Guild Wars 2

At the moment, like others have already said, it appears that you can only have one elite spec active at a time, due to there only being one elite spec traitline.

I personally do not see this changing, because each elite spec either changes your professions base mechanic in some way or added something new to it. For example, the reaper changes your shroud abilities, if they added abother elite spec this too may change your shroud abilities and then you have a conflict.

Until we get more than one elite spec per profession, we will not know for sure unless Anet says something official. For now, I am going to assume only one elite spec will be active at a time.

Don’t forget staff, which has a 2 condi cleanse every 15 seconds. So you may not always have to swap the legend.

Menaka.5092:

yeah I used disablers as well, but they only last about 20 seconds on golems, and if they spread out it’s hard to disable all of them… I was thinking more about something like a mine field that could only damage golems

The group I watched lured them to a corner, forcing them to bunch up, then they hit them with a disabler and stormed them with their (fewer) golems. They did this a couple of times, and it helped that they had a small group of players going around focused on keeping them disabled at the best moments.

It was great to watch and the enemy didn’t know what to do. In the end they just scattered and lost all their golems in the process. I think our group only lost 1 or 2 golems in the whole battle.

An alternative suggestion to this would be to add another evasive roll to the second part of the skill, maybe rolling back the other way. Because you need to hit with the first part to get the boon stripping second part, I don’t think that would make it too powerful, and would give us a more reliable evasive direct damage weapon set. Though the ini on the second part would need to be increased to compensate for the evade.

Advent.6193:

Honestly, I’m almost expecting Mantras at this point … especially if Thief gets the melee-Staff. Kind of a “Monk/Martial-Artist” feel?

Because of the datamined dagger kit I am expecting kits, but I can also see mantras, meditations, stances and gadgets working.

It all depends on the theme of the spec really. While it might look like a monk type character, it may not be monk like at all and simply be a shadowy martial artist with a staff.

Hope we don’t have to wait too much longer for the info. The anticipation is killing me!

I have not noticed this happen myself. Were there a lot of other players in the area? Depending on your settings, if there are a lot of players around the system will sometimes hide the model but keep things like the name and called target marker visible.

I agree that acrobatics, and the thief’s ability to be evasive in general, needs to be improved since the last patch, but I do not believe we need blur. I would rather they made dodging and evading better again for the thief.

My big issue with acrobatics is that a profession like Engineer can have an unconditional 50% endurance regen trait, but the thief has to successfully evade to get a 2-3 seconds of 75% endurance. Over a period of 10 seconds (assuming you only evade one attack) the thief will recover endurance 1 second slower than the engineer.

I know Anet wants things like defenses to be more skill based, and I am ok with that, but when you fight stealthed opponents, or multiple opponents, it can often be very difficult to time your dodges right, and it is sometimes better to dodge roll out of range before getting hit, than to actually time the dodge to get the evade frames. On top of that some attacks do not trigger the ‘evade’ when you expect them to. You might roll out of reach of the attack a fraction of a second before the evade frame would have stopped the attack, and because of your successful prediction you are punished with no vigor or endurance gain.

Sometimes a predictive dodge can be just as effective, if not better than, a reactive dodge, but they are not rewarded, and that I think is not very balanced, considering a profession not renowned to be particularly acrobatic (engi) gets an effortless buff. If anything the vigor reward and passive buff should be the other way round. Thief should have the always on endurance regain, and engi only on a successful evade..

To be honest though, I would be much happier if the vigor on evade, and the improved vigor, were removed completely in exchange for the 15 endurance return on dodge we used to have. Having both 15 endurance on dodge AND high vigor upkeep was a bit OP, but I think Anet removed the wrong part of that problem in this instance.

bloodletting wolf.2837:

Your restaurant example is flawed. Studies show that 80% of patrons with a complaint won’t complain in your store. 80% of people just simply won’t come back. This example is why I smile when people trot out the old “vocal minority” bit.

This is a valid point, but it too is not without fault. While you are right that many will be more inclined to silently stop playing, the circumstances surrounding the restaurant industry and the gaming industry are very different.

In the restaurant industry, people eat out and they get dissatified with the meal. But by the time they get home, most will not be bothered to log on to their computer and submit a negative review, unless they are that way inclined or the meal was so terrible they feel people really need to be told. In the restaurant situation, because they will not want the confrontation of a face to face complaint, most will simply not go there again.

In the gaming industry you are already on your computer, so it is a lot easier to quickly alt+tab to the forum and leave a comment. The experience is still fresh in your mind and your energy to complain is still raging through you. There has been no calming period on your way home, as is often the case with bad restaurant experiences.

So while there is some merrit to the idea some will quit silently, the statistics for one business type cannot necessarily be transferred to another. Also, because it requires a lot more investment to play an MMORPG than it does to eat out at a restaurant, people are more inclined to try to salvage the game, before giving up on it and feeling like they wasted several hours, days, weeks, months or years of their life.

At the end of the day, we can all use terms like ‘vocal minority’ (I am guilty of this too) and ‘silently lost business’, but only Anet will know the true picture. All we can do is give them constructive feedback. Anything else is of no use to Anet, in terms of making the game better and improving their profit.

What I do normally, but with a few times operating a golem here and there. Had some interesting ZvZ fights with golems and on-foot players on both sides. A couple of epic fights in an enemy’s garrison too.

Menaka.5092:

Yes, this is something I noticed. The event would have been more balanced if some sort of hard counter (not requiring upgrades like cannons) would have been implemented.

I saw a smart outnumbered group take out a much larger group of golems the other day by using siege disablers. The allied golems could rip into the enemy golems and all they could do was run away.

There is counter play to this, but most people just run around thinking they are invincible sat inside their golem.

As with anything new, at first it seems a mess, but once people start to understand what is possible, tactics will be formed.

HitmanHaydon.1053:

If you want to get new blood in you need to do something that enhances actual WvW (e.g. better rewards), not a gimmick week that totally perverts normal playing conditions.

Sorry, just have to pull you up on this comment. I think rewards are the furthest thing from being a good way to enhance actual WvW. It is presicely because of better rewards that you have mindless zerg trains in the first place.

If you want to enhance WvW, you need to find a way to make the various activities worth while and fun to do. Rewards are all very well and good, but it is human nature to find the path of least resistance. As soon as a group of players finds the fastest and easiest way to get loot, that is all they will do for hours on end.

In my opinion they should remove PvE rewards from WvW completely, so no karma and no gold. You should only get badges, XP and WXP, then add more vender items for WvW players to buy with badges. Then make objectives more fun and more important.

I’m not saying I know how to do this or what the right answer is, but I do know that rewards are not right answer to anything. Loot should be a bonus, not the goal. The reward should be in the fun of playing.

Sandrox.9524:

ok. Warrior mace/sword. both need str to use and not raising the sword like shield

Warrior and mesmer are probably the only ambidextrous professions in the game.

There should be more ambidextrous weapon combos IMO, but I guess Anet finds it aesthetically unappealing. I would love my thief to be ambidextrous. It would feel thematically appealing to me to have my character wield sword+pistol one minute then juggle the weapons around to have pistol+sword the next.

I am all for ambidextrous characters, I’m just trying to point out why I think Anet has, for the most part, decided against it.

MadVisions.4529:

Rin.1046:

- Reduce the initiative cost of Infiltrator’s Return to 1 ini. Now it no longer breaks stun

sry?

What do you not understand? It used to break stun then they changed it so it no longer break stun, but the ini cost remained at 2.

Edit: Ok, it never technically broke stun, but it could be used to get out of range while stunned, and that was changed by adding the 1/2 second cast time. This was often just as good as a stun break.

Galen Grey.4709:

…snip…

Very well said, I agree completely. Also, regarding the paying for things you don’t need, with a sub model you are essentially paying for skins and other cosmetics that you may not like. At least with Anet’s gemstore model you can pick and choose what skins you want to pay for. A far superior and fairer models for the players IMO.

I think the damage on sword is fine too. The only adjustments I would like to see on the sword are as follows:

- Reduce the initiative cost of Infiltrator’s Return to 1 ini. Now it no longer breaks stun the 2 ini cost seems a bit excessive to me.
– Change Pistol Whip as follows: Change the 1/2s stun to a 1/4 daze, remove the evade, but allow us to move while attacking with the sword. The main reason I do not use this skill, outside of PvE, is because it roots you in place. The thief shouldn’t have any such skills IMO, as it goes against their mobile, always moving, playstyle.

Everything else about the sword (traits aside) feels ok to me.

Sandrox.9524:

sword/pistol??
Mesmer got:
scepter/sword
Guard got:
Mace/Shield so does warrior
all those are small to big offhand

The idea seems to be that we have right handed characters. And as right handed characters our dominant hand should have the weapon that needs the most combined dexterity and strength. It is nothing to do with the size of the weapon.

For example, with a sword and shield, you need a lot more dexterity and strength with the sword than the shield. While you do need strength to use a shield, you essentially only need to raise up and withstand an attack, so there is very little dexterity involved compared to sword.

Another example is sword + pistol. While the pistol requires a lot of dexterity to use, the sword requires a lot of dexterity AND strength to use effectively.

That said, there is one reason why I am surprized Anet hasn’t gone the ambidextrous route. And that is the fact that they like to break convention, with ranged hammer and greatsword. So it seems perfectly reasonable to me to have ambidextrous characters in GW2 IMO. But at the end of the day, it is not a big deal for me. I can get behind the idea of us all being right handed. Just surprised Anet hasn’t wanted to break this convention yet.

Who knows, maybe they will with one of the elite specs, if not in HoT in future elite spec releases.

Now ele’s tempest is getting shouts, which the reaper is also getting, this to me opens the door to the idea two elite specs can get the same weapon. With this information, and the datamined image, I am even more convinced thief will get staff now.

Kartel.2561:

Raine.1394:

Leveling up and doing story/appreciating lore are really separate issues. There really is no need for leveling in an MMO. To me, it would be preferable to have a longish tutorial that got you gear, familiarity with your character and skills, basic lore (like a story line), and then just turned you loose on the world. Then you could do what you want to do in the game.

This won’t happen here but someday, somewhere there will be a game without levels.

^
^
This. Levels are pretty pointless, at least for the reasons I play a game like this.

I play for:

Adventure / Exploration
PvP / Competition
Story / Lore
Social aspect (even as an introvert, it’s something I value)

At no point in this do I require a “ding”. Watching arbitrary numbers go up is not a reason to play. It’s about the other things. In fact, all too often, features and content are locked behind those dings. In that sense they do not add to the experience, but instead hinder it.

I prefer a situation where there are either no levels, or if there are, it’s not many and they are pretty superfluous and don’t “get in the way”. Levels were less of an issue in GW1 and imo they really went in the wrong direction with the sequel …quadrupling the number and locking so much more behind them. Should have gone the other way.

If someone feels dings and numbers going up is vital to enjoy a game, maybe they should re-evaluate how enjoyable the game actually is.

While I completely agree with both of you, my OCD and I cannot help but point out this is off topic. It is a topic I have a big investment in though, as this is something I have felt for years, so if you start or find a thread about this subject I will glady join you there.

On topic: Welcome to GW2, MatiDiez, I hope you have as much fun as I have over the years. Regarding leveling in PvP, as has already been mentioned, everyone in PvP is set to the same capabilities to ensure the fights are fair from a stat and gear standpoint. There are some newer skills you will need to unlock, but this can be done in PvP, and will likely not take too long to do if you are active.

Your gear stats come from selecting an amulet, some of which you will need to unlock, as well as runes and sigils. And the great thing is you are free to change your gear (and your entire build) at will while out of combat (though some matches lock you in your gear while it is running, so it is wise to set your gear before a match).

You only really need to worry about leveling, and all it entails, if you play a lot of PvE or if you want to participate in the large scale PvP game mode, WvW.

The community in this game, for the most part, is great, and much better than many other games I have played. And the balance is also a lot better than other games I have played. Its not perfect, but no game ever can be. I think GW2 does a great job, and it keeps getting better. Dispite what many on the forums might tell you, the devs listen to the players, and if they can, or feel it is good to do so, they will make changes based on player feedback.

Anyway, have fun.

1) It is human nature to find complaining about bad things easier than praising good things. Mainly because if it is good you are often too busy enjoying it to want do anything else.

2) The group that screams loudest is often the smallest. They do not have the numbers, so they have to make up for that by making themselves more visible. They post the same complaints in multiple threads, regardless of whether the topic is related, to increase their coverage.

3) Anger is an easy beast to to set loose, but for some a difficult one to tame and control.

4) The internet offers people an certain anonymity, which in turn means some can be more aggressive towards people than they normally would in a face to face situation.

Take every unconstructive rant you read on the forums with a big handful of salt.

Xenesis.6389:

Rin.1046:

Kaos.9162:

So you think it’s ok for them to leave it as it is, and not address it at all, because it’ll likely only last a week?

No, I expect them to stay focused on developing HoT, and not take resources away just to fix a temporary event.

If that’s your line of thinking then they shouldn’t have taken resources to develop this event in the first place… right?

But since they did take the time to introduce this event, they are obligated to fix it and not ruin the game for thousands of players for the entire week.

In the recent PoI Josh said this event took no resources away from HoT. Whether that is true or not I do not know, but I have no reason to doubt it.

The only thing I agree with, is that this effects the whole of WvW. If it was a PvE event it would likely only effect a part of it. But the fact is, they are focused more on getting HoT shipped than anything else. Whether that is the right move or not, only time will tell. But for me personaly, I can live with the golem issues for a few more days. its not the end of the world.

As to the general WvW issues? I want WvW to improve as much as anyone, as it is my most played game mode of late. But I understand that HoT will likely bring big changes to WvW, so any changes they make now are likely going to be short lived.

Should they have given us the event in the first place? Yeah, sure, why not? Its a bit of fun and a break from the norm. Sure, it had issues, but it takes the players to actively exploit those issues. And had this event been permanent I would have wanted it fixed asap too. But its not. Its a one time, short duration, event that was added for no other reason than to give us something different to do for a week. Its not enough to scream and cry about. Its not enough to get genuinly angry about. And it is certainly not enough to warrant verbal abuse, insults or ridicule.

Mahkno.7593:

No, friend-o. I merely have no time to counter argue with a person whose ego is so inflated that they think telling an entire forum of people their thoughts and expressions are invalid because it differs from their own.

Carry on.

Yet you’re taking the time to discredit me by making me out to be an egotist instead? Talk about misdirected energies.

1) I was not telling everyone on the forum they are wasting their time, only the unconstructive few. But seeing as you took my words out of context, I am not surprised you missed that.

2) I was pointing out that the event is not related to general WvW issues, and that feedback (if people are to expect results) needs to be relative and focused into the right thread. People are complaining about general WvW issues in a thread about the golem event issues, and I think that is a waste of efforts.

3) I’m not telling people to not give feedback, I am trying to tell them to give it constructively and in the right place. There’s a big difference.

If all you want to do is vent your anger, without it actually helping the devs in any way, then by all means carry on. I’d rather see people think about their feedback and put it in a way that helps the devs and in a place that makes sense.

One of the biggest problems with this forum is people posting angry comments in the wrong threads, and not giving any usable feedback. And then they get angry when the devs don’t respond. If you truly want the devs to listen, be constructive, be civil and post your feedback in the appropriate place.

Mahkno.7593:

Who elected you feedback police? You must think pretty highly of yourself.

Who elected you opinion police? You must think pretty low of your ability to counter argue to resort to belittlement.

Kaos.9162:

Oh, so your answer is that they should leave it as it is and not address it because it’d take away from HoT, got it. Guess we’ll just sit here for the rest of the week and deal with the problem they made for us then.

Yeah, cos a week is such a long time!

Kaos.9162:

So you think it’s ok for them to leave it as it is, and not address it at all, because it’ll likely only last a week?

No, I expect them to stay focused on developing HoT, and not take resources away just to fix a temporary event.

You might think taking a couple of programmers off HoT would be an easy and costless thing to do, but development doesn’t work that way. Everything is connected, and if you take a couple of programmers off HoT for a few hours to fix an event, you may end up with other people needing those programmers for something in HoT, which means they get delayed too, or have to shift priorities out of sync with their schedule.

Game developement is not easy, it is hard work and a fine balancing act. Especially when you have a lot of developers working together on a project. It really isn’t as simple as getting someone to quickly change focus for a while. And it is often far better to learn from your mistakes than to waste resources on fixing something that it temporary, especially when you are working on a big project that affects, and will likely change, that game mode anyway.

mordran.4750:

Lol, dude do you even understand what the complaints regarding the event are about ? Do you even play wvw ? They brought major exploits to the game with this event where players are able to do 100% more dmg against others outside a golem or with skills that are not intended to work inside a golem.

And you are basically saying that they should not “waste” their time doing something about it to fix their broken stuff ? Sorry dude that´s ridiculous but keep white knighting.

You are missing the point, which is not unexpected. If this golem buff exploit persists after the event ends, then yes, people should give feedback and Anet needs to fix it asap. But I suspect this exploit will only be an issue while this event is active.

Try re-reading my post, I’m sure you’ll get it the second time round.

The golem event was created by Josh, to ensure no resources were taken from HoT. It was not designed to fix WvW issues or to test out new things. It was purely for a bit of fun.

I have no problems with people giving feedback on issues. But it really needs to be constructive and it really needs to remain within an appropriate thread. Because this golem event wasn’t meant to fix any issues with WvW, people complaining about how bad WvW is are wasting their time. The only feedback that is valid, in my opinion, are complaints about the golem buff exploit, as that is negatively impacting the event itself.

As to Anet being silent. That is because they are not focused on this event, they are focused only on HoT right now. So do not expect any kind of response to WvW issues or golem event issues. I would rather they focused on HoT than worry about issues with a small event, or existing WvW issues that may end up getting fixed with the release of HoT anyway.

I also think it is extremely childish and unfair to have a go at Josh for the issues with the golem event. He is not a dev, he was merely trying to add something different for us to enjoy. It had issues, yes, but he did not cause these issues, nor is he in a possition to fix them.

He could come on the forum and communicate with about this, but then I personally do not think it would be worth his, or our, time. All he would receive is a torrent of undeserved abuse about something he cannot do anything about. I personaly thank him for his efforts, and I am sorry that it did not pan out as well as he hoped it would. I also hope to see more things like this added periodically, because it is nice to have a break from the norm sometimes and have something new to enjoy.

OP:
Stealth Burst vs Beserker Amulet

Balanced:
All professions with a good build or skilled player behind them

Weak:
Bad builds and/or bad players.

In my opinion the problem with balance in GW2, is not necessarily the strong builds, its the weak builds that do not synergize well or do not offer anything worthwhile. We have so many traits and skills that are not used, because they are so weak and do not make for strong builds. If they could improve the weak skills and traits, it would increase build diversity and this would in turn help reduce the perception of OP meta builds, because there would be more builds and more opportunities to counter certain builds.

Forum bug fix……

Streiste.1052:

Zombie apocalypse returns!
In wvw and/or unranked PvP, if a player is downed, if they are not revived within 10 seconds or they are allowed to become defeated, an infectious death nova erupts from their corpse location, infecting all nearby allies or enemies with a 10 second 25-stack of poison and a debuff called “infected”. If players go into a downed state while "infected”, they die immediately, trigger the infectious death nova and spawn an undead, which has 30 seconds of fury and 15 seconds worth of quickness.

I would dearly love to take part in the chaos spawned from an event like that

This reminds me of the Zombie Apocalypse game mode that Champions Online has. You start with a team of 4-5 hero players and the game starts with waves of AI zombie mobs spawning, that head to the center where the players are. As the game progresses the waves get larger, and with tougher mobs, and the players’ task is to survive until the time runs out. To add to that, the game (if enough players join the match) can start with 1 zombie player. The zombie player has all their normal skills, but looks like a zombie hero. When a hero player dies, they become a zombie hero themselves and their task changes from survival to killing the other hero players. It is a lot of fun, and I would love to see a mini game like this in GW2.

ArchonWing.9480:

…snip…

I posted my comment about it only being one week because people seem to be losing their heads over it. Some people need a little perspective. I am not trying to discourage feedback, far from it. And if someone can give their views in a constructive and civil way then I would welcome it 100%, even if it is negative, because at least they have put thought into it and gave reasons why they think its bad. But when you see people only saying things like “This event is stupid, please stop it” you have to wonder what exactly it is they think they are going to achieve with such a pointless post.

Sweeping issues under the carpet is not the way to go, I agree (and that was not my goal), but complaining without giving any feedback is not the way to go either. They are both as bad as each other. One of not worse than the other, as you suggest, they are both bad in equal measure.

I apologize if my comment came across as whitewashing, it was more an attempt to try to calm people down (a pointless endeavour I know, but you have to try sometimes). Maybe I could have worded it better.

So to reiterate: Lets not lose our heads over a one week long event. If you dislike it, then give constructive feedback as to why. Don’t come on here with a pointless rant about how angry it makes you feel, or how disappointed you are. If you do not tell the devs why you are angry or diappointed, how do you expect them to change it for the better?

Some have given reasons of course, and that is great. I have nothing against those people and my comment was not aimed at them.

This is more an idea to add new types of siege weapons to the game mode, rather than a small event, but I thought I’d throw it in here anyway.

Siege Factories:

Each captured tower and keep periodically spawns a mobile siege vehicle. These vehicles come in a 3 tiers and each tier has different types of vehicle (each with different strengths and weaknesses).

The number of vehicles spawned has a hard cap, which is the same for each side. Therefore each side can field the same number of siege vehicles. However, the more towers and keeps your side owns the more spawn points you own and therefore the siege vehicles will spawn more frequently.

Also, the higher the upgrades on your towers and keeps the more spawn points you have for higher tier vehicles. So for example, if your side is the only side to own a tier 3 tower, only your side will spawn tier 3 siege vehicles.

The vehicles cost no supply to build, as they auto build on spawn, and they last until destroyed, or left abandoned away from their spawn point for a set period of time. Once destroyed there is a 5-10 minute wait for it to respawn again. Also, destroying one of these siege vehicles earns your server points (PPSVK?).

From what I could tell in tests the direction seems pretty random, as mobs can re-enter the field and get moves anywhere, from the opposite side to only a few feet from where they entered the field.

Regarding shadow stepping, this has got better over the years, as I am not getting stuck in things anywhere near as much as I used to. Can’t remember the last time I shadow stepped into a rock! So hopefully they will iron out any shadow stepping glitches with UA.

I do think it should teleport them to the nearest edge, rather than randomly. Mainly because this would add an extra skill level to aiming and using the skill better, and would allow you to more predictably push foes in the direct you want and more easily land your attacks on them. Random placement is ok if the foe is in the center of the field, or enters from the edge, but it should move them to the nearest edge if the field is places on them off center.

I feel in its current form, glitches aside, it can be useful sometimes a pain in the butt other times.

My biggest concern with this skill though, is how it has the potential to be used by trolls to make things difficult for allies, such as moving a foe out of stomp range. I hope Anet can make adjustments to prevent this kind of thing, as I think the skill is an interesting one and fun to use, when it works how you want it to.

If it provided more control over the direction of the shadow step (shortest distance to circle edge) and did not move downed opponents, I think it would be a really good skill.

Entenkommando.5208:

Rin.1046:

Quick Response: Each tower and keep has a WP, that remains usable even when under attack. However, players cannot use any WP (except the citadel WP) for 2-3 minutes after being defeated.

This would cause an extreme “hide behind your siege and wait” game and discourage any kind of open battles.
Sounds perfect for ANet…

It would mean that when a blob is going round flipping towers, your blob can get to them straight away and start some ZvZ action. Big groups do not take long to capture towers, and they can sometimes capture a tower before your team has managed to get there and stop them. The idea behind this event is to allow players to jump straight to where the action is. it increases the uptime of ZvZ battles. No boring delay while you run from point to point, just straight to the fighting.

As to the “hide behind your siege and wait” comment, you can do that already, but no-one does. I don’t see how adding WP’s will encourage that kind of play. Why bother waiting there when you have a WP allowing you to jump to it at any time?! That makes no sense.

Some ideas I just thought of:

Quick Response: Each tower and keep has a WP, that remains usable even when under attack. However, players cannot use any WP (except the citadel WP) for 2-3 minutes after being defeated.

Siege Wars: Stationary siege costs half supply to build and has double the health, and all towers and keeps are fully upgraded (cannons, etc. fully built), and fully stocked with supply, upon being captured.

What No Scouts?: All players, allies (green dots) and enemies (red dots), are visible on the map at any range. Only stealth hides you from the enemy map.

Heibi.4251:

As much fun as golem rush week was at the beginning, it didn’t need to last a full week. Friday thru Sunday would have sufficed. The scores should have also been turned off for the week with no server gaining or losing glico or rank.

It was likely a week long to give more players chance to experience the event, plus it fits with the current match duration and is easier to implement that way.

I agree with the scoring though, this event shouldn’t affect a world’s ranking.

I think the big problem with the golem event is, that they deal too much damage to players and there is no limit to how many can be built. If their damage was reduced and there was a hard limit on the total number of golems allowed in play at any one time, this event would not be as frustrating to some. Of course, there will always be those who do not like change of any kind.

This is only a week long event, so it really isn’t the end of the world. Some people really need to lighten up and learn it is only a game.

There has been one thing I got out of this event that I would like to see added. Seeing more mobile siege battles made me think of games like battlefield, where players could either run around on foot or could jump into a vehicle and fight that way. I would love to see some more types of mobile siege weapons added to the game, but not ones that players could build. I would like to see towers and keeps produce a limited number of these siege vehicles, with more being produced as the tower or keep gets upgraded. Maybe more types could become available with each upgrade tier.

These tower/keep produced siege vehicles would not be too powerful, not like the golem event golems. They would not be quite as effective as player built siege, but would offer a different way to fight fellow players in the field of battle, as well as offer other ways to assault structures. Or maybe the golem could be removed and replaced by these limited versions that are auto created periodically. Much like spawning tanks and helis in the BF games.

Dunno if others would like to see this, but I would love to see this kind of thing added, and I think it would change the way we fight each other, and make things a bit more interesting. Especially if you made the siege vehicles vulnerable to certain attack types. For example, engineer turrets or guardian symbols could be extra effective vs siege vehicles. Also, much like ballistas are used against other siege equipment, certain vehicles could also be better equipped to deal with other siege vehicles, while others would be weak vs players and siege, but strong vs gates and walls, much like stationary siege.

We are already seeing the introduction of this kind of thing in the new BL desert map, with the fiery dog you can turn into at the fire keep, so I hope to see more of this kind of thing.

If this game changes to a monthly subscription, I will quit and uninstall the game. I like to have the choice when and if I spend my money. They have to earn it, not make me pay it just to play. I have easily spent more money on this game than I would have if it had a sub, but it was my choice to do so and that makes all the difference to me.

Nice build. I actually run with Warrior Runes instead of Wurm, as I find the extra power gives a little more overal damage than the extra ferocity. But there’s really not a lot in it tbh.

What is your build? I am currently running this build, and it seems to perform pretty well.

What have I done? I am so sorry forum community!

In my original analysis I had not considered a couple of things. BV has no initiative and can be pre-cast before a fight. Both of these are significant, especially the no initiative cost as that means BV will not be reducing your weapon skills at all.

I also agree that you shouldn’t really compare two skills on different professions in a like for like way. I guess I just saw that JW was very similar to BV and thought this was not right. It is easy to have a knee jerk reaction to things like this sometimes and for that I apologize.

I do still think BV needs a buff in order to fully earn its elite status, but I no longer think it should compete with JW, nor be equal to it in terms on performance. Thanks to everyone who participated in this discussion in a civil and constructive way, I really appreciate it. Feel free to continue discussing this of course, preferrably in the same thread.

Firstly, we don’t need OH sword, we want OH sword. I’m not saying its bad to have OH sword, I just wanted to point out that OH sword is not essential and therefore not needed. But that’s just me being pedantic.

Secondly, I think part of the problem why we don’t have OH sword is because having MH dagger + OH sword is not aethetically fitting for a right handed character. While most of us could easily role play this down to being left handed or ambidextrous, I think the devs have been trying to avoid this kind of set up. The mesmer not being able to use MH pistol, I believe, is due to them being able to use OH sword. Personally I would be ok with MH dagger + OH sword, but I thought I would put this reasoning out there to indicate a possible reason behind us not getting OH sword.

I do not think we need OH sword, nor do I think we will get it in HoT, as I am convinced we will get staff. That said, I would be totally ok with OH sword, and we may well get OH sword at a later date with another elite spec.

To be honest, if my above reasoning is correct, I am surprised Anet hasn’t broken convention in this regard. They have made ranged hammers and greatwords, so why not have left handed/ambidextrous weapon combos?

I do agree that the thief needs more weapon skill variation, so lets hope the elite spec will improve that. My hope is, if the kit speculation is correct, we will get even more weapon skills to use with the elite spec, even though we only get one new weapon.

Kidel.2057:

Chilled to the bone! (Reaper) – stun 2 seconds, chill for 12 seconds, resistance 2 seconds
Jade Winds – stun 3 seconds

Jade Winds – Radius: 600, blockable, easy to evade
Basilisk Venom – The venom is still used if an attack is blocked, evaded, obstructed, negated by Blind, or if the target has Invulnerability or Defiance.

Jade Winds – 50 energy cost
Basilisk Venom – 0 initiative cost

Plus Thief can use Basilisk Venom while in stealth and unload all its initiative on the enemy.

You forgot to mention that CttB has a 120 second cooldown. However, without the snide comments, you do have a point. BV does not cost initiative, and that alone IMO is the only advantage BV has over JW. Is that a big enough advantage? That I am not sure about. Would you want to have a more powerful BV at the cost of some initiative?

Rezok.2709:

You can’t compare one skill between professions. Following your logic mesmer should get something similar to backstab when they attack from stealth because, well, thiefs got backstab.

Yes, Jade Wind seems stronger than Basilisk Venom, but that’s no reason to buff BV. You balance a profession around ALL of their abilities, not just because x got a stronger skill than y. Yes, I believe thiefs needs some buffs (and nerfs for some things aswell), but saying one skill needs a buff because another profession got something stronger means you’re not looking at the whole picture.
Revenant haven’t gone live, they might get crap damage compared to thief when HoT comes, or they might have to rely on that ONE elite for control, where thiefs got plenty of control. You simply cannot say BV needs a buff because a profession, that isn’t even done yet, got one skill that’s stronger.

That is a fair comment, and to some degree I agree with you. When the right traits are selected BV can be very strong. But I still believe it needs a buff. Personally I think elite skills should be strong in their base untraited form, and not require traits to make them elite. BV to me seems to be designed that way. With venom sharing BV can be devastating, but it should be able to turn the tide of battle on its own, without traits. JW, untraited, has the potential to turn a fight in your favour. Just picture it, a 5v5 fight is occuring, when all of a sudden all 5 enemies are stunned. Now BV can do this too, but only if traited, which means you are sacrificing something else to do this.

You are right, you cannot really compare one skill to another, because your entire build should also be considered, but when there are so many variables to take into account, the only thing you can be sure about is the capability of each skill.

I guess, instead of comparing JW vs BV, we should consider whether BV deserves its elite status. It seems clear to me JW does, but I am not so sure BV does. At least in its base form.

Einlanzer.1627:

Jesiah.2457:

…waste of pixels…

This post has a lot of anger, but I can’t say I haven’t had many of the same thoughts.

While I may not always agree with the devs balancing, I have never struggled to be civil, and never felt the need to directly insult others based on things in a computer game. If you’re that angry about a game, I would suggest moving on to something else, even if it is just for the sake of your mental health. Getting that stressed over something so small is not good for you.

stof.9341:

Rin.1046:

aspirine.5839:

BV should perhaps get a nice stack of poison applied. Would 10 stacks of poison be too much

As we already have a poison venom, how about adding 5 stacks of vulnerability, per application, to BV instead?

Skale Venom already does vulnerability.

What about a few stacks of Burning? :p

Oh yes, forgot about Skale Venom. As much as I would love some way to apply burning for the thief, I think it would cause a lot of complaints

Another idea, how about it removing a boon per application?

aspirine.5839:

BV should perhaps get a nice stack of poison applied. Would 10 stacks of poison be too much

As we already have a poison venom, how about adding 5 stacks of vulnerability, per application, to BV instead?

Now that we know about the Shiro legend, I cannot help feel that Basilisk Venom needs a buff to bring it more in line with the Shiro elite. Lets compare them to highlight what I mean:

Jade Wind has no cooldown, but costs 50 energy (which will recharge well within the 40 seconds it takes BV to recharge).
Basilisk Venom has a 40 second cooldown (untraited).

Jade Wind hits up to 5 enemies.
Basilisk Venom can only hit 1 target per application (maximum of 2 targets).

Jade Wind deals a decent amount of damage to each target.
Basilisk Venom does no damage at all, unless traited for Leeching Venoms.

Jade Wind stuns each target for 3 seconds.
Basilisk Venom stuns for 1 second per application, for a total of 2 seconds if both applications hit the same target.

I know that JW takes a big chunk of energy, and therefore you will need to decide whether it is wise to use it or not at that particular moment, but IMO it still seems more powerful than BV.

With the exception of the short cooldown, I have always felt BV should be a normal utility skill rather than an elite. Now that we have a very silimar (more powerful) version of BV in JW, I feel it is time for a buff to BV. If BV was instant cast and applied 1.5 seconds of stun per application, or 3 applications instead of 2, then I would be happier with it.

So what does everyone else think? Does BV need a buff? Do you think JW should be nerfed instead? Are you ok with JW being a superior version? And if so, how do you justify the extra capabilities of JW?

I do not want this to turn into a ’let’s dis Anet’s balancing skillz’ thread, so please try to keep things constructive and civil. If you think this discussion is a waste of time then don’t waste our time by saying so. Thanks.

I am ok with both, but I do think some of the weapon cooldowns need to be reduced. Staff 5 for example, seems a bit long considering there is an energy cost as well. In my mind the energy cost is there to allow for shorter cooldowns. To have a cost and a long cooldown feels excessive to me.