Guild Wars 2

Riku is correct. You get your own rewards per boss, including two rare/exotic drops (high chance of exotic) and a chance at both ascended rewards and exclusive rewards. Additionally, because it’s the most recently released raid you get 4g per boss per week, to a total of 12g if you beat the entire wing.

Whoa man are we excited for raids! We’ve set our guild raid time to be Fridays at 9PM EST due to the support that time got from an internal poll we held, and we’re excited to smash our faces against raids until we win! Other than that, we’re constantly growing our guild hall and doing guild missions and the like together, and it has been lots of fun! If what we do as a guild interests you, let one of the officers know and we’ll talk to you and see if it’s a good fit. Good luck out there regardless!

I’m really surprised at the level of vitriol being posted here and in other threads regarding raids. It’s been an invigorating experience for me and my guild, and has been a refreshing challenge for players who have for so long grown complacent in the face of the easy Dungeons and Fractals of yesteryear. It has been a resounding success in my eyes, and is really driving a lot of casual players I know to get good in order to beat it. This is the content GW2 has always needed, and I’m glad it’s finally here. I can’t wait for more.

Zui.9245:

Saying they were a success would, IMO, be an understatement of how good they are. Wing 1 is absolutely amazing; it’s well-designed and well-tuned raid encounters paired with GW2’s fantastic combat system. It’s very tough (but appropriately tough), and very rewarding. That feeling you get when you progress further in the raid is pretty great.

This is the best quote I can make to reflect my feelings appropriately. Seriously, ANet, you did great here.

I agree that having the raid entrance be directly in VB is a mistake, and is having a serious negative impact on VB itself. There needs to be a lobby similar to the Fractals lobby where people can gather to enter into the raid instance. I’ll make sure this is passed on to the right people.

I appreciate your opinion, OP, but I strongly disagree with it and think it’s rife with unfounded hyperbole. Raids have been spectacular so far, have been a welcome injection of new instanced PvE content, and have been both invigorating and challenging. They’ve revitalized my guild and my interest in instanced PvE in a game with a combat system we love, and that’s great. Designing your builds and gear around what the team needs to succeed at the raid is wonderful, and something we’ve wanted for a long time. Finally, we have content where the reward is simply in winning and not necessarily in winning fast like it is for easy content such as Dungeons and Fractals. The nice thing about this is that it means you can take whatever builds you want or are familiar with so long as it gets the job done, and that’s great.

I’ve made sure to pass this topic and issue onto the Fractals team, so they’re aware.

Bhawb.7408:

According to the wiki its Berserker, Knight, or Trailblazer.

Great, didn’t even think the wiki would have it documented yet but there you go.

Vydahr.4285:

Can’t you swap the stats in the mystic forge anyway, though?

Yeah, but it’s annoying, costs gold, and forces you to use another transmutation charge if you wanted that skin anyway (like I did for Bo).

What stats are selectable on Dark Harvest? Originally I thought you could pick any crafted set from these, but then I got Bo and found that it only offered Celestial, Marauder, and another terrible one. I’m hoping Berserker’s is an option on Dark Harvest when I go for that.

They will be side stories, but as you noted they’re set after the HoT story takes place which means they may reference events in the HoT story. There is every possibility that they will contain spoilers to the main HoT story, but no one knows for sure what those are at this point.

Firebutt.1495:

You think you could get them to give a statement on the matter at hand? I think i kinda speak for everybody here, we just want to know.

They’re iterating, which means they’re taking the feedback and deliberating on possible solutions. They don’t want to say anything until they have something to say, and as far as I’m aware they’re not at that point yet.

Also, Colin has already acknowledged publicly that there are some parts of Fractals that are still an issue, and that they’re working it.

DrEckers.2039:

Rising Dusk, do you have any idea on the eta before we start seeing Fractal Changes? I.e. should we expect any on tuesday when raids are released or will we have to wait till 2016 as Colin mentioned in his interview?

I am neither under NDA nor do I work for ANet, but I would expect Tuesday’s patch to primarily be bug fixes / exploit fixes outside of the expected new features. Many of the other economical and architectural changes that people are requesting take a lot of time to make and vet, and so I wouldn’t expect them so soon.

Firebutt.1495:

You should tell them to look at all the Reddit posts because the community has been in an out roar for past 2 weeks since HoT reguarding fractals and dungeons.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/search?q=fractals&restrict_sr=on

Don’t worry, I’ve passed on all of the relevant reddit and forum threads and will continue to do so. They’re aware that the fractals updates aren’t being received particularly well (with some exceptions). I only commented on this thread in particular because I finally finished my corporate travel and had a chance to log in today (and it’s a good thread!).

insanemaniac.2456:

the people that did a daily dungeon tour after unlocking the skins did it for the gold. and now the gold has moved elsewhere (and has generally become material based instead of liquid based). its time for them to follow. farmers gotta farm.

it sucks that their fave gold farm got nerfed. get over it and find the next one. there is always another.

I don’t think you understand. A very non-negligible portion of the playerbase enjoys instanced 5-man content. Running around Silverwastes or farming Flax Seeds is not as enjoyable for these players—The idea that they used to be able to play dungeons with their friends and make solid gold per hour was great. Now that is gone, and it’s certainly not like Fractals can bridge that gap. These players are being told that they can’t make money playing their favorite content. It’s a real shame.

perry.9645:

seeing this makes me really happy raids have oneshot mechanics and enrage timers

+1

The OP is a really good post, thanks for that. I’ll make sure the fractals team sees it.

Wethospu.6437:

Just remove all potions and slaying sigils.

I agree with this. We should also remove Sigil of Night while we’re at it.

We’re still recruiting for those interested! We’ve been investing a lot to upgrade our guild hall and get an arena for us to do fun events in, and we’re always looking for more people to partake in our antics! We’re also exploring the new HoT maps, playing them together, and are looking forward to raids. If any of the things that we do interest you, talk to one of our officers and we’ll see if you’re a good fit!

The reason they nerfed all the other spots like this is because those spots had mobs which dropped loot. In this case, they drop no loot and therefore have no adverse effect on the economy, and are thus fine. If you want to grind this for experience, it’s fine and it’s not an exploit.

With the guild sound technician, if you purchase the “Music of the Caverns” it will not properly update the “attributes” panel in the guild panel. All other music selections work, just not this one.

In the case of your example, 85% + 35% would cap at 100%. Very few things bypass this normal limit, and they’re the things that augment base durations instead of actually adding to the condition duration stat itself for that condition.

I haven’t had the chance to bump this due to some corporate travel across the world, but we’re definitely still recruiting! We’ve had a lot of really solid people join the guild recently due to HoT and friends and such, so we’re really booming! Additionally, we’re making headway on our Guild Hall and it’s a really exciting community project.

Whisper one of the officers to learn more if you’re interested!

Blaine Tog.8304:

I’m fine with this change. It normalizes the effect across all game modes and party situations, which means it will actually be possible to balance it fairly. If it needs another buff to its numbers (and it may), ANet will be able to make that change without worrying about making it too strong in group situations.

I think it’s a fine change even if it makes the trait much less interesting, but we should not have to deal with this trait being as bad as it currently is for long before it sees either a significant buff or a full rework.

With this nerf, BB becomes really bad. Even the additional healing does nothing to offset how incredibly bad this trait currently is. Let’s review the traits and skills that can even affect this healing in RS.

• Reaper’s Might: 1 boon on Shroud 1
• Siphoned Power: 2 boons when hitting a foe under 50% life, 1s ICD
• Spiteful Spirit: 1 boon when entering DS
• Mark of Evasion: 1 boon when dodging in shroud, 8s ICD
• Foot in the Grave: 1 boon when entering DS
• Furious Demise: 1 boon when entering DS
• Chilling Victory: 1 boon when you hit a chilled foe, 1s ICD
• Infusing Terror: 1 boon per second for 8 seconds, 17s CD traited

Outside of Infusing Terror, the boon application in shroud is really, really bad (even with Spite, no one lets you wail on them sub-50 or with shroud 1 unless you were already poised to crush the fight). Outside of shroud this doesn’t get much better. I seriously think with how regulated Necromancer boon application already is, this trait needs to scale 100% better than it currently does post-nerf both in and out of shroud or it needs to be completely reworked. Otherwise, this trait simply isn’t worth slotting.

Oh my, Heart of Thorns has been so much fun, and we’ve all been having a blast!

We recently acquired our guild hall, and that event was so much fun I can hardly contain myself. We’re currently working on building it up (Ugh Glass Mugs!), so come be a part of things if what we do sounds interesting! Please reach out to one of our officers, if so, and we’ll chat with you a bit and see if you’re a good fit.

Irenio CalmonHuang.2048:

If regen were removed it would be in all modes. I’ve seen that in PvP it is also a pretty heavy gating, but in PvE it is appears worse due to the more frequent travel time between engagements.

I honestly think degeneration out of combat is brutally limiting in all modes. Astral Force behaves far more like Life Force than Adrenaline, and in its transformation style I think the degeneration out of combat absolutely needs to be removed. Thanks, Irenio!

Can anyone verify if the Chronomancer runes apply the quickness just to you or if they also apply it to anyone standing in the initial cast area of the well?

Sublimatio.6981:

well i just did 50lvl and ellen ressed me and i could get back to the fight. so the fix kinda doesnt work

It didn’t work for my party. Did you do anything differently from before?

Same here, didn’t get Reaper collection started.

I told you they would fix this. It should be no surprise to anyone.

Aomine.5012:

Druid does zero damage in avator aside from pitiful pet damage. (Also the pet steals might from group sometimes since almost all boons apply only to 5 targets max).
It’s harder to maintain all the buff too. You basically have to play like an idiot spamming heal no end and doing nothing else to keep up the damage modifier.

It’s actually fairly easy to maintain the GotL buff almost 100% if you activate AF, use Rejuvenating Tides, and then immediately drop AF and begin charging it. Also, Ranger loses minimal DPS swapping out Beastmastery for Druid, especially considering the pickup of traited GoE. This is also ignoring the immense support base Ranger brings with FS, SS, and Spotter. The only reason you’d ever actually use Staff is if the healing were dead necessary or if you need the mobility, otherwise you use standard meta weapons.

Really, even without the GotL buff in BWE3 the sheer damage boost that having a Druid brings to even a 5-man group is huge and completely offsets any damage loss the class has to get that support.

deSade.9437:

Take a guess ç_ç starts with d…
…ends with lots of raging.

This is tough because there are two that fit that description perfectly.

Zaroua.2714:

I’m saying that I don’t want Druids to be the new PS Warriors: only brought along because of one trait. I want Druids to stand on their own in groups without having to rely on something as strong as GotL.

You’re saying you don’t want Druid to make the Ranger as effective as other prominently used meta PvE classes? Additionally, you want Ranger to continue not being used for optimal compositions?

The GotL buff is exactly what the Ranger class at large needed to justify its use in the meta. It’s unique, it’s powerful, it’s relevant, and it provides some very strong healing support that will hopefully be meaningful in raid content. As far as I’m concerned, thanks to the Druid specialization (and the GotL buff) Ranger is in the best place it has ever been for PvE usage. That’s a good thing!

I have 214 on my Necromancer, Warrior, Elementalist, Engineer, Guardian, Ranger, and Thief.

Daredevil. It is hands down the most exciting elite specialization to me.

I think Thieves are better in pubs than Engineers, though. Thief stealth is far more forgiving, and a Thief can solo stealth an entire party through very long skip segments without the party’s contribution and even without their understanding beyond “don’t walk out of SR”. Thief blinds are also a lot more accessible for clearing trash compared to Engineers, especially if your group isn’t quick about killing the mobs and you need more blind uptime.

One other thing I don’t think was covered in the OP, though, is pathing mobs like the oozes in Arah p1 or bandits in CM. You really cannot do that with an Engineer because the Stealth Gyro will just aggro everything and you can’t blast smoke fields without aggroing the mobs. That’s a pretty niche use-case that I think will keep Thief relevant in certain contexts.

I also think that the delay on Smoke Bomb for Engineer may cause it to not be a great fit for speed clears. Those few seconds add up, and Thief Black Powder is a pretty critical component (just watch a few [SC] CM records).

Also I think for some records, like Arah p2 on the run to Alphard, having Thief’s extreme mobility totally outweighs any gains you might have gotten from Engineer otherwise.

Dadnir.5038:

That is not the issue, what the enrage timer lead to is simply : learn the mechanic and play full DPS because this is what will be the most optimal way to beat it. An hard timer like this will always be more forgiving for full DPS party and less forgiving for defensive or mixed party.

On this encounter that we test on the BWE3, the most optimal way to beat it was full dps since heal could be provided without the need of healing power and a shield was enough to ensure agro on the boss.

This is going to be important to keep in mind—You can’t easily pub raids by design due to the need for voice coordination, understanding strengths and encounters, and so forth. This is the mentality shift: what matters is completing it at all, not necessarily completing it fast. The enrage timers put an upper limit on time spent per encounter anyway, and they force having enough DPS, but do not enough total DPS. Not every guild is [SC] or [vC] or [rT] or [DnT], and not every guild will be capable of running 10 DPS classes and winning every single time. That’s okay. I argue that even those pro guilds will find that having some anchor characters will increase the success rate enough to validate their use. For non-super-awesome guilds, those anchors will be even more important.

Given the attitude in your posts, it’s no wonder you’ve had such poor experiences with experienced groups using meta builds in dungeons! I’ve been doing it for years and I can assure you that if you avoid the groups that require ridiculous things and join just groups asking for “experienced” you’ll have no trouble with attitudes 9 out of 10 times. I’ve pubbed as a Necro for longer than I can remember, and most of the time it goes really well and the runs are pretty darned fast assuming you don’t use totally terrible builds.

Thanks for the heads up, Cameron!

SuinegTsol.1729:

ok, i guess today was the last chance to tell us sth about the new epic fotm system. Tomorrow , a few hours before start i’s pointless anyway

Short of some very minor technical reveals early on, they haven’t revealed any new content details this week for anything. These blog posts are strictly recaps.

Asura here, for sure! I even have a cute name picked out for it!

Sublimatio.6981:

this happens all the time and thats why i can’t believe all these reddit ppl when they say they never got kicked for playing necro

Shockingly, as a major Necromancer player I have never been kicked from a group for being a Necromancer. I also never join groups that ask for zerker meta, though, and usually just look for ones asking for “experienced players”. Additionally, I oftentimes get complimented for “somehow contributing a lot to the team despite my class choice”.

I attribute it to having a badkitten looking character, honestly.

Dadnir.5038:

And, on the other side, ain’t it the point of a hard enrage timer? destroying any kind of group that does not play full damage? Everyone should play with a damage oriented gear because otherwise you can’t beat the timer? That’s nothing more than staying on the current PvE metagame.

Actually, that’s not the case. The timer is to enforce enough DPS, not 100% DPS. A number of groups beat the first encounter in the raid during the beta while still having a celestial or knight’s or even cleric’s character (or two) in the party. Crystal has also confirmed that she’s lightened the enrage timer a little bit to give more flexibility. All of this leads to a composition requirement that should ideally be around 8 DPS classes, but doesn’t require all 10 players be pure DPS.

That’s exactly how the system will work. Based on my understanding, you could farm “Level 15: Swampland” repeatedly to get to level 15, but there are a few things that encourage you to do otherwise.

• Achievements with rewards specifically tied to completing different Fractal levels.
• Fractal dailies tied to specific levels; not all are “choose your level” dailies.
• Instabilities on “Level 15: Swampland” are supposed to be balanced to be level 15 difficulty, which may mean it’s not as simple as you’re used to thinking swamp fractal is.

As for adding new fractals, they may do “seasons” and simply change the fractal order for each new season. There are a number of ways it could work, but we don’t know for sure.

Dadnir.5038:

Rising Dusk.2408:

Dadnir.5038:

Let’s still remember that we all can change stat on any ascended gear via the mystic forge for a very low cost. If you got a gear set, you’ll never need to craft another one for another stat, you can simply change them.

Shame you lose all of those expensive infusions and runes if you do this.

Everything have a solution… Let’s welcome the new infusion extracteur at the trading post, only 200 gem per infusion.

…Which adds an extra ~40g cost per armor piece that you want to change stats on, to a total extra cost of 240g for your whole armor set. This is all on top of the ~10g per armor set that converting costs (depending on the stats you want to convert to). That comes out to roughly 300g to convert your ascended armor to different stats for those who have invested fully into berserker gear.

Anyway, berserker gear is never going to go away, so it’s kind of a non-issue in the first place.

Dadnir.5038:

Let’s still remember that we all can change stat on any ascended gear via the mystic forge for a very low cost. If you got a gear set, you’ll never need to craft another one for another stat, you can simply change them.

Shame you lose all of those expensive infusions and runes if you do this.

Charblaze.6958:

If you have defensive stats and traits Raise! has no meaning, but if you have Raise! you can go full offensive.

You already can, though. Reaper is in the unique position where it’s super bulky with Blighter’s Boon and does solid DPS. You wouldn’t have taken Reaper’s Onslaught anyway since Dagger does comparable damage to a buffed RS1 and GS2 spam under 50% is better than both.

Charblaze.6958:

If you are wondering where all the harshness comes from: you replied in a really condescending manner, building a strawman of unfounded assumptions and arbitrary placed “MM propaganda” words in my mouth.

Err, nope! I actually think you assumed the condescension and such was there when, in fact, it was not. I even specifically put my second paragraph there to ensure it was clear that I wasn’t trying to rain on anyone’s parade.

C E P H U S.4102:

Roy, can we expect to see any changes to indestructible Warrior Banners?

I can safely say that the answer to this is no.

Tasao.4623:

This is just flat out terrible. Core gameplay should NOT be gated behind a grind. Some of us play 9+ characters. You want to shut cosmetics behind grinds? You want to shut toys and vanity items behind grinds? You want to shut proportionate rewards behind grinds? Sure. Cool.
But it’s just plain bad design to shut core gameplay for the expansion specs out behind a long grind.

If you can unlock all the traits and skills in short order, that’s fine. It’s ok for the special skins to then take another 200+ points to unlock. But people are going to despise running around for the first week with a half-finished traitline and missing abilities.

Feeling forced to dash off into the jungle and skip content and rush hero points so I can fill out my trait line is going to directly reduce my desire to play GW2. When I think “I feel like playing my Mesmer now that Chronomancer is available” and then remember I need 100+ more points to unlock Chronomancer abilities and traits and the only way to get those points is to grind WvW or to skip jungle content in favor of focusing on hero challenges, I may well just not bother. Because this issue won’t just come up for Chronomancer. It’ll come up for Reaper, and Daredevil, and Berserker, and Tempest. It’ll come up for every single spec.

This is an incredibly alt-unfriendly design decision.

Considering the number of people who have told me I am a terrible forum specialist because I disagree with ANet’s choice to make elite specializations so expensive, I am just going to quote, +1, and emphasize this post here. This post perfectly reflects how I feel in the matter.

Exciton.8942:

Well, if as the OP suggested, the damage goes up as a function of time. There will always be a point that even the tankiest build will not be able to survive. This is essentially requiring a minimum dps.

In terms of how much dps and tankiness you need, it all depends on what that time dependent function is.

Sure, and this manner of creative enrage timer is okay, since it’s still an enrage timer. The one thing I want to make sure is clear, though, is that it cannot be a lenient timer; enrage mechanics cannot be forgiving. Part of what I really like about the hard enrage as we have it now, though, is that everyone gets exactly X minutes to work with, and knowing that number sets the pace for the entire encounter.

This is a very cool thread. Like I’ve always said, give a little get a little and you make the world a better place.