completing guild missions)….thank ’em for the 5% buff you just got on a third of your gear.

they will save that for actual legendary armor (its literally the only reason to even get a legendary besided aesthetics)……the fact that it is account bound is good enough to make ascended gear worth crafting if you are a min/maxer. the pve game is not balanced around ascended…and nothing about wvw is balanced.

TheDaiBish.9735:

yakuza snowdragon.4639:

If Specialization was added with say ideally 3 branches to choose from it would’ve been a major hit and big crowd puller including bringing back the massive amounts of players that have left the game or on long breaks. Its not specialization if its the only option you have because it becomes a further advancement instead.

Except with Specializations, you have 5 branches to choose from (6 when HoT launches and more in the future).

Unless you mean Elite Specializations, in which more of them will be added in the future.

think the point of OP was that you shouldn’t launch elite specs until you have more than one per class. i agree. with every new GW1 expansion (not that GW1 was the standard bearer…i vastly prefer GW2) came 2 new classes…..there could/should have been 2 elite specs added to HoT, so that everyone didn’t simply flock to the singular new toy…..and the players who waited so long for an expansion had more to play with.

won’t happen…..and probably shouldn’t. they already practically give away ascended trinkets by making them purchasable by laurels/guild comms.

having ascended tied to crafting keeps it relevant after lvl 80 and keeps mats priced high enough for simply playing the game and salvaging to be profitable….this is a very good thing.

Kallunnah.3201:

I see nothing about ranger shouts…

So so disappoining

indeed…such a useless set of utilities.

Gibson.4036:

Obtena.7952:

None of this QQ is new and the reasons for it are still silly. In a game where PVE is balanced around Green/Yellow gear, it’s frankly quite dumb to complain that the gear two levels above THAT balancing point is getting a buff. Carry on.

None of your derision is new and the reason for it is still silly. In a game featuring a steady character power progression it’s frankly quite dumb to expect people to swallow a sudden spike right at the end of the curve or be satisfied with never completing that progression. Carry on.

its not a spike….its 5%……..and nearly every lvl 80 is decked in full ascended trinkets anyway. its simply not a big deal in any game mode until the 10% difference between ascended and exotics becomes like 30%…if it took this long for a 5% increase, you have nothing to worry about…the game will be dead/unsupported by Anet before it ever gets to the point where you “need” ascended.

chronometria.3708:

The mats price is going to skyrocket from its current position of “ridiculous” into the level of “mickey mouse magic money price”.

Its just going to be crazy.

cool…..more money for me…i have all the ascended gear i ’ll ever want

MiniEquine.6014:

Relshdan.6854:

TooBz.3065:

Ok. Where is the point where ascended gear breaks anything?

Not 5%, not 10%… is 50% ok?

honestly….probably closer to 50% than 10%.

a huge chunk of your stats are on trinkets/backpieces…..these are very easy to acquire (moreso than exotic to be honest)….almost everyone has these already.

weapons are easy to make, but do cost a bit…..make a few weapons to share among alts (GS/Staff/LB/sword/focus)

its really only the armor that drains your money/resources/time…..and armor is the least important to upgrade over exotic considering the low stat numbers.

so practically speaking, the % diff between ascended and exotic, in order for it to matter, would have to be pretty high.

This is exactly it. Why bother making Ascended armor at all if it’s hardly any better? It doesn’t need to be crazy good or even required, but it should be decent enough for you to want to spend all the time and resources it does take to make the stuff. You will likely still be able to complete even the most difficult content with full exotics if you’re a good player, and you will likely still not be able to complete that same content in full ascended if you’re a poor player.

its there for min/maxers, “carrot chasers”, and high level fractals (the only thing its actually needed for). i’m glad its there…even if it isn’t needed for most content. having the option to mix and match exotic and ascended to get a desired stat spread is nice.

considering how many choices are being taken away from every other aspect of this game….i’d hate for us to get the PvP gear treatment of less stat tweaking.

TooBz.3065:

Ok. Where is the point where ascended gear breaks anything?

Not 5%, not 10%… is 50% ok?

honestly….probably closer to 50% than 10%.

a huge chunk of your stats are on trinkets/backpieces…..these are very easy to acquire (moreso than exotic to be honest)….almost everyone has these already.

weapons are easy to make, but do cost a bit…..make a few weapons to share among alts (GS/Staff/LB/sword/focus)

its really only the armor that drains your money/resources/time…..and armor is the least important to upgrade over exotic considering the low stat numbers.

so practically speaking, the % diff between ascended and exotic, in order for it to matter, would have to be pretty high.

only matters if you are a min/max-er. its a nice bonus for those who have ascended (i use the weapons and trinkets….but refuse to waste the money on armor) but in no way makes ascended a must have.

that extra 5% on ascended isn’t going to make or break anything in wvw that skillful play can’t overcome….just like now.

the fact is, they haven’t added a new teir……gear treadmill is hated because you have to constantly reach for new better gear, as your current “best” becomes obsolete……your top gear just got a little better….it didn’t get replaced. so i don’t get the fuss.

if they continue the trend of strengthening ascended vs. exotic, then yes, ascended will become mandatory in wvw…..but its still not the same as a gear treadmill.

these specifically are really kittenty/ unjustified nerfs….unless your entire build is based on epidemic/ condi transfer.

aspirine.6852:

Wait wut, did you just nerf Necro. Was that really needed right now?

lol….yes they did (compared to all the other classes’ buffs)…..and no it wasn’t needed.

azizul.8469:

ascended armor are purposely designed ugly so that ANET can sell armor skin and outfit in Black Lion TP.

same for ascended weapons.

Conncept.7638:

Relshdan.6854:

515028kitten.1705:

• Dhuumfire only puts on 1 stack of burning for 3 seconds which is just really weak when you look at how slow the cast on Life Blast is. You can only maintain 2 burns by camping Life Blast. In a condi build you’re better off using other skills to stack lots of other conditions, and in a power build you’re better off just going for the 50% crit chance instead.

Dhuumfire was probably nerfed due to Reaper Shroud melee auto…..which cleaves and is faster than LB on normal DS……so yeah, i can’t see that ever being used on a non-reaper.

Well if that’s the case they could just give the trait an ICD equal to life blasts hit rate.

doesn’t it currently have a 10sec ICD?

i don’t know if a condi-reaper is viable, but if it is, i’d prefer this new “nerfed version” than the current………..and depending on how much damage one stack of burning does, it might be tempting on a power reaper build (that mostly stays in shroud and already has high crit rate from gear).

OlliX.1705:

For the most part I think you did fine with the necro traits. The changes I am unhappy about are in the changes to necro skills or in some cases lack thereof.

Things that necro needed that was not addressed:

• We are starved of combo finishers.
• Axe is really weak, the auto attack in particular.
• Dark Path needs a rework to be able to act as a reliable gap closer. Even more important now with the new movement changes.
• We are the only class with no way to defend ourself from incoming projectiles.
• We are the least mobile class, but still have no stability or other way to protect from CC.

Nerfs that just seemed really unwarranted:

• Consume Conditions inflicts vuln and has longer cooldown.
• Lich only lasts for a lousy 15 seconds.
• Plague now inflicts conditions on ourself.
• Spectral Walk is not fun anymore.

There’s also a couple of grandmaster traits that just struck me as quite underwhelming:

• Dhuumfire only puts on 1 stack of burning for 3 seconds which is just really weak when you look at how slow the cast on Life Blast is. You can only maintain 2 burns by camping Life Blast. In a condi build you’re better off using other skills to stack lots of other conditions, and in a power build you’re better off just going for the 50% crit chance instead.
• Foot in the Grave grants 1 stack of stability for 3 seconds. This is not even enough to secure a stomp. Compare this to the Juggernaught trait for Engineer and it just pales in comparison. Also worth mentioning that this would not be as big of a deal if you could flash DS mid-stomp to get the stability, sadly going in or out of DS cancels anything you’re doing.

Dhuumfire was probably nerfed due to Reaper Shroud melee auto…..which cleaves and is faster than LB on normal DS……so yeah, i can’t see that ever being used on a non-reaper.

condition/boon duration is unfortunately (or fortunately) nerfed. there is no innate stat increase or reasonable gear compensation (even if they buffed givers gear, it would still be much lower than what was built into trait lines).

engineers and mesmers should be very happy…….the rest, not so much….but wow is necro bad (so many nerfs to an unused/underpowered class).

overall, VERY disappointing trait/balance reveal. much worse than the earlier preview (garbage traits remained, and good traits got nerfed…very few bad traits improved)…….not shocking, given how bad anet devs are at balancing their game.

good thing the dame iterates balance patches frequently….oh wait, it doesn’t.

not counting BL chest items (got 2 halloween scythe skins from that…but unfortunately sold one long before they were worth much), Pendant of Arah, which is worth about 400g………also All Seeing amulet, Star of Dwayna, multiple abyss dyes (back when dyes came from harvesting nodes)…..but never a precursor.

1) Zephyr Sanctum (bazaar of the 4 winds)……..since i like both Jps and the elemental aspects, this was amazingly fun to play. beautiful to look at. sanctum sprint is the best mini game.

2) Lions Arch-right after the destruction and before the attempted reconstruction………oddly beautiful, strangely empty….and so cool and fun to explore.

3)Mount Maelstrom – favorite vanilla map by far….awesome and diverse scenery that’s fun to explore…access to the best JP…..2 World bosses (Golem is actually fun if you melee/mid-range it)…solid loot (probably the highest lvl map you can still get linen from bags)

4) Malchors Leap – favorite Orr map…..has my two favorite temple event chains….great for mob loot and easy access to good nodes….most easy to traverse w/o being bogged down by annoying mob CC.

5) Dry top – favorite of the LS2 maps….dig the reward mechanic and sandstorms are immersive…the zone fun to play as i love the use of elemental aspects to traverse the zone. really diverse events and achievements.

NOOOOOOOOOO! NO more removal of useful choice.

it was a terrible decision to do that to PvP….it would be even worse in pve/wvw.

the worst part of this thread, is that a dev will read this and actually do it…..and then i will hunt you down.

if they increase the range and improve the effects, id prefer they remain in one place…….but it would be great if they made spirits a movable object, much like the ventari tablet

@OP
you quit playing months ago….so if you missed their announcement…its your fault. it sucks that the scrolls can’t be used to unlock skills anymore, but kitten happens.

Diovid.9506:

My guess is that this friday we will get another ready up on core specializations since that’s what yesterday’s blog post talked about. We will hear some of the changes they have made since the last 4-hour stream based on feedback (such as the blood magic change) and we will hear about the engineer (which was very much a work in progress at the 4-hour stream).

this pleases me more than another spec reveal…means way more to overall balance and “while we wait” theory-crafting….hope you are correct.

that would be nice….and even if they aren’t willing to make one new path per dungeon, they could very easily add the new skins. while that doesn’t solve the probelem of grinding the same content for 3 yrs, it does add further incentive to do the grind.

agree with OP……terrible decision by anet, unless they are re-balancing all leap/movement skills to have longer cooldowns much like RTL (which they are not doing).

this just removes disengage counterplay and further simplifies combat.

i suspect the amount currently gained by a trait line will mostly disappear and not be replaced in any way, with the exception of maybe making giver armor stats a boost or buffing some of the sigil/runes.

as others have said, duration is just so easy to increase that most of the sigils/runes that serve that function are irrelevant.