Guild Wars 2

I noticed there’s what seems to be a difficulty indicator in the top right corner near where it counts the waves, but mine is always at 1/2. Any idea what that is?

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fcAQFAUlIq6Z3ySfF17IRoHD++qVUB9/5hcbbaB-j0BB4NA0HAJfFRjtIsIasqFYqSER1eDFRrGA-w

I’m pretty noobish when it comes to WvW. Wondering if the above build would work well. Guess it’d work for zergs as well as small groups but definitely not solo roaming.

Still not 100% confident with bombs in a non-PvE environment. The fuse delay makes it hard for me to feel like I’m connecting with my attacks.

Advice?

If HGH and 409 worked with EG….wow! Lol

They should change the EG skill tooltips so they don’t cause confusion.

It would be nice though to have another trait for EG that adds some flavor. Bombs can heal, FT gets toughness and might stacking, grenades get an extra grenade (not very flavorful), and TK gets turret healing and cripple on 2 skills.

Chuck Zitto.2367:

Little upset that elixir infused bombs got a 50% increase in healing power which in anet terms means it went from .1 healing scaling to .15 or about 30 or so more hp per bomb explosion. Even with full healing power its less healing per second than warrior passive healing singet with 0 healing power and every warrior build has adrenal heal as well and some have banner regen or shout heals.

Those things are always presented in the most positive way. You can skew any number with the proper use of percentages, graphs, etc. If they said E.I.B. will get a healing power scaling increase of 0.05, we’d have flipped out kitten. But this way, 50% sounds amazing until we do the math but they can say “hey man, 50% is huge!”

Conversely, they could say they increased the precision gained from skill x from 90 to 105, which makes us think “cool, triple digits” until we realize it’s only a 17% increase.

Happens everywhere.

Rifle is primarily a power weapon, but it’s also got a lot of control, making it a useful tool even in hybrid situations. I don’t mind the bleed, I simply see it as added damage. Plus, if I jumpshot in, the bleed covers my stacks of vuln.

The only other condition I’d be ok with seeing is torment, because it’s similar to bleed but adds that movement-control factor that I think fits with rifle. Bleed alone from a power build might not incentivize a target to cleanse, but torment might force the stand still or cleanse decision.

Don’t think there’s much to say after that. Chaith pretty much nailed it imo.

/thread

Backing up the sentiments for all of the above, especially gadget trait support.

Also…

- Less reliance on elixirs for condition cleansing
- FT autoattack: less retaliation fodder
- AED: cool concept, needs tweaks
- Static Discharge needs to hit selected target to open up gadget options

I (and I assume most people who want hammers and/or maces) want them because…

- they’re one more weapon that we can actually customize & not have to use kit skins.
- they, along with TK and bombs, would make us 100% melee with zero range attacks.
- they are only used by the 2 heavy classes and they need more distribution.

Just wanted to add that, having used it since its release, AED is not the easiest to use in PvE. The problem is that damage isn’t constant and when it does come is meant to be dodged rather than tanked, since spikes can kill you immediately. So I’ll see my life drain slowly trying to “stand in the fire” and just unload on my target. Then I get hit with something big, drop down to 10%hp and pop AED in hopes of getting hit again to drop me to 0. But no…no damage, small heal, and then whoomp, dead.

Bottom line is that because of the cast time for AED you have to be very proactive, anticipating lethal damage and potential interruption. Works great in PvP and WvW. Not so much in PvE unless you’re on a dungeon boss and can’t dodge the telegraphed & slow lethal attack.

The issue I have with the Donation achievement is that you can’t just donate the highest amount and have it count for all achievements. Nope, you gotta individually donate each denomination.

That….is the best Guild Wars Santa I’ve ever seen.

What server is he on? I must guest and seek him out. He must know what is on my Christmas list!

They should have introduced another new material/currency: COAL. Then we could have all this disappointing “you’ve been bad this year” slag but at least turn it in for consolation prizes. Sorta like when you’ve only got 30 tickets from skeeball…can’t get much but at least you’re walking outa there with a snazzy new pencil eraser. Score.

Now if by lethal jumps you mean jump shotting into a zerg and using AED to prolong your life before the inevitable death….yea it’s good for that.

I agree with Valar that there should be more “when using…” more broadly than specific kits. It would let us venture into trees that aren’t normally beneficial to a specific kit for more variety.

Juggernaut is a trait that lets FT users be more of a bruiser. The toughness buff essentially makes us heavy armor close range fighters and FT’s tools let us control the fight with blind and knock back. They work well together. Not something that really fits with EG.

If EG had a trait similar to Juggernaut it would be something like gives passive +x% condition duration and stacks healing power. But EG works better jumping in, using it, and then popping out.

They also drop occasionally. I’ve gotten a couple pieces from doing the Spider/Wurm/Alchemist events.

I think the main point the OP is making is that the passive is too strong not because it heals too much but because it discourages using the active. You get a constant heal that can be outhealed by other warrior heal skills, but is never subject to interrupts, is never on cooldown, and encourages boring passive gameplay. In that case, yes, Heal Sig needs a fix.

The inherent design of signets in this game is creating a situational skill that requires a risk v reward decision for leaving it passive or activating it and losing the passive. As it stands, there is no incentive to pop HS. A balance must be found.

Just another point hexil, this is the direction Anet has been going lately with LS meta achievements. Doing all of the listed ones will still have you short a couple, requiring dailies. The good part about this is that those that can’t achieve 100% of the listed ones can still attain the meta reward by doing the dailies. Personally, I rarely shoot for doing 100% of them because some are a pain, unenjoyable, or expensive. So I make up the difference by doing the dailies.

Charged quartz = 25 quartz + 1 day
Downside is they’re account bound

Getting all those charged quartz meant not having to wait days to charge the regular ones. Also, what’s the drop ratio at now? Are they dropping roughly 25 times as many quartz as they were charged quartz? If not, then now we’re getting less materials.

When your health drops below 1hp and you get the massive heal, do conditions fall off? I mean, effectively your health dropping that low means you die so conditions should end right?

Can someone test it (I’m at work)?

2 things:

Last night I capped all of my server’s Borderlands and a decent chunk of EB. I don’t WvW. I’ve spent a total of about 3-4 hours in WvW since head-start. I followed a zerg into 1 outpost. Otherwise, I didn’t see 1 other enemy during my whole exploration that I couldn’t avoid. See em on your horizon? Don’t go near em and find another POI to cap and come back later.

I’ve found GW2 players to be some of the nicest I’ve met in MMOs. Give them a chance. You can’t get mad about enemy players killing you if you wander into a group of them. But sticking with your allies means you’re safer and there is zero way they can kill or grief you. I think something awful must have happened to you at a young age to give you such a strong distrust & distaste of the human race.

To build off Shiren’s assertions about the various characters that follow us and the LS around:

I expected them to play a large role in each of their respective Living Stories and then we’d move on to new characters. Ultimately, with Scarlet behind everything, we’d be tasked with journeying throughout Tyria, entreating our former-allies to band together for a Destiny’s Edge Redux-style superband to take Scarlet down. We’d Marjory in a dingy bar trying to settle a bet, aid her, and then she’d join us. We’d find Kasmeer on a boring and tacky date with Ferrin, help her let him down easy, and then she’d join us. The same with Rox and Brahm and even Hobo-tron. Each new LS introducing us to new allies to ultimately join forces.

But Shiren’s right. Marjory & Kasmeer are together (for some reason) and now they’re the go-to people to assault the Tower. I thought Marjoy was a shadowy investigator. Now she’s a talented alchemist with a penchant for poison. Anise has always been the master Mesmer in Kryta but now Kasmeer is taking the lead?

Yea I’m still trying to figure out why the market for mats dropped. I expected prices to go up from increased demand. But I guess a lot of people had the same plan you did and flooded the TP with mats.

VOLKON.1290:

Marjorie blaming Braham and Rox for not catching Scarlett earlier… interesting twist. Right when I though they were going to become friends.

I missed that. Is this from snippets of conversation you overhear?

Leatherworking and huntsman for armor & weapons, respectively.

Interdimensional Portal

[gadget] Create and step through a portal, slipping into an alternate dimension, and reappearing at the location of your exit portal, having been healed & 1 condition cured.

30s cooldown
600 range
1/4s cast
4500 heal

Toolbelt

Open a small interdimensional portal which spews healing particles, giving you and nearby allies regen.

40s cooldown
3/4s cast
300 radius
8s duration

1s cast makes timing properly very tough
toolbelt range is far too low, and has a cast time too
long cooldown

great concept. needs tweaks.

I give it a 3 out of 5.

It’s a solid concept. It just needs tweaks to make it good. Lower cooldowns, lower cast times, increase stun range. For a skill with such a low hp threshold to get the big heal, a 1s cast time is far too long. Timing is everything with this skill.

Also, it’s our only heal without a healing counterpart in the toolbelt. I recommend changing the skill to a bouncing skill that stuns the target and then bounces to the nearest ally and applies regen. Since the range is so low it’ll probably come back to the caster, which gives us a secondary heal to fall back on. Especially since the 40s cooldown is far too long.

I agree with most of these sentiments.

I think the toolbelt stun is designed to be used to prevent interruption of AED cast. So either you stun your target, cast AED or you get your stun interrupted, then cast AED.

There are problems with this though:
- First, the cast times are too long. If you’re 1v1 then this stun > heal works. But if you’ve got more than 1 enemy, you’re gonna get your 1s heal interrupted, no doubt.
- Secondly, a cast time on a stun doesn’t make sense to me. Not much of an interrupt if you can’t get it off before your enemy’s spell casts.
- Third, the stun’s range is far too short. It’s practically melee. Doesn’t fit into most builds.
- I get balancing strong skills with long cooldowns. But unfortunately, heal skills are different. A 40s cooldown is too long for your only heal, especially considering it’s the only heal we have that doesn’t have a healing toolbelt counterpart. If my HT is on CD, at least I can pop the regen from the toolbelt. Not so with AED. This heal requires traiting for reduced gadget CD.

Kinda gotta agree with Templar here. You’re gonna call em both “Grenth” pieces, they gotta fit together.

Bow looks great!

Just a shame that Witaminka has designed some amazing looking Wintersday weapons in 4 days while Anet is content to release the same stuff they gave us last year. Also, Witaminkas stuff looks better.

Maybe soon they’ll have a design contest and we’ll see some great new items available in-game (read: not gem store) designed by some talented players like Witaminka.

Great cutscene! Warm feeling inside that I truly accomplished my mission. Nothing says “we win” like a giant 'splosion.

Haven’t replayed the instance yet for the achievements but I am requesting an option to skip cutscenes once seen.

Soooo glad this is unintended. I sent a bug report and hadn’t heard back yet so this is good news. I have the helm hidden until the fix. Shame cuz I just bought the thing a week ago and can’t show it off.

Anyone with programming knowledge explain to me how the helm can unintentionally get changed?

I understand the notion of a company needing to make money. But it seems like some of the items that show up in the gemstore are a little too money-hungry. They could very easily make this 1000gems for 1000 stack, but they’re breaking into 3 purchases. They’re selling full armor skins for 800 gems, and then they sell a single helm for 500gems. They realize their mistake with making the 800 gem infinite gathering tools soulbound so they make the change to account bound…but raise the price to 1000 gems. They sell holiday mini 3-packs, but then force you to flush them down the mystic toilet to acquire the 4th mini, thereby necessitating a duplicate purchase to have them all. It’s a little too money hungry feeling for me. Do I still buy gemstore items? Of course. Am I happy about all of it. Of course not.

Zerole.7306:

Nothing is stopping a new character from saving up 25 skill points.

Except for having no utilities to use in the meantime.

I’ve been longwinded, but ultimately my point is simply that the argument of having hundreds of stored SP on 80s is invalid due to the inaccessibility of these skills to low level characters.

Ascended gear destroys the notion of build diversity. Create a new level of gear that is expensive and requires a grind to attain and you’ve effectively forced every player to pick a build a stick with it. The magic of GW was being able to create new builds at any time and always have max stat armor. Now we’ve got new skills coming slowly. Either I get ascended gear and just hope the new skills adhere to my chosen build/gear structure or I skip ascended and get to enjoy all new skills introduced by simply getting a new exotic set.

Also, Ascended gear makes rare gear that much more undesirable. Whenever I wanted to try a new build that necessitated new gear, I could drop <2g on a complete set of rares without losing much when compared to exotics. But if everyone starts wearing ascended gear, it widens the gap on rares, making them comparatively weaker.

At level 80 we have white, blue, green, yellow, orange, and pink armor. Really? We need 6 tiers of gear?

Zypher.7609:

Just providing examples, if you look at the progression over time everything started increasing in sp price. I have seen some pretty not effective elite skills, so it would not be how good the skill was but rather a progression of time that increased its cost. Going by that, it only makes sense that the new skills added would be at an increased cost. Really A-net could have made them above 30 points but instead found a reasonable amount to set them at.

If every skill point was set at a horizontal progression they would all cost the same, at which point you would have to find a good amount, you could say everything was set at 15sp. But then for new characters how would that work out? so then you could set them at a lower amount, maybe at 5 sp each? But again to have a new character wait 5 levels before getting a new skill is a bit harsh. So the remedy is to set them at a relatively smooth increase.

The new skills are not targeted for new players, they are targeted at veteran players who are looking for ways at diversifying their builds. The players who have been playing the game long enough to understand what adding another skill can do for builds.

Try not to think of this as a new skill that should be on par with where you believe it ranks into, this is a new skill all together. In doing so it should follow the same progression all the other skills followed.

If this still doesn’t work, the best bet would be to ask for a change in the overall skill progression. A system which has worked from launch, but now with the new skills would need a complete change.

So none of the new heal skills are designed for <80s? My lvl 51 ele can’t use the new arcane heal while leveling? That’s a shame; looked fun. I can’t experiment with that snazzy new Mesmer signet heal? Drag, seemed cool enough to make me pick my lvl 53 Mesmer up again for phantasm builds.

Bad argument. Not to mention that these aren’t end-game-only skills. They’re not new elites. They’re on par with the rest of our heal skills. If they were OP then nobody would use the old skills and that’s not what Anet wants. You’re misunderstanding progression. This is a broadening of options. It’s not going to make your playing trancendent. These heal skills offer new playstyle possibilities, but they shouldn’t be reserved for 80s only. I’m a veteran player with multiple alts. Why should my Engi benefit but my Mesmer has to suffer?

Yalora Istairiea.6287:

The recent Healing skill (Antitoxin Spray)from the previous living story release cost 25 skill points.

Not sure why the new Healing skills would be any different?

And I had a problem with that too. Especially because, despite being permanent, it’s a skill designed specifically around temporary content.

You insist on playing with only your wife, despite your other options.
You’re playing an MMO and won’t play with others.
You’re in a PvP zone and can’t understand why enemy players (from a different server) are trying to kill you.
You’re in a massive zone with a ton of allies (your server mates) and won’t trust them.
You don’t understand that your server mates can’t hurt you. They just can’t.
Following a large group of allies offers no negative repercussions. They can’t grief you.
You need to get over your unfounded trust issues and at least try to work together with other players.
Joining a guild is like becoming a member of a club. If they’re a friendly WvW guild, you should be able to rely on them to teach you (assuming you can be taught) about WvW.

Man, is everything going to be a gem store item? There’s more and more focus on the gem store with every patch. Pretty soon we’re not gonna get anything but balance fixes without paying the gem store.

New character customization? Nah, you can’t have that. Unless you pay the gem store.
Want more material space? Gem store.
Special holiday skin? Yep, gem store.
Snow Globe finisher? You guessed it, gem store.

And to entice players to buy even more gems:
bonuses inside BLC
discounts on items if bought as gift

Guess my low level alts will have to wait a bit to get these. So dumb to gate these new heals, which aren’t elites, behind such a high cost. Makes champ farming with my 80s a necessity.

Too busy shoveling snow….

TooBz.3065:

Seras.5702:

TooBz.3065:

<snip>
It’s not about progression, its about community. Leveling takes me away from my community, therefore I don’t like it.

Then why are you choosing to level in this manner? Do WvW and dungeons to enjoy content and level with the community. Grab a guildie or 2 to tackle some tough content. Have some fun. Think outside the box. Grab a friend or 2 and try to run through high level zones, testing your cooperation and ability to escape, all while gaining mad exploration XP in the process. Heck, even crafting for some levels can be done in LA so you can map chat while you do it.

You’ve got other options than just hearts & DEs in empty zones.

Yeah, people have made recommendations like that, and I’ll give it a try.

My experience has been that leveling a new character is a solitary experience that takes me away from my friends. I don’t know why I’ve done it that way, except that
a) the game encourages it and
b) my early WvW experience indicated that people love to target uplevels, so I only go in there once I’m level 80.
c) crafting is crazy expensive now, I use to get 10-30 levels crafting, but prices are out of control.

I wouldn’t say the game encourages solo play. It rewards solo & group play, and they’ve recently added the LFG tool, which works quite well. Try it out.

Yes, WvW is much easier for 80s. But you can run with a zerg and carry supplies and take outposts for XP. In a zerg, you probably won’t be singled out; too tough. Just build defensively and do your best.

If you’ve got a number of other 80s I’m sure you’ve amassed stacks of mats to facilitate crafting. I just leveled LW 1-400 and it cost me 1g thanks to all the leather and cloth I had in my bank just from playing & gathering. Heck, level every craft as far as you can with just what’s in your bank and with minimal investment. I’m sure you can get to 100 LW, cooking, huntsman, JC, and artificer with minimal effort. That’s 500 crafting levels.

Dude, you’re in a PvP (that’s Player vs Player) environment. The whole point of it is to attack others. It’s not bullying, it’s playing as intended. If I were defending my outpost I’d kill anyone who approached too. Basic defense. Otherwise, what’s to stop a player from just running up and saying “oh I’m just POI capping, don’t attack me” and then sneak attacking? You’ve got to be smart man. If there’s a group of players defending a spot, don’t go to that spot. I mean really, common sense. Instead, go somewhere else you need to explore. Wait for your realm to control it and come back. Running straight lines from place to place is asking to get attacked. You’ve heard of WvW roaming? It’s players that prefer to roam the area and fight small battles…like a lone guy…like you. Be sneaky, be alert, be smart, be patient.

Disclaimer: I too think WvW maps should not be necessary for World Completion

TooBz.3065:

<snip>

It’s not about progression, its about community. Leveling takes me away from my community, therefore I don’t like it.

Then why are you choosing to level in this manner? Do WvW and dungeons to enjoy content and level with the community. Grab a guildie or 2 to tackle some tough content. Have some fun. Think outside the box. Grab a friend or 2 and try to run through high level zones, testing your cooperation and ability to escape, all while gaining mad exploration XP in the process. Heck, even crafting for some levels can be done in LA so you can map chat while you do it.

You’ve got other options than just hearts & DEs in empty zones.

Bombsaway.7198:

You can sacrifice a spirit easily by just changing the utility out with another skill then back (assuming out of combat).

Didn’t know this. Thanks for the tip.
Still, it’s clumsy to have to do this rather than the skill allowing it with a single button press.

Wow…these are awesome Witaminka! I love the idea of the candy cane with the strings of lights wrapped around them. Very creative incorporating the bell and the snow globes, etc. I can’t wait to see more!

Will the bow strings be strands of lights????

Outside my window, snow is blanketing the ground. The roads are fraught with peril. Those brave enough to journey into the elements are forced to prove themselves, never wavering, never relaxing, lest peril find them.

What appropriate weather for a Wintersday patch.
Journey safe.

I’m kicking myself for selling mine at the time that ZS was active. Got a cool ~20g for it back then. Had I known then that it’d rocket up, I’d have held onto it.