This reminds me, I was away for a few months, and I was shocked to discovery unidentified dyes had risen to 35s a pop, is there any reason for the huge price jump?
Nothing new that I’m aware of. Low drop rates and people being willing to give more time to the game is all I can think of.
The game economy as a whole is based upon Aesthetic items and Aesthetic related items have been inflating rapidly in price ever since release.
Has ANet published the rng rates for Unidentified Dyes or Unidentified Gray Dye (Rare) anywhere?
If a guaranteed method was available to get any colour you wanted than the price would not be more than a few copper on the TP. So no there is no way to get a guaranteed colour of a dye.
Is there a way to improve the RNG?
lol you can get dyes from pvp and from dailies.
how do you have 3 lvl 80 chars and yet not know how to get dyes?
Can I choose what color I get?
Black (Abyss) and white (Celestial) dyes are in short supply due to being rare, and therefore have huge prices. Is there any guarenteed way to get these without buying them from the trading post.
I know they have alternative colors (that are still really expensive), but they’re pretty dingy in color.
I really don’t want to get my favorite color dyes currently, because the system doesn’t allow you to share them between characters. They only work for the character you use them on.
What can I do to still have fun playing the game, but not feel like I’m grinding to get my favorite colors for my characters?
Glad they are on sale. ANet has a history though from GW1 of doing 50% off character slots. I’ll keep buying new accounts for $30 if I need slots for now until they are $5 a slot.
There’s no counter for two #2 skills. Thief and ele (no teleport doesn’t counter thief that knows to use 2 at the last possible moment) . Mesmer has 1 counter which is stealth (only viable from thief, Mesmer, or engi all other professions can’t counter it).
No matter what way you cut it there’s precedence for the skill to be uncounterable because of those other two profession #2 down skills.
Also some of these arguments lean towards homogenizing down states. If the game were going to be truly balanced there’d only be 1 class and 1 build.
Additionally many people straight up overlooking the weak offensive capabilities ele has while downed, which gives further leeway for having a strong defensive downstate.
In some people’s opinion ele downstate is OP, reality shows that people as a whole don’t see that to be true, because if they did everyone would run ele. But everyone doesn’t, because the downstate isn’t OP and because you can still kill an ele. It just requires you to play smarter and know what to do situationally. One of the most amusing things I’ve noticed is when people complain from a pvp perspective. As if it’s the best move to finish players that are in a down state instead of getting them to 1/3 health and leaving them so they’re out of the action longer or one of their teammates has to divert to respond them efficiently.
In any case, ANet clearly doesn’t view Vapor Form as an issue. They said they’d closely monitor the change of making it skill 2 from skill 3, and that must have been nearly a year ago. So it’s not a problem in their mind. It’s not a problem in my mind either and I normally play a thief that can counter any other downstate except my own when played well or the ele’s.
Not everything has to have a hard counter. Invincibility from other skills has no counter, if the argument is that everything needs a hard counter than people need to look at other games and understand it’s okay that not everything has a hard counter.
Tl;dr
Ele downstate isn’t OP, and not everything in a game needs a hard counter.
This item is already there indirectly.
Cash > Gems
Gems > Gold
Gold > Crafting Materials
Craft > Level Up
—snip due to length —
3. The ability has an instant cast time. Compare this to the necro, engg, or warrior, who have exceptionally long and extremely telegraphed casts on their abilities. If the ele had a similar cast time, it would provide a tell where the opponents will be able to recognize when to apply an immob or put up a wall. Since you’re momentarily invulnerable when downed, the ele can choose to immediately cast vapor form and move away before any of the current counters can be set up properly.
4. IIRC (and it’s possible I don’t), you can switch attunements while in vapor form, proccing attunement swapping benefits such as getting condition clearing by swapping to water. This can possibly remove something like poison from you, which is often applied to further handicap downed individuals. No other profession is able to access their class features while downed (again, I’m pretty sure eles can do this, but I’d have to double check).
5. It allows you to move inside WvW tower and keep gates. While this requires the ele to be in a specific location, performing this action can provide a guaranteed method of self-escape, which is not capable by the other professions. Personally, I wouldn’t mind this quality of vapor form if it were the #3 ability, but having it on the #2 makes it quite potent. Warriors are also capable of entering the gates, but it is linked to their #3 ability, and they will generally die anyways instead of being able to completely save themselves. The downed state is intended for players to have a last ditch effort against their opponent, and to buy time for allies to assist them, not to enable them to completely prevent themselves from dying at all.
As for thief and mesmer, thief #2 is not uncounterable, but it is difficult to counter. The most common thing to do is use a blink ability to move to the thief just as they blink away. However, the thief is also required to make a “skill shot” with their ability, and if they delay too long in setting it up, they may just get stomped. If the thief does not blink far enough away, the stomp can still hit, although the blink it fairly short range so you usually have to take a second or two to line up the cursor in the proper place. Additionally, it can end up clipping on terrain and ruining the blink. In comparison, the ele does not need to line anything up and simply needs to press one button. I do think the #3 ability for the thief charges up a bit too fast. If you don’t attempt to stomp them right away and force their #2 ability, they will have their #3 up easily. The #2 could possibly also use a short case time so that you can react to it better with your own blink.
As for mesmer, you can counter it with a stomp cancel and restomp, although the timing can be a bit difficult, and it’s not a guaranteed counter.
Interesting points
1. + 2. have counterplay. Snares or launching an ele away from a ledge/body of water before they vapor form.
3. has precedence as thief and ranger have instant cast, and Mist Form is instant cast so it makes sense Vapor Form would be too. Not sure if engi is or isn’t instant cast.
4. is an intersting point, but I’m not sure if it’s true or not. If it is maybe it’d be worth fixing ,but maybe not.
5. has been documented, maybe it’s okay or maybe not. If it’s a problem to the devs it can be addressed on it’s own without additional impact to the skill in other areas.
In general I believe games should be balanced around top end game play, because I see it as a way of helping players see what’s possible and helps them get better.
I firmly believe Thief 2 is uncounterable, because I don’t get stomped while it’s off CD. That doesn’t mean I’m a great thief it just means I know when to use that skill.
Mesmer 2 is only counterable by stealth, which is only readily available to Mesmer and Thief. I do realize that the Engi and Ranger ‘can’ stealth, Engi can pull off a stealth stomp. Ranger I don’t believe can because of the after cast on Hunter’s shot. So this is counterable by 2 professions on the regular and 1 profession when they have stealth off cool down and are using the skill. That’s less than 3/8 of scenarios. Cancel and restomp only works if the mesmer player messes up.
I did think of something potentially, maybe daze/stun if available via instant cast can be used while stomping to put Ele/Thief/Mesmer 2 skills on cooldown? Not sure.
All in all, when I hear a skill is OP it means that it’s pretty much required to run. Even if ele’s get buffed to be a bigger part of the Meta I don’t think Vapor Form is going to make people feel like they have to run an ele over something else. In the case of the ele in the down state, it doesn’t make it impossible to kill. It makes it harder to kill until either it’s health runs out from regular damage or until the skill has been used.
I love the ELE q.q on forums whenever someone refers to another class being OP.
After playing an elementalist since beta on GW2, I think it’s fair to say I have tried out a lot of different things on elementalist. More to the point I think that many people underrate RTL as it is now; it’s a ridiculously high damage ranged attack which offers insane mobility. Mainly the nerf on RTL cooldown has just added a simple skillcap to the skill which so many ELE’s love to moan about; if you pull of something which not every other idiot in WvW or Spvp can do, it gives a much more rewarding gameplay experience.
The reason even comparing this skill to the warriors Rush (GS 5) is halarious is because it’s like me comparing the firepower of a flamethrower compared to a squirtle’s waterblast; the other skills that dagger offhand offers are updraft which is an AoE 5 man knockdown for 2 seconds. Taking this into account when looking at the greatsword 4 and 5 skills is that the greatsword on warrior offers literally a ranged cripple. This move isn’t even used by warriors unless the warrior is facerolling like a wild turnip. Taking into account the greatsword’s skills as a whole does not even come close to how puny the elementalist D/D skills or even the S/D skills make them look. On one hand you have a an insane damage autoattack, weakness on demand and an aura that completely shuts down melee classes, and on the greatsword you have an average auto attack, hundred blades which require a lot of cc to pull off and a spin which does decent damage.
ELE as a class is just a mechanically complex class which offers rewarding gameplay and I think that after playing an ELE for this long the nerfs have been completely justified to stop the elementalist class from becoming a massive faceroll like some of the warrior builds.
This post lacks acknowledgement of the valid points presented in comparing RTL to other gap closers. Look at ranger, warrior, thief, engi, guardian, and do skill comparisons between the gap closers and analyze the impacts they have in combat.
It also doesn’t acknowledge that comparing greatsword to any ele weapon set is an incomplete comparison because Warriors can weapon swap as their builds are defined by two weapon sets.
This discussion about RTL shows that members of the community are expecting more available gap closing in combat from the elementalist. As it’s far easier for ANet to adjust numbers on existing gap closing skills than introduce gap closing skills on other skills it’s only logical to talk about the staple gap closing skill of the elementalist.
General Question:
Why is the Ele Downstate being considered OP?
Thief 2 and Mesmer 2 achieve the same thing.
Thief 2 is uncounterable when timed optimally.
Mesmer 2 is only counterable by thief and mesmers with stealth.
I see WvW anger that when ele’s take advantage of their proximity to keeps they Vapor Form into them. That might be fine by the devs it might not.
However, I have yet to see a valid point that shows the ele has an OP downstate.
So the question remains. What makes the ele downstate OP?
If ANet ever wants to get rid of the current thief playstyle they know where to look for a complete overhaul.
You can put in a support ticket for a refund. They said they would do this when they pulled the skin from the gem store originally. You might have to delete your armor though or they may give you transmutation stones or something
Thief 2, Ele 2, and Mesmer 2 all usually can’t be countered. Thief 2 if timed right is impossible to react 2. Ele 2 is the easiest to pull off, but can be CC’ed and the ele has weak offensive capacity while downed. Mesmer 2 can only be countered if all enemies are stealthed.
I would guess that most of the complaints about ele2 are coming from thieves, because they’re used to being able to counter every profession downstate except their own when played well, the ele’s, and the mesmer when there are multiple targets.
There is plenty of precedent for the ele to have the downstate it does. It’s not an issue, I main a thief and have no problem even though it’s a little longer to land a stomp.
(edited by Shockwave.1230)
For some reason I’m reminded of Trehearne’s reaction to Syska’s personality after she reveals she’s a servant of Zhaitan, it’s almost like he feels Syska’s is acting of her own accord, but she responds that her will is Zhaitan’s.
Since it seems Omadd’s experiment was strictly within Scarlet’s subconscious, the most obvious explanation is that she is under the influence of something that has always had a connection to her.
The Pale tree warned her not to seek out answers to the questions Scarlet was pondering implying the pale tree knows that terrible comes with the understanding and connection she would find.
Scarlet mentions a powerful creature, and there’s a dragon painting in her lair.
All this evidence seems to add up to a dragon influencing Scarlet.
The question is, which one? The most obvious candidate would be the jungle dragon, however we don’t know enough to early be completely certain.
Let the topic die, it’s pretty clear most of the commenters are strictly talking about balance when it comes to WvW. The game isn’t balanced around WvW, so there’s no point in carrying on this conversation. The only point to consider is whether it’s okay for ele’s to be able to walk through gates in Vapor form.
I see thief as the best down state. You can always time it to never be stomped on the first go and you usually can block a second stomp too, all while AoE crippling. Ele down state is one of the mid range down states bcs of its low offensive potential.
D/D + Lightning Flash + Conjure Flame + GoEH + Inscription (Trait) + Conjure Fiery Greatsword.
GoEH + Air attunement = 20s of swiftness.
Ride the lightning + about face + updraft + about face + burning speed + Conjure Flame + about face + burning retreat + about face + lightning flash.
Wait for burning retreat cd then
About face + burning retreat + about face + drop bundle + burning speed
Then use skills on recharge as they are ready.
Actually this all kind of begs the question. Should Elemental recharges be reduced if we feel the need to add reduced recharge traits like fresh air or fresh water?
Recharge on all fresh skills to prevent on swap trait spam
Water swap cool downs would have to be implemented, but honestly a Fresh Air, Fresh Water Build has such a fun name to say.
What are you running on your ele?
Fresh air, fresh water.
Added* obvious solution would be a recharge on fresh water, duh
Is it reality that warriors have a problem cleansing soft cc before using Rush
This is hardly different than a thief teleporting in most scenarios. You wait until the last possible moment and move and A stomp is wasted. There’s prescedent from that aspect.
Not sure why you don’t like it.
Because if you’re fast enough you can still teleport to where the thief went (steal to them works).
This is a small slice of a much larger issue though. There are several tiers of downedstates. Ele > Thief/mes > Guard/ranger > War/Necro/Eng. They go from 100% can not be stomped on the first attempt regardless of numbers down to… can be countered with blind, block, stability, two stompers, person/pet/tiny rock in the way… it’s clearly far from balanced.
When I play thief I wait until people can’t react quickly enough to teleport, even if you try to anticipate it you can’t get the stomp off, maybe it’s server lag.
To stomp an ele on the first go you have to be a stealth class so they never see it coming.
You can’t measure the downstate on defense alone. The ele has one of the weakest offensive downstates. Measure the down state in it’s entirity.
I can’t say I have a problem with this, because I feel like you give up a lot with the rifle and with how highly telegraphed the skill is.
One concern I might have is Frenzy. Does frenzy speed up the activation of kill shot?
Interesting opinion, it’s a great game for sure, but following that logic and the provided content WoW has nothing making it stand out from other fantasy games when it was released.
WoW obviously did. Guild Wars 2 has things that make it stand out among the genre too, but there’s a difference between being first and defining the genre and refining the genre.
The MMO genre is getting old, there are numerous players and choices for niches that suit different player wants.
No MMO following the current 1st/3rd person rpg, mouse and keyboard model will ever be as dominant with it’s market share as WoW was.
This is hardly different than a thief teleporting in most scenarios. You wait until the last possible moment and move and A stomp is wasted. There’s prescedent from that aspect.
Not sure why you don’t like it.
This is just my opinion, but the biggest reason for the significant rtl nerfs was because of thief.
ANet has decided thief and warrior are two of the most important classes all balance should revolve around.
Because of the natural popularity of the elementalist class among players (due to it’s originally challenging but rewarding profession mechanics) and because ANet wanted thiefs to have the highest mobility (stated somewhere in these forums) RTL was nerfed pretty much into the ground. This was becuause a 1550 range skill on a 15 second cooldown meant offhand dagger eles pretty much hard countered any thief build (and lets be real, that’s an OP mobility skill with those numbers).
The warrior can pretty much hard counter thief mobility, but because it’s the warrior class and that’s a staple profession that ANet wants to balance around they haven’t taken immediate action. This really doesn’t mean much for RTL though.
tl;dr
To answer the OP’s question, it pretty much comes down to the thief being the reason RTL was nerfed in combination with the ele’s original popularity.
Because of the duration a thief will usually stay engaged in a fight, and the timing of when ele’s use RTL in combat, if Anet were to buff RTL I’d expect it to be somewhere along the lines of:
25 second recharge
or
30s cd, but 20s cd if you hit an enemy.
@OP
It’s hotjoin
Solo Arena is what you’re looking for. They sort by an MMR rating in tPvP.
Also PvP rank doesn’t matter, it’s the MMR rating that is a more accurate representation of player skill.
ANet would be most likely to visit underworld when they start focusing more on the human gods and that lore.
The best thing to do would be to bug ANet on human god lore then once they start working on that bug them about Underworld, FoW, and Kormir
Can a mod please move this? I meant to put this in the ele subforum..
I didn’t do an analysis of the thief like I wanted to. I got exhausted from the other 4 professions, I might come back to it.
(edited by Shockwave.1230)
Elementalist Overall CC defense is on high cooldowns, can be used rapidly, and are somewhat readily available.
Note that skills with an upper range cooldown less than 13 seconds will be marked with a 13s upper range cooldown due to attunement swapping maximum cooldown duration
Blind: instant casts offer protection during all CCs and cast time blinds can be used against immobilize
Blinding Flash (13-4s cd), Lightning Surge (AoE, 13-8s cd)[precast/immob only], Dust Devil (15-12s cd)[precast/immob only]
Block: instant casts offer protection during all CCs and cast time blocks can be used against immobilize
Arcane Shield (3 blocks, 75||60s cd)
Evade: instant casts offer damage immunity during all CCs and cast time evades can be used against immobilize
Burning Retreat (1s duration, 20||16s cd)[precast/immob only], Updraft (1s duration, 40||32s cd)[precast/immob only], *upcoming patch* Burning Speed (1s? duration, 15-12s cd)
Invincibility: instant casts offer damage immunity during all CCs and cast time blocks can be used against immobilize
Mist Form (3s duration, 75||60s cd), Obsidian Flesh (5s duration, 40||32s cd)
Stability: effective against hard CC’s like knocks, stun, daze, and fear (mostly not immobilize)
Armor or Earth (6s duraiton, upcoming patch 75||60s cd), Earth’s Embrace (@50% hp, 6s duraiton, upcoming patch 75||60s cd)
Stun break: effective against hard CC’s like knocks, stun, daze, and fear (mostly not immobilize)
Arcane Shield (75||60s cd), Armor of Earth (upcoming patch 75||60s cd), Armor of Earth (@50% hp, upcoming patch 75||60s cd), Mist Form (75||60s cd), Glyph of Elemental Power (45||36s cd), Signet of Air (30||24s cd)
(edited by Shockwave.1230)
Mesmer: Overall CC defense is on medium to low cooldowns, and can be used rapidly, and are fairly readily available
Blind: instant casts offer protection during all CCs and cast time blinds can be used against immobilize
Illusionary Counter (12||9.6s cd)[precast/immob only], The Prestige (30||24s cd), Signet of Midnight (30||24s cd)
Block: instant casts offer protection during all CCs and cast time blocks can be used against immobilize
Illusionary Counter[precast/immob only], Illusionary Riposte(15||12s cd)[precast/immob only], Aegis (Prysmatic Understanding)
Distortion: instant casts offer damage immunity during all CCs and cast time blocks can be used against immobilize
Distortion (1-4s duration, 60||42s cd)
Evade: instant casts offer damage immunity during all CCs and cast time evades can be used against immobilize
Blurred Frenzy (2.5s duration, 12||9.6s cd)[precast/immob only]
Stability: effective against hard CC’s like knocks, stun, daze, and fear (mostly not immobilize)
Power Break (2-3 uses, 2s duration, 25||20s cd)
Stun break: effective against hard CC’s like knocks, stun, daze, and fear (mostly not immobilize)
Power Break (2-3 uses, 25||20s cd), Blink (30||24s cd), Decoy (40||32s cd), Mirror Images (45||36s cd), Signet of Midnight (30||24s cd), Swap (12||9.6s cd)
(edited by Shockwave.1230)
Warrior: Overall CC defense is on medium cooldowns, can be used rapidly, and readily available
Blind: instant casts offer protection during all CCs and cast time blinds can be used against immobilize
smoldering arrow (15s cd)[precast/immob only]
Block: instant casts offer protection during all CCs and cast time blocks can be used against immobilize
counterblow (10||8s cd)[precast/immob only], riposte (15||12s cd)[precast/immob only], shield stance (30||24s cd)[precast/immob only],
Invincibility: instant casts offer damage immunity during all CCs and cast time blocks can be used against immobilize
endure pain (4-5s duration, 60||48s cd), defy pain (4-5s duration, 60||48s cd)
Stability: effective against hard CC’s like knocks, stun, daze, and fear (mostly not immobilize)
balanced stance (8s duration, 0||32s cd), dolyak signet (8s duration, 60||48s cd), lyssa + signet of rage (5s duration, 60||48s cd)[immobilize too]
Stun break: effective against hard CC’s like knocks, stun, daze, and fear (mostly not immobilize)
“shaky it off!” (25||22s cd)[immob too], balanced stance (40||32s cd), endure pain (4-5s duration, 60||48s cd), defy pain (4-5s duration, 60||48s cd), frenzy (60||48s cd), stomp (45||36s cd),
Berserker Stance (8||10s duraiton, 60||48s cd): Immunity to immobilize and soft CCs
Healing Signet: This skill?/trait? allows for signifcant healing during and after surviving CC while continuing combat
(edited by Shockwave.1230)
Guardian: Overall CC defense is on medium cooldowns, can be used rapidly, and readily available regardless of build. Naturally high armor also helps survivability during CC
Blind: instant casts offer protection during all CCs and cast time blinds can be used against immobilize
Virtue of Resolve (21-30s cd), leap of faith (12||15s cd)[precast/immob only], flashing blade (8||10s cd), ray of judgement (20||25s cd)[precast/immob only], judges intervention (36||45s cd)
Block: instant casts offer protection during all CCs and cast time blocks can be used against immobilize
virtue of courage (63-90s cd), shield of wrath (36||45s cd), protector’s strike (12||15s cd)[precast/immob only], shield of absorption (32||40s cd -- melee knockback/projectile absorb but counting as a block)[precast/immob only], shelter (30s cd)[precast/immob only], retreat (48||60s cd), "save yourselves" (48||60s cd)
Invincibility: instant casts offer damage immunity during all CCs and cast time blocks can be used against immobilize
renewed focus (90s cd)[precast/immob only],
Stability: effective against hard CC’s like knocks, stun, daze, and fear (mostly not immobilize)
hallowed ground (aoe, 10s duration, 64||80s cd), “stand your ground!” (aoe, 5s duration, 24||30s cd), indomitable courage (aoe, 3 second duration, 63-90s cd)
Stun break: effective against hard CC’s like knocks, stun, daze, and fear (mostly not immobilize)
“save yourselves!” (48||60s cd), “stand your ground!” (24||30s cd), contemplation of purity (48||60s cd)[immob too], judge’s intervention (36||45s cd), signet of judgement (24||30s cd), shield of the avenger (60||15s cd)
(edited by Shockwave.1230)
I had a thought about why the ele has such a hard time being viable. It’s a sum of multiple reasons. They’ve been documented, weak auto attack, locked out of appropriate skills fitting a situation, telegraphed attacks, long chanelling attacks, low health + low armor.
The biggest thing I notice when playing the ele, is that hard CC hurts BAD. The combination of offense being tied to telegraphed skills, channeled skills, and defense being so weak and on long cool downs… it’s out of whack when compared to the other professions.
I’ve got enough experience with Guardian, Warrior, Mesmer, and Thief to know that out of these 5 professions ele has the weakest capacity to hold up against hard CCs.
I’m going to break it down as much as I can.
What’s the blind spam people keep talking about?
If it’s black powder you can attack from outside it’s aoe and still connect as melee. If you’re ranged there’s no issue.
This has been requested a lot, even in beta, possibly even earlier. It’d be a great feature for the engineer too.
I haven’t watched many WvW videos, there’s a huge skill disparity between WvW and PvP.
As nice as those big numbers are it doesn’t happen in PvP
Unfortunately I fear that the 3 spam with PW is just a phase that bad players all seem to go through until they figure out how to actually play the set. I do think that possibly splitting the stun and evade portions into 2 skills might foster more skillful play in the lower tiers? But in high tier TeamPvP you better not be caught spamming 3, because every player and his mother know when that evade frame ends and will take every advantage of that after cast to make sure you go down dead. The fewer pistol whips you use per fight, the better. It has it’s purposes, but one of those does not include burst or a main damage source.
As per your D/X “spam 2” example, the set is exactly like that. Skilled players will bring the set to life, while players who refuse to get better will continue to spam 3 while their allies actually do everything, just like any bad dagger thief will do.
If you want to talk about “high-tier tPvP” you should at least play in “high-tier tPvP.” (You quite obviously don’t, and don’t seem to keep up with it at all either.)
I maintain a top 30 position in the NA tPvP leaderboards, and around top 100 in NA solo queue leaderboards, and quite often play with and against other players in similar leaderboard positions. I personally consider this a decently high-tier, but your opinion may vary.
3-spam is literally what you see in “high-tier tPvP” for S/P right now because Pistolwhip is simply that strong.
Basi -> Lyssa Proc for Fury -> 3 -> Infiltrator Signet first spike. 3 -> Steal for interrupt and fury second spike.
This by itself is enough to shred most of a thief’s usual squishy targets.
Don’t know where your target is? Pistolwhip for Evade and possible hit.
Need to cleave a downed body? Pistolwhip.
Need to sustain on point? Pistolwhip for evades.
Need to take out that trebuchet with impunity? Pistolwhip.
Need to black powder to stand in melee? Pistolwhip for evades instead.And while I’m sure there are many brilliant and fanciful ways in which you can play S/P to make it seem “skillful,” the fact of the matter is that you’re simply wasting a lot of time and effort when you could simply be pressing #3 a little bit harder.
3 spam will be less of a thing when they split pistol whip into a two part skill, like flanking strike and larcenous strike are.
I can make the same point about s/d 3 spam though, the skill evades attacks and repositions you, the evade duration is obviously shorter but you get other cool things like boon steal and side striking bonuses.
Main point is that splitting pistol whip will allow for timed use of a stun or flurry as opposed to having to spam it constantly. Expect to see a 3 and 3 initiative cost when it happens assuming the skill isn’t modified in any other way
Serious question 2, have you tried duo/triple/quad team queue?
I had a thought for a minor change to help out with this a bit. Some kind of indicator that an attack was made from stealth that didn’t connect would be wonderful.
I can think of logistical issues that a solution would entail resolving, but I think part of the issue people have is that they use things like blocks, blinds, evades, etc, but don’t always have a clear indication of the source of a block or evade being a stealthed foe. Blind gives no indication. A more clear indication would help alert people to dodge. This would obviously be done as a slight overall nerf to all stealth sources, including mesmer for example.
Is there going to be an API for user account and character details?
Or is ANet maybe thinking about making their own web app that shows this stuff?
Logically I would think ANet would have to make an app for this info, because you probably don’t want to publically provide account and character for everyone to see. You also can’t password protect the API because you’ll have people building apps that steal password (not our good awesome people, but the ones on the other end of the spectrum)
You probably should have censored that dude’s name.
Idk, I like it better this way. Send him useless stuff though. Dull claws or something.
You can send me useless stuff.
I’ll take 1,000,000 dull claws please. If I actually had my inventory and bank filled with these I’d totally have to post screen shots
Serious question, have you tried hotjoin?
Food for thought,
Most every suggestion I’ve seen about backstab involves making it completely unviable vs blind or block completely removing the offensive potential for a thief in stealth.
For example a well of darkness or a blackpowder completely negate a stealth for offensive purposes making the thief waste a cooldown they could have otherwise used defensively. The same is true for aegis or a skill like shield stance.
The most reasonable suggestion I’ve seen without being too drastic is adding a 1 initiative cost to stealth attacks.
Bear in mind that no where in Mr. McClain’s “update notes” is a split for PvE and PvP nerf gor this trait noted. He says:
“We’re continuing to lower the amount of vigor available to all professions, especially from sources with low trait point investments. We’ve also made a few minor adjustments to healing skills to make them more reliable.”
So does your PvE guardian become extinct?
You really don’t need vigor in PvE, it’s a nice to have, but with all the blocks and blinds available to professions vigor is just icing on the cake. I’d rather have blinds and blocks because they take away less from dps like dodging does.
Due to a couple of restrictive mechanics the Signet of Vampirism isn’t a viable skill in PvP.
1) 1 second internal cooldown per player
2) 5 second duration
The combination of these effects make it unappealing in a scene where people can dodge/evade/block/blind/invulnerable to counter the effect for most of, if not its entire duration.
Currently the only viable use for this skill is a zerg in WvW or PvE to add free dps, it’s better to use it for that than the heal.
I understand the thought on restricting this skill because combos like Signet of Vampirism + Ghastly Claws + Life Transfer would deal pretty rediculous amounts of damage.
Regardless the skill isn’t viable beside in the zerg niche, so something needs to change about it and I’m guessing the debuff approach was intential, so the icd and duration seem like the most logical places to change in some way. Just changes these areas would result in a straight buff, so other parts of the skill potentially should be nerfed, but it’s too weak to consider among heals currently so a straight buff may not be an issue.
It’s honestly better this way. They aren’t over hyping things, and they’re leaving things a mystery. That means less people disappointed from marketing tactics and more people pleasantly surprised through ignorance (yes ignorance can be bliss).
Thief doesn’t need stealth for viability in PvP.
I run 10/30/0/30/0 with S/P & SB while having no problem with survivability. Shadow steps provide distance and so do dodges. Since you’re not stealth ed usually your foe will chase unsuccessfully, since they see you. They will only catch you if you mess up.
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