Guild Wars 2

Zaxares.5419:

If a key is just awarded at level 10 (as in, the level up bonus, not doing the PS), then I have about 16 level 20 Experience scrolls wildly cheering at me from my Bank…

And I have over 300 tomes of knowledge that would actually find some use

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

According to WP, a key is awarded at Level 10.

That makes it even easier then.

That’s 8 tomes

Or

1 crafting Discipline to 300 and 1 discipline to 150

So in order to key farm after the update tomorrow there’s a few barriers to overcome.

If it’s the same as the Chinese client you need to be level 20 and complete the personal story up to that point to get a black lion key.

So far the best ideas I have are:
* Get 15 tomes of knowledge (you’re level 2 after the starting zone), you’ll probably get the other 3 levels by completing the level 10 personal story section.
* Have a set of level 17 gear and level 20 gear in your bank
* With the changes to the convenience of crafting maybe there will be numerous cheap and quick ways to get 15 levels in 5 or so minutes. You’d need to get 5 disciplines to 200 or get 2 disciplines to 300 plus 1 discipline to 100 to get 15 levels.

Edited!!!
Word on the street is that you still only need to complete level 10 personal story to unlock a key.

That means…

8 tomes of knowledge
Or
1 crafting Discipline to 300 and 1 discipline to 150

Sounds like much about nothing.

To be in the top 90% of Guild Wars 2 you only need about 3500 achievement points.

If only 10% of the entire playerbase has 3500 achievement points or more why would we expect to see many ANet employees with more than that?

Also their Job is to develop and play test the game, when they’re playing the game for leisure why would they grind AP?

Much about nothing if you ask me

You can convert gold to gems.

Grinders and buyers will be at the top of the achievement point leaderboard, which is exactly who should be there, as they are contributing either more time or money than other people.

No issue.

Kitt.2567:

Shockwave.1230:

Kitt.2567:

I am not saying this simply becuz i lost to him. this build was just too much overwhelming that shows completely broken balances. i have seen tons of builds sometimes i lose and win but this build was just untouchable.

A month ago Zombi and Nos both ran the build in the 2v2s and lost in the finals.

I think it was hard countered by Diamond Skin iirc

Of course. I am talking about dueling, not 2vs2.

Game is balanced around what now?

RyuDragnier.9476:

stof.9341:

RyuDragnier.9476:

You rarely see D/D, P/P, S/D, or P/D thieves in WvW, or at least that’s how it is in Tier 2 from what I’ve seen. All I see is D/P thieves everywhere, just spamming BP->HS combo and Backstabbing for massive damage. I prefer seeing the other sets, which makes it a shame that I rarely see them.

But nerfing D/P might not be the way to get the other sets out in WvW. If they aren’t played, it’s probably because they aren’t viable in the first place.

Or because D/P is currently the safest and easiest weapon set to use.

S/D and P/D are safer. Invuln frames and Ranged damage. Instead of melee without invuln frames.

Kitt.2567:

I am not saying this simply becuz i lost to him. this build was just too much overwhelming that shows completely broken balances. i have seen tons of builds sometimes i lose and win but this build was just untouchable.

A month ago Zombi and Nos both ran the build in the 2v2s and lost in the finals.

I think it was hard countered by Diamond Skin iirc

This thread is amusing

Eurantien.4632:

One of the major problems, imo, is the lack of the animations. The mark casts all look the same, the DS 2 skill that teleports you has no animation (If you have Bifrost (which Nos does I believe)), and there are 3 fears with no cast time which makes it rather difficult to counter play.

In the end it’s just design flaw. It’s the same thing with fighting scepter eles. Since most of the stuff is instant cast or has poor animations, the only way to fight it is to random dodge. Which, against a good player, means you are dead.

I’d like a clearer indication of when a mark is being cast, also different colored animations while a mark is being cast would be nice.

The marks actually can be distinquished into two categories. I believe its that the marks with the swirly icon are CC marks and the marks with the skull icon are condi dmg/damage marks.

I just want to see a clearer indicator for the CC marks so I know when to dodge, since they can be cast right on top of you.

Glory.1493:

BlueZone.4236:

Yep, looking forward to another Gamescom incident next year.

what was the gamecom incident?

Building fan disgruntlment mixed with previous ANet silence about content followed by an interview at gamescom which led to SAB being poorly communicated as a low priority item, which caused lots of backlash from fans over the Internet and possibly other mediums.

I feel for warriors, would have been nice if they did a shave like reduce adrenaline by half when you don’t do damage.

Then they could play mind games and use adrenaline at 1 bar to feign landing a burst skill and even if it lands it’s only an extra half a bar lost.

Vayne.8563:

Shockwave.1230:

Vayne.8563:

Shockwave.1230:

Vayne.8563:

The only question is how the expansion content will be delivered. I believe they’re working on at least 1 new profession and 1 new race. I believe they’re working on a skill pack. I believe they’re working on new areas to explore.

Will it be a boxed expansion? That I can’t say. Do I firmly believe this stuff is being worked on to be delivered into the game somehow.

I really do.

I cant see them implementing this content slowly, via numerous smaller updates. If you release a full boxed expansion, it creates hype and the more hype the bigger the draw.

Now if they were to released a full box worth of expansion just for buying the base game… Would that create more hype than a b2p expansion to the point it’d be worth doing? Idk.

From what I can tell, and this is ALL speculation. I don’t have proof. I have no links…

Anet wants to provide these updates through the living story, not a boxed update. The idea is that we then have all players on the same page, since everyone can use them. They believe keeping everyone playing is better than breaking them up by having one group buy the expansion, which would create a rift in the player base. Again just an opinion not fact.

I believe NcSoft, who has to shoulder the financial risk wants an actual tried and true expansion which is considered less risky.

Originally NcSoft said their would be an expansion. Then they said, we’ll see. They’re looking at numbers. If the sales of gems gets too small, then an actual boxed expansion will be how the content is released.

If the gem store sales remain strong enough, then we’ll probably see another delivery method.

The thing about doing the living story is it doesn’t create excitement for NC Soft or investors. Which may be a problem.

But also as a player my experience has been disappointment numerous times with the living story releases, but the last 3 I’ve been content with. And the very last one I was very happy with.

Because I feel like ANet feels that people feel that relates until recently have been underwhelming, I think they would like to do a free release expansion. But they’d have to justify that to NC Soft somehow, and I don’t know how they’d do it.

Maybe some kind of compromise that is similar to if you missed a living story journal. But how do you market that properly to get new players involved too? Do a relaunch of GW2?

So how does this change when Anet says a new race or new profession is coming? No one will come to try it? No one will buy the game when they see we’re getting stuff like that for free?

I don’t have an answer to those questions, but I think Anet is banking in the idea that if they can provide for free what other’s charge for, that will start catching on and snowballing. I don’t know if they’re right. I don’t even know if I’m right about that’s their thinking. lol

I guess I was mixing up thoughts. Really it goes back to releasing it all at once for that overwhelming feeling it creates and the hype that goes along with it, or releasing in smaller increments.

I don’t know the answers either. It’s just fun to speculate. Personally I prefer that overwhelming exhilarating feeling of having so much unknown content and not knowing where to start over something like the past 2 years of skill/trait/story releases. But hopefully ANet does both, because I actually do like the frequent releases too.

Vayne.8563:

Shockwave.1230:

Vayne.8563:

The only question is how the expansion content will be delivered. I believe they’re working on at least 1 new profession and 1 new race. I believe they’re working on a skill pack. I believe they’re working on new areas to explore.

Will it be a boxed expansion? That I can’t say. Do I firmly believe this stuff is being worked on to be delivered into the game somehow.

I really do.

I cant see them implementing this content slowly, via numerous smaller updates. If you release a full boxed expansion, it creates hype and the more hype the bigger the draw.

Now if they were to released a full box worth of expansion just for buying the base game… Would that create more hype than a b2p expansion to the point it’d be worth doing? Idk.

From what I can tell, and this is ALL speculation. I don’t have proof. I have no links…

Anet wants to provide these updates through the living story, not a boxed update. The idea is that we then have all players on the same page, since everyone can use them. They believe keeping everyone playing is better than breaking them up by having one group buy the expansion, which would create a rift in the player base. Again just an opinion not fact.

I believe NcSoft, who has to shoulder the financial risk wants an actual tried and true expansion which is considered less risky.

Originally NcSoft said their would be an expansion. Then they said, we’ll see. They’re looking at numbers. If the sales of gems gets too small, then an actual boxed expansion will be how the content is released.

If the gem store sales remain strong enough, then we’ll probably see another delivery method.

The thing about doing the living story is it doesn’t create excitement for NC Soft or investors. Which may be a problem.

But also as a player my experience has been disappointment numerous times with the living story releases, but the last 3 I’ve been content with. And the very last one I was very happy with.

Because I feel like ANet feels that people feel that releases until recently have been underwhelming, I think they would like to do a free release expansion. But they’d have to justify that to NC Soft somehow, and I don’t know how they’d do it.

Maybe some kind of compromise that is similar to if you missed a living story journal. But how do you market that properly to get new players involved too? Do a relaunch of GW2?

Perhaps the API should allow for passing an account name and password that would automatically return the match ID and/or the room ID?

Vayne.8563:

The only question is how the expansion content will be delivered. I believe they’re working on at least 1 new profession and 1 new race. I believe they’re working on a skill pack. I believe they’re working on new areas to explore.

Will it be a boxed expansion? That I can’t say. Do I firmly believe this stuff is being worked on to be delivered into the game somehow.

I really do.

I cant see them implementing this content slowly, via numerous smaller updates. If you release a full boxed expansion, it creates hype and the more hype the bigger the draw.

Now if they were to released a full box worth of expansion just for buying the base game… Would that create more hype than a b2p expansion to the point it’d be worth doing? Idk.

All signs point to a large content expansion of some kind. Rebuilding the new player experience in a way that they could implement in NA and EU, which they didn’t have to do…

Why do that when most of your box sales occur during your initial launch? Especially when the leveling experience is a smaller part of an mmo the longer it gets in its life cycle?

Isn’t that value going to be completely missed by most of the player base?

Not if you launch an expansion that will have a new race and/or profession.

The earnings call where they mention the expansion is also pretty compelling lol. I remember reading that transcript.

To be clear I wasn’t trying to imply using S/D at all.

I do find it challenging to provide the kind of value I’d expect to give in a large team fight vs players that are looking for any opportunity to focus me. And vs highly aware teams getting benefit out of rotating for decaps can be hard too.

I’m not looking for changes to thief, I’m just wondering what the right moves to make are. But I’ve got it figured out. It was a mindset issue.

It’ll be interesting to see how D/P has to adapt with the upcoming changes.

RyuDragnier.9476:

Shockwave.1230:

RyuDragnier.9476:

Because right now BP->HS is No Risk, High Reward.

Really?

Because there’s no risk of getting CC’ed and losing 9 initiative and having to stun break and hope you can get away? Which definitely can’t be achieve by using quick/instant casts to clear the blind followed by quick/instant cast CC’s. Also the blind shot is impossible to avoid by hiding behind AI, out ranging (cuz it has infinite range), LoS (because it pierces walls), evading (because it’s like a sky hammer shot), blocking (because the blind shot is unblockable), invulning (because it breaks unvuln), using condi immunity (because it strips condi immunity). It’s also not like people attacking would ever line up in a way that the blind would immediately be cleansed, and it’s still impossible to follow up with a quick/instant CC.

This would work if Black Powder had a better tell than just a single shot, because right now you have less than a second to react to something that looks exactly the same as Head Shot’s animation that WILL put blind on you, unless you’re a Guardian since you’d have a very easily accessible Aegis that’s constantly coming on.

Shockwave.1230:

Or because once you’re in stealth you’re completely invincible and can’t take damage and condi’s stop ticking on you?

Requires you to be hit by conditions before stealth, or for the opponent to guess and actually get your position right, which 90% of the time they do not.

Shockwave.1230:

Or because once you’re in stealth there’s absolutely no proper way to respond in order to mitigate or completely nullify the damage?

The person who you’re fighting gets maybe 1-3 shots at blocking/evading Backstab, then they can’t do it again for at least 10 seconds…while you can spam Backstab until you succeed, because there’s no penalty for Backstab being dodged/blocked.

Shockwave.1230:

Or because even if the damage is landed the thief didn’t just spend 9 initiative which doesn’t take 9 seconds to naturally replinish, which definitely doesn’t mean if they do that combo 2 or 3 times it definitely doesn’t take 18 seconds or 27 seconds to naturally regen that initiative.

That would only be a problem if most players weren’t downed by 1-2 Backstabs, even if they’ve used their heal. If you’re running D/P’s BP->HS combo that much, you’re so glassy that 1 hit is all you need.

Shockwave.1230:

Or maybe it’s because even when that from behind damage lands, because it always does no matter what, it always 1 shots and leaves no opportunity to respond?

Not always, but it leaves the opponent in a position to where they have to immediately heal and try to escape or take out the thief, neither of which succeed most of the time. And all it takes is 3 seconds for a thief to use the combo again for stealth, and then a backstab to down the opponent.

Response quality 3/10
But you get an A for effort

BlueZone.4236:

Vayne.8563:

But if they do, then this is about what I’d expect, just as WoW always loses a big number of players before it’s expansions.

That’s wrong about WoW “always loses a big number of players before it’s expansions”. There’s only been four expansions released, the subscription numbers had been increasing up to the end of Cataclysm where it peaked.
Vanilla -> BC = increasing
BC – >WotLK = increasing
WotLK -> Cata = unknown
Cata -> MoP = yes, drop before gaining

I doubt ANet is working on an expansion. They’ve already got their plates full.

The way I interpreted that was WoW does expansions when they’re losing big numbers of subscribers.

COuld be wrong

Monoman.2068:

I at least believe that a thief should be revealed if you dodge their attack with an evade and only an evade. This requires legitimate skill since your two evades cannot be abused like weapon based evades, blocks, blinds, invulnerabilities.

In reality though I agree with the OP and the thief should be altered till it makes sense rather than having a large heap of exceptions for the class to even exist.

Just a thought, but maybe people play the class because they like it conceptually? Would you remove attunements from ele’s or Illusions from mesmers?

a t s e.9614:

Just had 4v5 3 times in a row. I was in the the team with 4 all the time.

.* pats back sympathetically *

More 4v5 QQ, another 4v5. This time though, I was on the team with 5 and we still lost because of terrible rotating. Worst rotations ever.

But again another 4v5.

30 minutes later after posting this from one 4v5, I am crying about another right now.

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Potential solution #626 – In uneven matchups recalculate the MMRs present. Provide a volunteer to sit out functionality to people on the team with a greater quantity. For the person sitting out let them spectate. Give them queue priority for thier next queue and a fixed amount of rewards as compensation for their match being ruined. That way only one person is annoyed instead of 9.

If no one volunteers force sit out someone that makes the MMR matchup more even. If the missing player returns put the player that is sitting out back into the match. Keep the rewards and queue priority for the player that sits even when the player that leaves comes back.

Not fair, but fairer. Don’t implement this if you think of something better. Thanks! Hopefully

Please do something about this already. I run into this multiple times per day in 2-3 hour play sessions. It’s no fun for 9 players, you know the outcome, it’s a waste of your customers’ time.

If you aren’t going to end the match early so people can requeue, then pull someone else into the match and give them double points or something.

This is getting pretty rediculous at this point that no intermediate solutions have be implemented until you come up with a better long term solution.

BLAH BLAH BLAH… sick and tired of this… BLAH BLAH BLAH… do something already… BLAH BLAH BLAH… don’t you care about players’ time… BLAH BLAH BLAH…

zapv.8051:

Shockwave.1230:

zapv.8051:

Any block blind or evade should pull a thief out of stealth. It would provide the desired counterplay to the class. If they need to buff other parts of the class to make up for it that is fine, but currently stealth provides no smart counterplay. Sure if the person is bad you can probably make a good guess as to where they are and spam aoes, or cleave attacks, but your still burning cooldowns like crazy. That certainly isn’t smart counterplay. While this would be a nerf to thieves it would provide counterplay for other classes. Currently the only counterplay is to have enough toughness/healing power/vitality to eat the stealth attacks, or to have enough cc to chain cc the thief until they lose all stun break cooldowns then burst them.

That isn’t good counterplay and it drives other burst classes out of the game. This change would allow smart players to counter stealthed thieves intelligently, while also providing a chance for Anet to buff other underperforming areas of the class. It might not seem like it, but even for thieves this would be better in the long run.

Main hand dagger stealth builds already have counterplay.

Besides what I listed which isn’t realistically good counterplay, what counterplay?

To view a few examples, multiply the following by negative one as there is much sarcasm

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/thief/Thief-get-nothing/page/2#post4373635

Either trolling or meant Nightmare, most likely nightmare. Both start with an N

RyuDragnier.9476:

Because right now BP->HS is No Risk, High Reward.

Really?

Because there’s no risk of getting CC’ed and losing 9 initiative and having to stun break and hope you can get away? Which definitely can’t be achieve by using quick/instant casts to clear the blind followed by quick/instant cast CC’s. Also the blind shot is impossible to avoid by hiding behind AI, out ranging (cuz it has infinite range), LoS (because it pierces walls), evading (because it’s like a sky hammer shot), blocking (because the blind shot is unblockable), invulning (because it breaks unvuln), using condi immunity (because it strips condi immunity). It’s also not like people attacking would ever line up in a way that the blind would immediately be cleansed, and it’s still impossible to follow up with a quick/instant CC.

Or because once you’re in stealth you’re completely invincible and can’t take damage and condi’s stop ticking on you?

Or because once you’re in stealth there’s absolutely no proper way to respond in order to mitigate or completely nullify the damage?

Or because even if the damage is landed the thief didn’t just spend 9 initiative which doesn’t take 9 seconds to naturally replinish, which definitely doesn’t mean if they do that combo 2 or 3 times it definitely doesn’t take 18 seconds or 27 seconds to naturally regen that initiative.

Or maybe it’s because even when that from behind damage lands, because it always does no matter what, it always 1 shots and leaves no opportunity to respond?

Wow, I’ve had the wrong thoughts on this whole time it seems.

EvilSardine.9635:

I main thief and I am against this. When I’m in stealth and trying to land a back stab on a warrior I should be able to just spam 1 until it eventually hits. I’m pretty lazy and don’t pay attention to blocks like shields or aegis so as long as I can just keep mashing my number 1 I’ll be happy.

I’m pretty content with playing D/P because I can basically just do blinding powder > heart seeker, and back stab and win even against good players. I normally just farm PvE stuff and using this combo makes it easy.

Please don’t make it so blocking reveals.

This gets you eaten for breakfast, lunch, and dinner in the top 1000.

If you are beating team comps by repeating only 1 rotation of skills, it gives a good idea level of competition you are playing against.

You’re without stealth and in melee range for 4 seconds at time, and completely vulnerable when putting that rotation on a loop by itself.

Loving the troll QQ. Especially when mainhand Dagger thief is a weaker meta build when playing in the top 1000.

Find recent tournaments with a mainhand Dagger thief in the winning comp. How many are there going back how long?

Maybe 3 conquest tournaments in the past 5 months out of 40ish, between weekly tournaments for EU and NA plus 2 ToL?

Slow clap good arguments guys, well done. This has been much fun, but I grow bored of these weak arguments having no substance.

zapv.8051:

Any block blind or evade should pull a thief out of stealth. It would provide the desired counterplay to the class. If they need to buff other parts of the class to make up for it that is fine, but currently stealth provides no smart counterplay. Sure if the person is bad you can probably make a good guess as to where they are and spam aoes, or cleave attacks, but your still burning cooldowns like crazy. That certainly isn’t smart counterplay. While this would be a nerf to thieves it would provide counterplay for other classes. Currently the only counterplay is to have enough toughness/healing power/vitality to eat the stealth attacks, or to have enough cc to chain cc the thief until they lose all stun break cooldowns then burst them.

That isn’t good counterplay and it drives other burst classes out of the game. This change would allow smart players to counter stealthed thieves intelligently, while also providing a chance for Anet to buff other underperforming areas of the class. It might not seem like it, but even for thieves this would be better in the long run.

Main hand dagger stealth builds already have counterplay. WvWers just complain about P/D because it’s a ranged condi build, and stealth gives it similarities to a ranged condi bunker.

Thief stealth in general has more than enough counterplay as is. That’s why you rarely see teams winning tournaments with a dagger mainhand thief in the comp. I’ve also never seen a tournament where P/D thief has been part of a comp and that team won.

This thread is amusing at this point. I’d love for ANet to occassionally make this and other changes that would cause massive rage and quitting of the game.

After we make dagger main hand and P/D builds unviable, next on the list should be fear chain, celestial amulet, kit swap recharges, healing signet, AI builds, screw it lets over time nerf everything into being unviable, and see what the playerbase looks like once it’s all said and done.

BLUna.7928:

Kitt.2567:

Harbinger.8637:

I haven’t played Necro is awhile, but by the comments. I’d say it’s something like this maybe.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fRAQNAW7Yjc00YbxN+2webighSyW4DiuBCgzlyvIKA-TpwXAAw+DWZAA

OK I FOUND THERE ARE AT LEAST 3 FEARS THAT CAN BE USED WITHIN ONLY 20 SEC AS WELL AS OTHER CLIPPIELING. IT IS KIND OF OP. I ALSO FOUND THAT PERMA FEAR IS POSSIBLE CUZ 3 FEAR WITHIN ONLY 20 SEC PRETTY MUCH ENOUGH TO USE. 3 FEARS FOR ONLY 20 SEC IS TOO MUCH TO AVOID ANY OPPONENT CRITICAL HITS. IT IS JUST OP AGAINST PERSON WHO DO NOT HAVE ANY STABILITY. KK THX.

So bring stability.

Or at least a condi cleanse/stun break

Stealth has a 9 second cool down for d/p. 1 initiative per second.

That counterplay you mention means the theif is revealed for 4 seconds without having dealt damage and is in a bad position.

Basically you’re saying make stealth unviable with blinds, blocks, evades, invulnerabilities, being so prevalent.

What you claim to be counterplay is hard countering to the extreme. Everything would hard counter non-s/d thieves.

What’s your build so people can tell you

RyuDragnier.9476:

caveman.5840:

d/p stealth thieves can be easy to counter ….. all u need to do is use pulls and pushes stuns and daze to stop there black powder heart seeker combo ……

idk what all the buzz is about d/p thieves lol but

u break the combo u break the thief

Requires you to not be blinded, which Blinding Powder does with a single shot. Unless you’re an engineer with Goggles equipped or you have Aegis, you’re going to be hit with a blind, which by itself makes it impossible to cancel the combo.

Or just clear the blind then use CC.

The argument to not use counterplay because you have to take 1 extra step is dumb

The reason you can’t do this is that blind, aegis, and 1 time block skills would completely prevent thief from being able to deal damage while in stealth. Thus means when a thief stealths all it can do is run away or eat damage.

Poplolita.2638:

Shockwave.1230:

I’ve found their sustain seems adequate.
(…)
They have strong skills in death shroud, but once they don’t have their 3, 4, and 5 they are stuck lifeblasting. Which isn’t optimal, so either they life blast for lower dps or they have to come out of death shroud. Once they come out of death shroud you look for the interrupt on the heal, and focus them again.

???

Nice way to contradict yourself with your own post. I don’t think substain means what you think it means.

Also, for the sake of not getting redundant, and not further feeding this troll thread, read Flumek second post.

So much cents, such insight, such value, truly all will be enlightened after reading such incredibly well identified points.

In my little time I’ve been experimenting with necro I’ve found their sustain seems adequate. Neither too much nor too little.

When fighting them, it can feel like they have too much. But that’s only because they charge life force extra quickly when they take hits due to spectral skills.

It’s kind of funny sometimes when you play a necro and you are the target of a spike while in deathshroud, yet your life force actually goes up when spectral armor triggers then comes down then goes back up from taking hits.

If it’s not a power necro, one way to play against a necro is to not focus them while in death shroud during team fights. They have strong skills in death shroud, but once they don’t have their 3, 4, and 5 they are stuck lifeblasting. Which isn’t optimal, so either they life blast for lower dps or they have to come out of death shroud.

Once they come out of death shroud you look for the interrupt on the heal, and focus them again.

ANet should make a calendar for their main website.

The title for severalreasons.

Proper rotations and other builds have enough catchup speed to deny decaps. (ie dps guard, cele ele, portal).

DP is so squishy you need to stay in shortbow during team fights until you can spike someone down that’s low. Smart players will force you to use your shadow step after you and your team do a spike. Sometimes infiltrator’s + double dodge can work, but you can’t swap to shortbow to evade more unless you’ve made yourself useless for 10 seconds of a team fight. Being in melee range outside of spiking in a team fight is suicidal, as you should be the primary focus in that situation.

Weak vs other meta builds in smaller side node fights that offer better overall team value (dps guard, engi builds, hambow), and not enough sustain to hold a point long enough to get backup. Because you can’t hold out in a bad matchup you lose more time than probably all other builds.

The strength of the build is it’s mobility and burst. It’s very much a finesse build, this unfortunately breaks down the bigger a fight gets due to the increase in chaos that comes with more players. The build rightfully has fewer team support options, unfortunately this combined with is lack of damage contributions in a team fight (outside of spiking) make it feel weak in such scenarios.

Ideally you’d be able to use your mobility as an advantage, unfortunately because of how proficiently rotations are and how proficient various builds are with catchup speed this advantage is often completely neutered. Additionally if you use up all your initiative on mobility and have to get into a fight, you’ll probably be downed. Starting a fight with at least around half initiative is critical for any build.

I continue to play DP because it’s the playstyle I enjoy, I just worry that it’s bad for teams I’m on when I do so.

I’ve brought this up before so well. It’d be nice if it could be fixed again.

It’s been RE broken for at least a month

The cycle time on Rapid Fire is currently 14.5 seconds, activation time + recharge.

After the patch the cycle time will be 12.5 seconds.

By reducing the activation time, you are in basically reducing the recharge since the cycle time of the skill is reduced.

This may be intended, but a 2 second reduction on cycle time through the reduction of a channel skill’s activation time hasn’t ever occurred as far as I can recall. It amounts to about a 14% reduction to cycle time in total.

Metabattle might not be a good forum for squishier builds from top players, as squishy builds may not be feasibly pulled off by the majority of the playerbase.

Hence why you see people choosing Rabid over Carrion and overlooking Killshot.

Worried that the in game combat log moves too quickly and that it’s font size doesn’t help with readability and keeping up

Are there any API’s that could be used to create Live combat log updates to in a way that can be consumed by OBS?

Combat is so hectic to a first time viewer that I’d like to be able to show them what’s going on.

For example I’d want to show a running counter of condition damage being inflicted or taken. Also I’d like to be able to show the breakdown of condition damage, IE Burning, Confusion etc.

I’d also like to show the healing that’s occurring from my own self and external sources. And my own healing on external sources, and conditions I remove from myself and external sources.

It’d be wonderful if there could be a way to uniquely Identify CC skills too, even if they deal no damage, like Devourer venom.

The dream is to be able to display incoming CC’s taken, condi damage, incoming auto attack damage, sigil procs, incoming damage breaking a designated threshold so I can show important hits taken (IE eviscerate, backstab, that ranger bear sword attack, etc.)

There’s just a lot of noise that happens in combat, but I want a way to highlight the important things on stream, so the new viewer can consume what’s going on.

Scorpion wire only pulls if you are in combat, otherwise it just knocks down.

ANet has said the majority of people like sky hammer. The forums just flame it.

The problem with AI is that they deal damage passively, soak up AoE in large numbers, block projectiles, and clutter up the screen reducing visibility.

Shatter Mesmer is the best designed AI build in the game, it’s AI use is actually active via phantasm attacks on spawn and shatter abilities. They don’t stay on the screen very long. When they block projectiles or soak up AoE then the AI instantly die.

If all AI builds were like shatter, and actually took skill to pull them off, instead of the majority of them being like PU and passively summoning bonus party members to deal damage for the player, then people wouldn’t care, because the player is still actively dealing the damage..

Prices will equalize due to supply and demand, there is no issue.