Guild Wars 2

Well, on the bright side, you accurately identify a few problems; warriors are overly dependent on Healing Signet for their survival, and therefore overly dependent on Cleansing Ire for their condition removal. Unfortunately, you spend less time on solving actual problems and more time applying meaningless conditions to greatsword attacks, so that’s fun I guess.

Swagg.9236:

[Banner of Tactics]

• Buff duration increased from 5 seconds to 6 seconds.
• Buff tick interval increased from 3 seconds to 6 seconds.
• Regeneration duration passively granted by the banner reduced from (current?) to 2 seconds.

You don’t know the class, evidently don’t want to put in the time to research where these effects come from, and want your suggestions to be taken seriously. I mean, this is all confirmation of what we already knew, but it’s 5 seconds on the wiki to find this out.

Seriously. I’m genuinely amazed that you expect people to listen to you when you don’t even understand the basics of skills and traits.

Swagg.9236:

Mbelch.9028:

Chutes and ladders is a game for children. Simple to understand, easy to execute, easy to learn.

I understand what Chutes and Ladders is. I’m saying that using it as a metaphor for my balance design doesn’t make sense because my balance design is focused around the preservation of offensive damage legibility and focusing damage into clutch, well-cued attacks. Chutes and Ladders is a game based entirely on the roll of a die. Dodging an opponent’s attack is not something for which you roll a die in GW2—or it shouldn’t be; it actually kind of is at the moment in many cases. That’s the problem that I’m working to correct.

I don’t know how well-cued you want damage to be, but your Thief overhaul forces them into a 10 initiative, 6 second long combo to deal any kind of damage at all.

If you want nothing to happen at all, you’re well on your way to success.

Okay so um.

When will we be able to wear PvE gear in PvP and get PvP armors maybe for PvE?

IMHO make it so that you can’t have several stances active at one time, or so that stances cancel other stances when they’re active (except for the trait stances). Kinda doesn’t make sense that someone is simultaneously in a Balanced stance while also being in a Berserker stance?

pmnt.4067:

I really like that idea.

• Stealth is a boon, which gets corrupted to Revealed
• Revealed is a condition, which gets converted to Stealth
• Both don’t stack, their max stack limit is 1.

I would be very careful about converting Revealed to Stealth, for Well of Power in particular.

Dealarr.4925:

No, it’s a 1/4 of a sec, its the lag in big ZvZ fights that kills the gameplay. What other guy? Defiant stance is meant for big fights, not 1v1’s. Who in the right mind would choose DS over healing signet in a 1v1?

If it’s really the lag in big ZvZ fights, surely this affects all clutch abilities, not just yours? So asking for a change just to your ability is a bandaid fix which, at the end of the day won’t really do anyone much good?
Abilities need to be balanced on a small-scale basis as well as on a large scale basis. Defiant Stance is not only available in WvW.
Who in their right mind would choose anything over healing signet ever?

Also, my bad, I was thinking of AED.

MonMalthias.4763:

• In the event of Boon Corruption, does Stealth become corrupted to Revealed?
  • Answer: Making Stealth become Corrupted to Revealed would make Well of Corruption and Corrupt boon a hard counter to Thief Stealth (and other Stealth sources). I myself don’t like hard counters, so I believe Stealth should be the exception in this case. Instead, Stealth becomes Corrupted to 5 stacks of Vulnerability such that Thief (or others) have the opportunity to Re-stealth. The Vulnerability ensures that any incoming AOE to the area now that the Thief’s position has been compromised will be very deadly. Alternatively, Weakness could be applied, to prevent Thief from being able to re-engage until Weakness has been cleansed.

I’m not sure whether I agree, at least on Corrupt Boon. Corrupt Boon would not be possible to practically land, as it is a purely targeted ability. For Corrupt Boon to land properly, it would need to begin casting before the thief enters stealth, and the necro would need to not be blinded. I’m not sure how strongly the well necro:thief matchup would be changed by this, either; could make it into a hard ‘ur ded’ if it lands, but I dunno what the current situation is.

Changing this would also change how mesmer:necro matchups play out.

Cufufalating.8479:

]Then on the flip side you can have thieves who can run +50-100% boon duration and suddenly they can EASILY be perma-stealth. PU mesmers would also become somewhat rediculous since mesmers aleady often run with high boon duration.

Pretty simple solutions for these;
For Thieves, remove Meld with Shadows, and maybe move Boon Duration up into Shadow Arts
For Mesmers, remove the Stealth duration portion of Prismatic Understanding

Aren’t they reducing the cast time to 3/4 rather than 1?

I don’t really want it to be an instant cast, myself- The other guy should have some warning and an opportunity to counter the heal; in this case, by stopping outgoing damage.

MonMalthias.4763:

Anyway, my idea of making Stealth a Boon seemed to be well received, but I don’t play a Thief myself, so I’ll make a new thread (amongst a million others calling for nerfs to Stealth) and hopefully there will be some Thieves that are sick of being pigeonholed into Berserker’s amulet and 1 role (DPS Roaming) to fully flesh out some buffs to Thief that would make it more of a bunker buster and less potent against other glass cannons.

One thing that I’d be worried about would be Signet of Inspiration becoming a pseudo-Mass Invis, but that’s really a minor concern. I don’t think SoI is particularly popular in the meta at the moment, anyway.

Kodan – They have Legate Lanius’s voice which… my hand is down my pants how did this happen
Elonian Undead – They might be close to Forsaken but they’d be more similar to, say, Tomb Kings than Vampire Counts, if you’re much of a Warhammer nut. I also think that the playable factions would be ‘okay’ with allying with Palawa Joko- I mean, we did it before, right?
Tengu – caw

Pirlipat.2479:

I haven’t read the entire thread but I just wanted to say that I like this Kasmeer-Majory relationship, because it’s just a normal drama-free relationship of normal people.

>drama free
>’normal relationship’

god kitten i wish i had a ‘normal relationship’

Carighan.6758:

The nerf I would see would probably upset a lot of sPvPers:

• Remove most ability to re-stealth mid-combat.
• Increase burst potential and control.

If you’re alone, a thief can and will probably kill you. If he fumbles it and needs to run, he actually needs to leg it. :P

Yeah, it’d upset sPvPers because it’s a bad change.

Really, I don’t think thieves need to focus even more of their potential on the start of the fight- and that’s ultimately what this would do. They’re already (some would argue unhealthily) skewed to the first portion of the engagement, and doubling down on that would be pretty… Let’s be gentle and say “unappreciated”.

Well… You can make it an absolute joke to give yourself stealth, between Smoke Cloud and Air Blast. That’s neat, I guess.

Arken.3725:

If any of these sound too strong, lets discuss a way to make them better without doing so. I’d rather not hear more “omgggg too strong” comments and actual constructive conversation.

Gotta keep in mind that these are the baseline virtues. How much AOE healing could a guardian specced and geared for passive Resolve put out for doing nothing? Then add on their already existing bunker ability?

I think that the passives are more or less okay, with that in mind. Resolve does its job; it heals, you can pop it to give you and your friends a big lump of healing, and you can trait it to be bigger and better and condition cleansing. Courage synergises with all the Aegis-affecting traits, and therefore with all the Retal affecting traits, not to mention its own traits in deep Virtues. Justice is really the only weird one, as far as I can tell, because Burning’s the only damaging condition they can get- But even then you can trait it up to do quite a few things.

I don’t actually know whether they end up in a good place after all this is done, but it’s still important to note that Guardians have huge amounts of traits that feed into their Virtues.

Swagg.9236:

Also, your analogy is pretty bad.

In your eyes, what’s the analogy?

Black Box.9312:

Rapid fire is just horrendous DPS due to how long it takes to channel, and adding vulnerability to it did almost nothing because it stacks up so slowly that by the time you’re done channeling the skill the first few stacks you put on are already almost gone. Honestly they just need to rework the skill entirely, because even with the vulnerability there’s still very little reason to use it unless you’re stuck with a longbow in very close range, which should never happen.

Yeah, I do think that Rapid Fire’s kind of a weird ability. Not every ability should be optimal DPS and I won’t say I’m particularly bothered about exact numbers, but I’m more worried about how abilities feel and play- And Rapid Fire’s Vulnerability application does feel really weird, and overall, I preferred the vuln on Hunter’s Shot.

Black Box.9312:

As for the autoattack, I’m personally of the opinion that basing damage on your distance from the target is just a terrible mechanic. It makes the weapon virtually worthless in PvE, and in PvP it gives people the idea to prioritize relative position from their target rather than more important things like who to focus on, what to avoid, and where you need to be positioned regardless of where your enemy is.

PvE worthlessness is kinda ehhh and hinges on entire encounter design. Being unable to benefit from your allies’ buffs at the range you need to be at, and being unable to give those buffs to your friends, isn’t good- But I don’t think changing the range-is-good dynamic is a net gain.

Rather than? Those things are still important. If people are being bad and ignoring those mechanics, to their detriment, then that’s their fault. If being a long-ranged operator allows you to ignore them, then… Isn’t that kind of the point of being a ranged class; so that you can pay less attention to, or potentially completely ignore, melee combat factors? There’s still the fairly easy means to remove someone’s ranged combatant advantages and that’s getting up in their face.

Swagg.9236:

That doesn’t change the fact that its damage is very high for an auto-attack.

Its damage isn’t that high if it’s in the mid-range, and it’s pretty pathetic in the sub-500s. It’s not fair to judge an ability purely by its peak.

The function of an auto-attack should be as a lull in combat or maybe possibly as a means to prime another skill’s attack (although we really see none of that in GW2 unfortunately); the auto-attack should not be the primary source of a weapon-set’s damage.

Due to the auto-attack’s nature as a skill that can constantly be spammed, making it into the apex source of DPS on a weapon-set

Define: Primary source.

Is it the highest damage rotation in optimal conditions?
Is it the highest contributor to damage in optimal conditions?
Is it the highest damage rotation in general conditions?
Is it the highest contributor to damage in general conditions?

Because at the moment, it’s only the second one. Assuming we’re talking about sPvP, it will never be possible to achieve optimal conditions unless the other team is either AFK or are completely new to the game. Seriously; if you’re letting a ranger stand back and plink with their auto-attacks, you deserve to be taking that damage.

drastically narrows the window for clutch counter-play on part of the opponent. In the case of a ranged auto-attack—since the auto-attack doesn’t stop—it pretty much limits the counter-play options to CC chaining the user, projectile reflection, line of sight, or an extended block/invulnerability. None of those types of responses are particularly engaging for either the auto-attacker or the opponent nor do such defensive responses (outside of line of sight) have short enough cool-downs that can compete against the auto-attack’s pressure.

We’re not talking about generic ranged attacks. We’re talking about Long Ranged Shot. There’s a pretty easy and fantastically effective way to neuter Long Ranged Shot’s damage and that’s getting up nice and snuggly with the ranger. There’s no cooldown on moving forward.

The best option would be to just readjust the damage and funnel the subtracted damage into other skills. I’ve been thinking of making a chain skill for [Rapid Fire] in order to fill the void left by a [Long Range Shot] damage nerf.

It is fine. Leave it alone. By doing this, you’re completely altering the weapon to something less than it currently is.

Swagg.9236:

Sarrs.4831:

What’s wrong with the auto-attack? IMHO it’s in a reasonable place and gives the weapon a role, but I’m not really a ranger, so I can’t really tell.

Having a “role” based on auto-attacking is a terrible design that promotes spammy, throwaway skill game-play that doesn’t provide opponents a clear sense of when to attempt counter-play maneuvers.

Except that LB 1’s core mechanic offers clear incentives for when and where to use it, how to neuter its output, and is complemented by the other skills on the weapon. It’s probably the most legible and most interesting Ranger weapon with this in mind.

aries.6548:

I made a full set set of ascended armor with celestial stats and divinity runes in it, will there be a compensation for all the money i spend?

A good idea would be to let the player choose the stats again for one time, i feel there also needs to be a compensation for the lost crit damage on divinity runes if they dont get 10 ferocity.

Also how does this damage reduction work together with events like the 3 great jungle wurms in bloodtide coast, there hasn’t been even one legit kill because there isn’t enough damage output over this short 2 minutes in phase 2 even though everyone is running with berserker gear. How do you expect a sucessfull run after the damage reduction?

World bosses like the Wurms and Tequatl can’t be crit, to the best of my knowledge. The change will do nothing.

Divinity/traveler’s runes will, I’m 99.99% sure, get Ferocity added to their regular stats.

I doubt you’ll get compensated; your gear will probably just get overall buffed, and the bonus power will make up for the loss of crit damage. That is, of course, a guess; would be nice to get another word on what they’re thinking of doing with the spread. My guess is that at the end of the day you’ll end up with roughly the same damage and more survivability from an overall stat boost.

Swagg.9236:

Black Box.9312:

Retaliation is a key part of a bunker guardian’s potential. Getting rid of it would break a key component of the class, which means it’s not going to go away.

Retaliation should just stack in intensity. It makes it balanced in 1v1s and it removes its ability to burn down an entire group of players’ HP simultaneously.

This would very seriously change WvW. It’s already possible for an engineer to spike himself to death with grenades or flamethrower in large scale encounters.

Not to say it’s not a good idea, it would certainly be an interesting change and could offer them more room to make interesting abilities (block→retal with intensity could make spamming against a block very fun), but it would be a very big change.

Black Box.9312:

Hunter’s shot is fine; the stealth can actually be a really nice help and it synergizes well with renewed opening strikes. Rapid fire, and even the autoattack are much bigger problems for longbow.

What’s wrong with the auto-attack? IMHO it’s in a reasonable place and gives the weapon a role, but I’m not really a ranger, so I can’t really tell.

Also not sure about rapid fire but I think it’s a bit weird that it applies vulnerability with each shot, makes the uptime kinda dorky.

I’d like it.

Why would zerglings suffer? They need to know where you are. You don’t need to know where you are; you’re in the middle of the screen.

Karl McLain.5604:

In general, we’ve got quite a bit more stuff coming. As before, we can’t say what these things are just yet… But there’s a bit of stuff that will shake up the meta. We’re really looking forward to it!

-Karl

newweaponsnewtraitsnewutilspleasepleaseplease?

We should have two characters in a relationship who spend most of their time picking on and making fun of one another.

ManCaptain.3154:

runeblade.7514:

ManCaptain.3154:

MonMalthias.4763:

• Making Stealth a Boon; thus giving skills with Boon Hate additional utility against Stealth. Mesmers in particular would have their matchups improved markedly by this one change.
  • Most importantly removing Stealth as a Boon should not inflict Revealed. With counterplay must come counter-counterplay – the Thief should be able to re-stealth after hitting Boon Hate. Obviously things like hitting people while Stealthed should still inflict Revealed.

This would completely screw up engineers who have no boon hate to speak of. And if cover boons are utilized by the thief (easy to do) it becomes impossible for classes with boon hate which removes only 1 boon. Also because stealth makes you untargettable, any boon hate that requires a target cannot do kitten (arcane thievery for instance).

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Throw_Mine

What is it with this forum and lack of reading comprehension? Is that a viable boon removal? 1 single boon removal utility on a profession which loses at least 1 utility slot to kits, at least 1 to stunbreakers. This is not viable!
Jesus christ. Just like in that other thread where I said engineer has no decent condition removal outside the 30 alchemy + elixirs build and some moron started listing all the weak and unviable condition removal engineer has. What’s next? I’m gonna say engineer has no viable stability and some idiot will point out the 2 extremely crappy and unviable stability sources on the class?

Not to mention other classes with less than viable boon removal.

Reserve Mines (the 15 point Explosives trait) seem like they would remove boons as well, and that’s not exactly a difficult expenditure to justify. Might be nice if the HP threshold were pushed up a bit, but still.

Swagg.9236:

[Basilisk Venom] is a passive, attack-triggered bonus that stuns foes for 1 1/2 seconds on a class replete with instant or near-instant attacks (some of which even attack near-instantly from range). Moreover, it procs Lyssa runes (which also need a nerf) often turning [Basilisk Venom] into a single-button win for Thieves that can even be used more than once within a single encounter if the fight lasts long enough.

This sort of thing needs a regulating nerf: once per encounter; with a cast-time that could punish wanton use mid-encounter should it come back off cool-down during a fight.

It also has very distinct tells; the cast is a fair amount of time, and you can tell when a thief has basilisk poison if you can see him as it has the buff shown there. Poison attacks which fail consume the poison charge; dodge immediately before they do any attacks with their basilisk poison and they’ll waste it. The only way to get an ‘assured’ Basilisk Poison hit is to get into stealth, which obviously has its own limitations.

Lyssa runes do throw Basilisk Poison out of whack. Really, they’re the main problem here.

Warriors provide the highest up-front power, in all avenues, with the fewest strings attached. Simple class, simple results, for better or worse.

Do Warriors really have any weaknesses? They used to have ‘tough time dealing with conditions’, but with Cleansing Ire, that quickly disappears. They also spend bigger windup animations to get bigger numbers, but that’s more or less irrelevant in PvE.

Aren’t all Elementalist and Engineer 1s kind of lackluster by their nature as a class which has access to many possible 2/3/4/5s at once? It would definitely be nice if those 1s could be brought up to be usable skills, and judged more on their impact as a time investment than as a skill you fall back on once you run out of CDs (which won’t happen if you’re playing these classes properly).

Maybe general condition coverage is the problem in WvW, not these runes in particular. The skills you need to get a good condi cover are baseline to the class, and any conditions that you gain from runes (which are very few and far between, if any, in spvp) exacerbate that.

There’s also condition duration as a problem.

Try removing one condition from each of the condi-smothering classes first, add condition-applying runes to sPvP, and see what happens. Roughly speaking, I’m guessing it’ll be more or less an even deal for sPvP (it’ll change the game, but I don’t think it’ll be for the better or for the worse).

Swagg.9236:

That’s also a solution. I guess it could work to somehow code “missing” an attack as a trigger to apply revealed. That would also really change how stealth worked across the board. I actually kind of like that possibility.

Surprised you hadn’t thought of it already. It’s a change that can realistically be put into the current game, at least, in terms of scope and changing the fundamental aspects of how a thief operates. How it’d go on the coding side, I can’t say for sure; it might just be moving the stealth removal code earlier into an if-then chain, or it could be a major overhaul.

Makes sense to me because why the hell can you fire off 5 shots out of your pistol while still being undetectable if none of them hit? These are blackpowder weapons which, with one exception, don’t have silencers. They should be extremely loud and smoky; not exactly conducive to stealth.

Swagg.9236:

If a player can dodge a [Backstab], the thief shouldn’t just be able to keep spamming [Backstab] until it hits; that completly undermines the purpose of dodging it. It makes dodging, positioning and timing completely moot.

Easier solution: make failed stealth attacks pull you out of stealth.

Dee Jay.2460:

The changes to Crit-Damage imply that the scaling of stats is a concern. So this may indicate an increase in level-cap, possibly tied to a new expansion.

Raising the level cap would do far more harm than good.

I like the idea of making Stealth a boon. Few things, though.

1. Will Revealed become a Condition? That could be dangerous with cleansing in mind.
2. How will boon corrupting effects like Well of Corruption and Corrupt Boon affect it? Will it flip into Revealed or something else?
3. Might need to change Meld with Shadows to something not stealth-related and move Boon Duration up to the Shadow Arts line to compensate.

It’d be a big change and I doubt I’ve covered all the potential issues but I think the idea has real merit.

1. Recaps are okay but we’ve had like 5 recaps lately. We’re plenty recapped. This patch’s recap will probably be recapped next patch. It’s crazy; makes it sound like recap isn’t even a word. Recaprecaprecap.

2. You barely even need to go into EotM to get your story stuff done.

Consider what’s been added for the PvE half of the game in the last few updates; Ascended armor, the Christmas stuff, two boss fights which both contain terrain modifications and heavy scripting, minizones… Not even counting the Tower arc, which includes an entire vertical zone and pretty heavy modifications to Kessex Hills. EotM is probably the only meaty content that WvW will receive in an entire year. Count your blessings.

So basically she’s Joker from ME.

Coolie potatoes

Why doesn’t she use the experimental technique developed by your Dynamics crew to fuse herself with her golem permanently (though hopefully iron out the kinks a bit)?

Or fuse herself with a sexy sexy watchwork golem, hubba hubba

Olvendred.3027:

Perhaps the team that wins gets a bonus WvW rank-up chest. Assuming the player in question actually did at least some minor requirement in terms of actually contributing to that win.

I was going to say this.

But yeah, WvW should just go ahead and spam rewards at you. I doubt anyone would mind. WvW becomes a good place to get rewards? Good; it’s got the highest risk, it should have the highest reward.

Well this is not a thread I expected would receive a red reply. What’s the secret ingredient? An easy fallacy to slap down? Short and easy to read? We must know!

Personally I wonder if it would be possible for users to make simple map mods by placing doodads, spawn points and specifying objectives. Think Halo 3 onwards with its Forge.

Also I would like both more game types and more maps but if I have to pick one, modify the standing maps to fit new gametypes.

If Fetid Consumption 1; use Blood Bag, else Consume Conditions.

style.6173:

You need to understand the ANET methodology.

Users: Condi damage is too high
ANET: Sounds good. Let’s nerf direct damage.

Users: AOE are too strong
ANET: Cool story. Let’s make them even stronger

Users: Passive skills should be less powerful than active skills
ANET: Agreed. Let’s make passive skills even more powerful

Users: Too much NPC in WvW is bad
ANET: Understood. Let’s create a new map and add even more NPCs to it.

Once you understand how ANET thinks, then you can better ask them for things.

So basically we should be saying;
“it’s too hard to protect your conditions”.

MonMalthias.4763:

words

I’m not too good at this game, but this is a pretty fantastic overview.

To review Swagg’s changes:

HP increase: why
Staggered: what does it flip to when switched?

mace head crack: would much rather, if it has to be changed, it had a longer cast time
throw gunk: sure, why not- makes it easier to combo off
ice shard stab: okay
whirling axe: why? seems fine at the moment
consume plasma: make it 7 seconds

stealth attacks in general: placing CDs here is very counterintuitive and i strongly doubt it will feel good at all to actually play because it adds another limitation to how you might want to play a thief.

sword:
auto: eh. feels weird that autos deal more damage than unloads
infiltrator’s strike: this seems to have no positive interaction with fields to counteract its negative interaction with fields
infiltrator’s return: more evasion?

flanking strike: why are you shaving EIGHT damage off this skill, are you just changing it because you couldn’t figure out anything to do?
larcenous strike: so s/d doesn’t really have any damage, between the auto nerf, this nerf and the tac strike nerf. also another cooldown to make the class feel incredibly awkward

pistol whip: so you’re supposed to do this twice and then do
malicious strike: okay there’s a nice big number except it isn’t marked as interacting with any combo fields and if it did interact with combo fields you could malicious strike through your pistol 5 and get stealth and tac strike and then start up the same combo again and just murder someone

i predict 100% s/p thieves

dagger changes:
yep looks like we’re going s/p

shadow shot: not sure why we’re changing this. i mean it might be cool but i dunno. kind of trivial if you ask me

dancing dagger: an oversized dagger is a sword. giving it some purpose beyond being a crappy cripple is nice, though
dagger draw: thieves already have this skill: scorpion wire
cloak and dagger: okay
push: the distance is only relevant in very tight avenues. i do not know why this skill exists- let alone why it is attached to CnD

shortbow:
1: why
2: bleeding changes reduce tactical depth, and why are you reducing the damage here?
3: why
4: this change can no longer quickly cover a large area in poison gas because you will be CD locked behind the chain skill after the second gas. awkward play. shortbow will be even easier to get away with, since inf. shot is unchanged. completely unnecessary

pistol:
1: why?
2: awkward
3b: this will look incredibly ridiculous, reads incredibly ridiculously, and overall does not seem like it will fit into the P/P kit.
4a: i have no idea why you are increasing the daze here because that is not the point of the ability
4b: how does a cloud of gunfire reflect projectiles
also this is where staggered completely breaks down because it’s obvious you’ve put that chain lock on CD here because allowing headshots to be constantly fired while the target is staggered would be utterly ridiculous. while it is a necessary balancing mechanic, i imagine it would also be incredibly frustrating to actually play with.

J Eberle.9312:

While we’re at it let’s force the wvw’ers to get rank 20 in spvp to get their gift of battle. It’s only fair.

That sounds fantastic. The tears will flood these forums in a great tide, assuming that PvEers have to do it too. I mean, it’s only fair- WvWers already have to do hundreds of hours of PvE to get their legendary, between grinding gold, farming dungeon tokens and doing world completion.

Seriously, rank 30 is almost trivially easy to get, between how the low ranks cost less and just generally how easy it is to roll a karma train. If you’re really having that tough a time with it, you can just throw 54 laurels at it and be done.

And you only have to do this grind once, too, if you want to get multiple legendaries. Only feel like exploring the world once if you want more than two legendaries? Too bad.

PVStar.3658:

Distractions?

There’s not really anything to distract the players from. Even then, it’s a pretty huge investment of resources- Every time Scarlet attacks a zone, she loses hundreds of Horrors, Aetherblade and Molten Alliance.

Question.

Why is she spending resources terrorising every zone when she should be saving up for the attack on Lion’s Arch?

lordkrall.7241:

Orpheal.8263:

Why hasn’t this been tested out enough before of the implementation.

And how would you suggest that they test things like these?
The issues turned up because a massive amount of people tried to connect at the same time.
You can never simulate that with testing.

PTR

Carighan.6758:

But from a Mesmer? Not a clone, not a phantasms, not any confusion, +allboons? You know, exactly what Mesmers are known for? O.o

What good is a clone from a Mesmer? You have no traits to benefit from it, you have no shatters. It’s basically just a body block.

A phantasm is better, but not by much. Assuming you get a Phantasmal Rogue because that makes sense for a thief, you still don’t have a lot of the traits that make a Phantasm worth using.

Confusion could be cool but it’s kind of a weird condition because thief behavior maybe doesn’t work so well with it, I don’t know.

A boon spread is, on the other hand, useful for every thief.

Muchacho.2390:

If i remember correctly all steal skills are quite strong.

Typically, yes, but the other ones can all be dodged.

Elementalist – Ice Shard – Difficult animation to pick, but dodgable
Necromancer – Skull – Big tell, dodgable
Thief – Feathers – Can’t really dodge
Engineer – Goop – Puts down a field that doesn’t really do much
Ranger – Tree thing – Thief has to stay in the field to get benefit out of it, not necessarily a good state of affairs for them
Guardian – Stunny Club – Dodge
Warrior – Spinny Axe – Dodge/kite/stop shooting at them

The mesmer one seems to be more applicable in more circumstances, powerful, and less counterable than a simple dodge. Not to say it’s OP; I can’t say for sure whether it is.

Einlanzer.1627:

I can’t comment too much on Shared Venoms specifically, but Venoms in general seem to be balanced around the assumption they will be shared, meaning that they tend to be very underpowered when solo or not using the Trait.

I would recommend a buff to all Venoms so they are more usable regardless of traits, then possibly a redesign of the Venom Share to weaken them somewhat when shared (like maybe giving fewer stacks).

This really depends on the venom in question. Basilisk Venom is always popular whether or not you’re able to share it. Devourer Venom is also solid, though I don’t know how favored it is at the moment.

Skale and Spider somewhat rely on having, at the very least, Leeching Venoms, and should more or less not be touched unless the wearer is running a condition build.

Skelk is really only worthwhile if you have everything up to and possibly including Venomshare.

Ice Drake Venom should not be touched with a 10ft pole.

Venomshare is overall in kind of a weird place because you just can’t contribute as much to fights as you’d really like without giving up buttons that you need to not die. As far as I can tell, it is very much a build that relies on the nuances of sPvP to survive, and it doesn’t even really thrive.

In PvE, there’s really no control or condi coverage meta, so lumping controlling conditions or conditions which won’t really hit hard from your allies doesn’t do much compared to what else you could be doing.

I dunno how it would do in WvW but you’d probably be better off straight up killing the other dude than playing around with poisons. Even if you want to help your team, you’re better off doing it by murdering someone.

Kiriakulos.1690:

Sarrs.4831:

Kiriakulos.1690:

Change the minor traits in Blood Magic and make them 5 = Vampiric, 15 = Bloodthirst, 25 = Life siphoning works in Death Shroud.

5->15 has the same problem. Bloodthirst will still be bad if Vampiric is bad.
25 should just be baseline. Don’t know why we should have to trait for basic functionality.

Then what ratios do you think would make vampiric good? How much should bloodthirst increase then?

I never said that Vampiric is bad. I said that if Vampiric is bad, then Bloodthirst will, by extension, be bad, if it’s a minor trait.

Just don’t change the Blood minors at all. They’re fine. All Vampiric needs is a small scaling value with Healing Power, like every other lifedrain effect needs; it otherwise functions well as a long-term EHP increasing effect. The other two traits are more or less in line with what you’d expect from a minor trait.

If I were to give Bloodthirst a number increase, I might push it up to 25%. I don’t think it needs one though; a simple numbers push upwards will make it too good at what it does. Combine it with another, less desirable trait, like Dagger Mastery.

whyme.3281:

I think I said this here before and unleashed said it, too. A pet transformed into a moa (by mesmer ulti) hits every of his attacks. So then lets

Just out of curiosity (and because I think it would be literally the most hilarious thing ever), do Moa pet accuracies increase when they’re Moa’ed?

But yeah Moa Morph 1 has the slight forward leap like Kick has. Maybe that’d be cool I dunno.

Kiriakulos.1690:

Change the minor traits in Blood Magic and make them 5 = Vampiric, 15 = Bloodthirst, 25 = Life siphoning works in Death Shroud.

5→15 has the same problem. Bloodthirst will still be bad if Vampiric is bad.
25 should just be baseline. Don’t know why we should have to trait for basic functionality.