Guild Wars 2

GW2 is all about Hybrids that’s why the lack of the Holy Trinity. Further proof that Anet wants to keep the GW2’s identity as a Hybrid Class game based on this upcoming patch. Not sure why is this surprising.

Kadin.2356:

Sir Vincent III.1286:

Kadin.2356:

Sir Vincent III.1286:

Kadin.2356:

Sir Vincent III.1286:

Anet talks about the total damage output of any particular build so the changes will tweak many things, not just Crit Dmg.

Incorrect, they are only changing crit damage but they are reducing it enough to account for 10% overall drop in damage.

“All armors and weapons that currently provide a critical damage bonus will be updated to provide an equivalent amount of ferocity. As a bonus, you’ll notice that using ferocity as a stat is going to normalize critical damage across items so there isn’t a single item that’s clearly the best to equip for a critical damage boost. Areas such as trait lines, traits, and skills which provide critical damage have been rebalanced individually.”

“As we work to increase support and teamwork between players throughout the game, we examined how we could change critical damage to retain it as a fun and viable approach to build-making while also allowing other builds to shine.”

“This stat will still be incredibly valuable to a player looking to increase their damage output, but it will be more in line with other stats.”

Aaaaaaaand everything you just highlighted is referring to crit damage changes be it from spec to weps to armor. There have already been quite a few threads where they do the crit dam -> ferocity damage calculations and it does account for the aforementioned 10% so I don’t know what “tweaks” you are referring to other than ferocity.

Which part of “also allowing other builds to shine” did you not understand?

They did (going to) tweaked Celestial didn’t they?

They allow “other builds to shine” by nerfing viable builds and somehow expect this to create diversity. All they are going to get is a swarm of d/p condi thieves.

Also celestial? Seriously? This is the thief forum right?

The point is, they are tweaking not only Crit Damage, but also other stats — starting with the Celestial pieces. They also mentioned that nothing is set in stone which implies that they may tweak other stats as they see fit.

Obviously you need to learn how to read. A couple of minutes reading the notes for comprehension’s sake would have saved your face.

scabrous.7835:

And I still wonder why is that people who are actually good at this game love fighting other thieves (if they’re thieves) or just thieves in general. Going to tell you why – roughly 9 out of 10 thieves that I meet in WvW are free kills and I’m sure that other competent people in this subforum will back me up on it. Now, only few of those remaining thieves actually put up a good fight and and not just ‘try to survive and stall you’.
People who come to this forum and cry that stealth is what makes a thief OP will not notice the difference between a bad thief and a good thief – they just turn ‘Teef OP’ mode when they see one.
If you’re ever vs Desolation I offer rookie-school for nubs on ‘How-to-handle-average thieves’.
WvW dueling is not about what class you play but how good you’re in general, imo. Outplayed many and got outplayed by many.

This is why Thieves are OP.

Kadin.2356:

Sir Vincent III.1286:

Kadin.2356:

Sir Vincent III.1286:

Anet talks about the total damage output of any particular build so the changes will tweak many things, not just Crit Dmg.

Incorrect, they are only changing crit damage but they are reducing it enough to account for 10% overall drop in damage.

“All armors and weapons that currently provide a critical damage bonus will be updated to provide an equivalent amount of ferocity. As a bonus, you’ll notice that using ferocity as a stat is going to normalize critical damage across items so there isn’t a single item that’s clearly the best to equip for a critical damage boost. Areas such as trait lines, traits, and skills which provide critical damage have been rebalanced individually.”

“As we work to increase support and teamwork between players throughout the game, we examined how we could change critical damage to retain it as a fun and viable approach to build-making while also allowing other builds to shine.”

“This stat will still be incredibly valuable to a player looking to increase their damage output, but it will be more in line with other stats.”

Aaaaaaaand everything you just highlighted is referring to crit damage changes be it from spec to weps to armor. There have already been quite a few threads where they do the crit dam -> ferocity damage calculations and it does account for the aforementioned 10% so I don’t know what “tweaks” you are referring to other than ferocity.

Which part of “also allowing other builds to shine” did you not understand?

They did (going to) tweaked Celestial didn’t they?

Rule of thumb, when using a sword, always go for Power. No compromises.

From there, you can substitute Precision to whatever compliments your playstyle.

Personally, I prefer Vitality over Precision thus I use Valkyrie over Berserker.

Sanduskel.1850:

Revealed is a terrible term for what sic em does, it should be called, delayed. We need a “break them out of stealth” skill. Clear now?

“Sic ’em” is a terrible name for a skill, thus deserve a terrible functionality.

I think the Devs confused “sic ’em” to “seek ’em” — not surprising really.

What Rangers need is something like Hunter’s Mark from WoW and call it “sniff ’em out” or something.

hihey.1075:

@Zord: yeah, I liked the fight against the engi a lot. It took me a lot, but now I am able to recognise most engies’ patterns, so fighting them is not that hard anymore (used to be completely wrecked by them in the past!).

Really? They wrecked you in the past?

Before Anet nerfed Shortbow from 1200 to 900 range, I destroy Engies especially those who love their turrets. But now that SB is only 900 range, they “may” have a chance but you can still our range them using P/P+Ricochet.

Engies are only dangerous at close range.

Like I’ve said in the past, even dual-wielding tooth picks makes us OP.

WonderfulCT.6278:

Pffff, rich people.

You don’t have be rich to get ascended tinkets. I purchased mine using laurels.

Emi.4152:

Sanduskel.1850:

i’d still like to see the ranger reveal…sic em? no that prevents restealthing, not a reveal.

What is that status that sic em inflicts again…? oh yes! it’s called ‘revealed’… hmmmm…
emi

Poor choice of words on Sanduskel but I get what he’s talking about.

To rephrase;

“… no that prevents restealthing by applying revealed status, it does not take Thieves out of stealth.”

Much better?

Emi.4152:

Sanduskel.1850:

as I said, thieves don’t have the lowest health pool since two other classes have the same. Lowest means singular, not shared with others. among the lowest maybe. even then, thieves can equip some vitality boosts if they chose to do so. it’s a choice to be squishy, sorry.

Lowest means that there is nothing below it in value… among the lowest MAY imply that there are things even lower. Don’t mean to be a grammar kitten but… your ignorance is scary.

emi

It seems that your bias had clouded your judgment. I may not agree with Sanduskel in many occasions but I’m afraid that you are in the wrong here.

naphack.9346:

Doggie.3184:

Still full Zerk for best damage. You’d only use Valk if you want to be 100% dependant on backstab, which will limit your ability to change builds. So if you make armor I’d suggest making Zerker and not Valk since it’s 100x harder to get than the trinkets.

You could toss wvw +5 power infusions into yer stuffz (if it has offensive slot) if you really wanted to and don’t care about Fractals.

for clarification:
I meant the ascended trinkets with zerk major and valkyrie “jewels”.
the +103 power, +50 preci, +18 vit, +8% crit rings would be an example here.

I hope I’m misreading this but — you can put valkyrie “jewels” on ascended trinket?

Fat Disgrace.4275:

Thanks for the reply, I totaly ignored the fact that i have traverlers with perma swiftness! lol what a numpty
I changed the build around a bit and here it is (i still like a bit of armour though) http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vYAQNAsaVl0Mp8plOx7J8PNR49gsj1s6HoZPDueVA-zkCBYLERjEERjoIIUBgZPFRjtNoIasKkYKXBS7CRFL1ECQwWA-w

If I have your items, this is what I would do;

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vYAQNAsaVl0Mp2plOxzJ8PNR49gso1s6Mo5L7PwVA-z0CBYLERjEERjoIIUBgJPIZPRM9RYtKqIasKkYKXCRqYpmUAjKMC-w

Sanduskel.1850:

Bow shots don’t reveal thieves, lol.

He said “tracks” not reveal. In fact, all channeled ability does.

Fat Disgrace.4275:

Interceptor.2653:

“Attack” is sort of a meaningless statistic. It’s not used in any damage calculations. You want to be concerned with Power, and eventually get yourself some ascended weapons.

Some thoughts on your build:

• You have perma-swiftness from your trait setup. The 25% speed boost from Traveler’s is redundant, since you get 33% from Thrill and dodges. Much better runes are available for you.
• Toughness is a little excessive. You have 2558 Armor, which is a lot for a build that relies on evades and blinds.
• Health level is good.
• You need more Power in your damage tripod. Some of that Knight/Cav gear should be traded for something with primary Power, like Zerker. I recommend the combo Zerk/Valk trinkets, since they give a little health without sacrificing crit damage or Power (you just lose Precision, which is the weakest damage stat).
• Opportunist is not really that great anymore. You might want to see if you can drop some points out of CS.
• You have a Steal build with your deep Trickery and Sleight of Hand, but are not taking advantage of the synergy with 10-15 points in DA for Serpent’s Touch, Mug, and Lotus Poison. Consider taking advantage of that if you can. The added utility is worth the damage loss, usually.

Thanks for the reply, I totaly ignored the fact that i have traverlers with perma swiftness! lol what a numpty
I changed the build around a bit and here it is (i still like a bit of armour though) http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vYAQNAsaVl0Mp8plOx7J8PNR49gsj1s6HoZPDueVA-zkCBYLERjEERjoIIUBgZPFRjtNoIasKkYKXBS7CRFL1ECQwWA-w

That’s the tricky part of this build. If you choose to have more survivability, you are losing out on a lot of damage. Just look at how low your Crit Chance is — your PW is not going to crit enough and your on-crit sigil will even have lower chance of proc-ing. :/

The only time I ever spec for 30 Acro is when I was trolling with the endless dodge build.

Your best friend leveling up is Ambush and Acrobatics 10 – Master Trapper. It will make all fights ez breezy.

Leger.3724:

Zacchary.6183:

There actually is counter to stealth, its is called knowledge.

Another weak argument.

Essentially you’re throwing out platitudes and hoping everyone buys it. I don’t.

There is no counter to stealth, it’s the best damage mitigator in the game and only two classes have access to it (with one having crazy amounts of access to it). Ridiculous.

Not true. Just because Thieves are in stealth, doesn’t mean it mitigates damage. Otherwise the new SA trait that mitigates damage would be overkill.

How about this? Give Rangers who trait hard the ability to one shot thieves. If they don’t dodge it – too bad, so sad. Knowledge.

Sorry, Warrior dibs on one-shotting Thieves.

Besides nobody like Rangers so no buffs for them.

The problem here is the ANet team doesn’t know how to calculate just how much mitigation stealth provides – it’s clear that the amount is large though.

You accuse Anet for not knowing how to calculate and what you can offer is a gross estimation of “it’s clear that the amount is large though”? Go ahead and make the calculations and post the specifics, Anet might even take you seriously.

Kadin.2356:

Sir Vincent III.1286:

Anet talks about the total damage output of any particular build so the changes will tweak many things, not just Crit Dmg.

Incorrect, they are only changing crit damage but they are reducing it enough to account for 10% overall drop in damage.

“All armors and weapons that currently provide a critical damage bonus will be updated to provide an equivalent amount of ferocity. As a bonus, you’ll notice that using ferocity as a stat is going to normalize critical damage across items so there isn’t a single item that’s clearly the best to equip for a critical damage boost. Areas such as trait lines, traits, and skills which provide critical damage have been rebalanced individually.”

“As we work to increase support and teamwork between players throughout the game, we examined how we could change critical damage to retain it as a fun and viable approach to build-making while also allowing other builds to shine.”

“This stat will still be incredibly valuable to a player looking to increase their damage output, but it will be more in line with other stats.”

I have 10 Queen Jennah last year :/

Sanduskel.1850:

tom.7468:

Keitaro Dragonheart.9047:

Stealth isn’t the problem. Stealth is perfectly balanced. I’ll tell you what the real problem is:

They have 10k hp. They need some defense otherwise they will be freekill everywhere.
I don’t think thieves would like if anet suddenly turned them into a warrior that is just worse than everything warriors do.

They only have 10k because they can spec glass cannon. That’s a choice. Unlike other classes, there’s no risk speccing glass cannon on a thief.

What are you talking about? GC Thieves are nothing but risk. I like my Thief to have at least 15k HP and if I build GC, that loss of 5k HP doesn’t translate to 5K damage.

The reward at running GC is not worth the risk and having 10K HP is like giving your opponent a free 5k damage hit on you.

Thaddeus.4891:

Sir Vincent III.1286:

Even then, it doesn’t justify the long duration, which is the OP’s question. If your assertion is accurate, then a 2 seconds duration will suffice, but not 5.

Maybe. I don’t know the real reason behind that.

That’s the point of this topic, that if you know why, please explain it to the OP.

Your first response seems to imply that you do know why, but now you’re saying that you don’t.

I’m confused.

Anyway for now Deep Freeze don’t look to be OP, or that just people not using it enough to develop a really powerful combination. Until people start to use to with deadly result and other people start to complaint about it, the skill seem ok for now.

Just like any other aspect of the game, it takes a lot of practice and trial and error to grasp the usefulness of a skill or combination of skills.

If you don’t have a first or second hand experience about a particular skill or skill combination, how then can you speak about it?

Sir Vincent III.1286:

Basilisk is breakable which will not guarantee that you will burst them down. If you believe that the natural instinct of someone being stunned is to dodge, you’re forgetting that the first response to stun is stun breaker.

Ya but I was talking about Deep Freeze, which is unbreakable. Anyway, that make any sense since Deep Freeze is 5sec long. It was just a poor exemple from me.

I know you were talking about Deep Freeze and I’m simply applying your train of thoughts with Basilisk — that if you think that dodge is the reflexive response to stun, I’m simply pointing out that dodge is actually a secondary response if the first response — stun breaker — failed.

1) This is not about whether the BLC Key is better or not — that’s subjective.

2) Nor this is about entitlement.

3) This is about what they said on the stream that map completion will reward Trans Charges.

That statement is vague based on the fact that map completion can reward BLC Key instead of the Trans Charges.

Are they going to remove the chances of BLC Key as reward and make the map completion 100% Trans Charges only reward?

Yes or No.

If Yes, are they going to provide Trans Charges to those who completed the map and did not get any Trans Charges?

Yes or No.

My question is really that simple folks.

eye floater.7140:

Mesmers have the right amount of stealth.
Thieves don’t. They have way too much. An enemy thief in WVW just teled and cloaked every 3-4 seconds in a group of 6 enemies, and didn’t die. No one could hit him, cause he just kept spamming cloak and tele skills. Immobilize and/or KD? No, they just tele and cloak instantly. Can you think of any other class that can survive like that? Yeah they have no armor, but neither do eles, and they get instantly downed in a ground of 6 enemy players.
Every class is supposed to have their own role, and every class can be countered by another, but this is just a little too much. Just take away some cloaking skills; change them, reduce the cloak time or whatever, it’s just way too much right now. Now, since I’ll get raged and cursed at if I just leave it at this, suggestions on how to counter cloaking?

TLDR: read the bottom comments first before you tell me L2P.

Stealth is never a fun way to play, it’s border line stupid.

The only reason Thieves heavily rely on stealth is because a lot of our high damage skill is only active while in stealth, for example Backstab.

Now if they remove stealth and allow us to backstab based on our position relative to our target, then it’s much more fun since I can continuously backstab someone without getting agitated with the long Revealed debuff and my target can actually dance with me trying not to expose their back. Then stun, chill, and immobilize will have more value.

Aidan Savage.2078:

You seem to be willfully misunderstanding. They are not doing anything for people who already did map exploration. YOU GOT THE REWARD ALREADY. Take those trans items you received and redeem them for charges. Right now, when you explore a map, you receive 3 stones.

Not 100% of the time. I’ve already explained where a clarification is needed, you’re the one who is misunderstanding what I’m asking.

Let’s break it down;
- they said something vague the map completion will get Trans Charges.
- if that is so, then those who have gotten BLC key instead gets nothing.
- if map completion rewards Trans Charges, what are they going to do for those who did not get Trans stone from map completions?
- simply put, let’s say I’m extremely lucky and have gotten all keys instead, does that mean I get no Trans charges for completing the map?

edit: Danikat basically vomited the same explanation you got from the blog posts, which has been repeated several times in this thread.

I read the notes after watching the stream and still confused that’s why I asked.

Assassins are straight forward monotonous class that only do one thing — to assassinate.

Thief on the other hand can have sub-classes that revolves around doing things for the sake of money.
- Thief steals because of money (typical thief).
- They will kill for money (assassin).
- Sabotage for money (saboteur).
- Duel for money (duelist).
- Fight for money (mercenary).
- etc

I can’t see Assassins being all tactical and acrobatic like duelist or simply stealing without killing. So Thief is more appropriate.

phaeris.7604:

Nono! I stand down on this, you’re clearly right.

Frostbow 5 is just far too strong, they should make basilisk venom a 5 second stun as well, because i’m sick and tired of all these frostbow elementalists I see all over the place owning faces.

I can’t count the number of times I venture out and get Fb5’d to the face and burst down, it’s just such a common occurence.

I guess we’ll just pretend something doesn’t exist just because it’s not common enough.

Thaddeus.4891:

Sir Vincents. I repeat myself. I never said Ele can’t burst down someone. I only said that when they use Deep Freeze they are not in a good position to burst down someone immediately and that’s 1 of the reasons why Deep Freeze is on paper better than Basilik Venom.

So your answer was Burning Speed + Fire Grab. Good. That’s two attack of 0.75sec activation time. That’s exactly 1.5sec. My question is can you burst down someone with Deep Freeze if that attack was 1,5sec. You have to drop down the bow, burning speed, fire grab and don’t forget to use Arcane Power. All that in 1,5 sec? I still doubt it. Burning Speed will be in time, but the guys will have time to dodge your Fire Grab. Worst than that, most people first reflex after a stun is to dodge when you are in danger, so most likely that your fire grab will miss the majority of the time.

Even then, it doesn’t justify the long duration, which is the OP’s question. If your assertion is accurate, then a 2 seconds duration will suffice, but not 5.

I called CnD + Backstab because its a burst down and that’s how I play. Of course its not the only option, but that’s the best for me.

Basilisk is breakable which will not guarantee that you will burst them down. If you believe that the natural instinct of someone being stunned is to dodge, you’re forgetting that the first response to stun is stun breaker.

MrRuin.9740:

The bottom line is you are comparing 2 different systems and rewards, while turning into some entitled claim that you are being treated unfairly.

I resent that notion that this is about entitlement because if that is the case, then what’s makes PvP entitled to free things and PvE not? So please, don’t make this about entitlement because it’s not.

The question is simple. If they are doing something for PvP for achieving something, in this case, ranking, what are they doing for PvE for achieving something, in this case, map completion?

Since I already have 100% map completion, I cannot go back and re-explore the map and there’s no other places I can explore to get Trans Charges — that’s why I asked for clarification.

Anyway, before this gets out of hand — seems like it’s going to that direction already — I think I’ll take Danikat’s word for it.

Impact.2780:

^ Not to mention frostbow #4, or dragontooth+phoenix+lightning strike, or burning speed+fire grab, or burning speed+ring of fire+lightning strike+lightning whip+arcane wave/blast.

One baby step at a time.

Let him grasp the concept first, because I’ve seen first hand how an Ele burst someone they caught with Deep Freeze using a Lightning Hammer and finish with a Fire Grab — that’ll be to much for him to comprehend.

MrRuin.9740:

Sir Vincent III.1286:

PvP also received glory points as they rank up that were used to purchased skins prior to the removal of glory points. Thus, receiving Trans Charges after April 15 per rank is rewarding them again. So for Arena Net to reward PvP again after April 15, I wanted to know if PvE will receive the same.

But thank you, I think I get what you mean, however still doesn’t answer the question.

I am curious why you are comparing the two things? Glory has been removed from PvP and isn’t even the same thing. Glory was PvP currency. On top of that, map completion =/= rank gain. They are not the same thing.

That’s exactly why I’m confused here, as you said, they’re not the same thing. So why are they doing it that way then? PvP will get Trans Charges per rank, while PvE may get Trans Charges per map completion. I underlined “may” because there’s a possibility of getting a BLC Key instead.

Come April 15, PvPer will have access to dungeon skins and legendary skins without ever leaving PvP. It just seems one sided reward system.

What PvPers bought with glory has nothing to do transmutation charges. Glory was in the same category as dungeon tokens. You farm a bunch, you buy a skin.
You did not receive a currency from map completion that was used to purchase skins.

Not really. Glory is like gold. PvP used glory to purchase the racial armor set, PvE used gold. So in that regards, they are equal, yet PvP will get free Trans Charges while PvE will have to have the Trans rocks. Then they mention about map completion that only confuses the issue.

You did map completion and have been rewarded for it. That reward you got is being changed to the new format replacing it.

This is where a clarification is needed. While PvP will get 1:1 per rank, PvE will get 50/50 chance to get Trans Charge due the possibility of a BLC Key.

1) Are they going to make a change that a map completion will always grant Trans Charges?

2) And if so, then how about those who have map completion that did not get Trans rocks because of the key?

So my main question is really based on the answer to #1.

That is the answer – you are not going to be retroactively rewarded again for something you already did and have been rewarded for. For more elaboration, see the 2 posts above mine.

As I’ve mentioned above, not all map completion were rewarded with Trans rocks.

Thaddeus.4891:

Sir Vincent III.1286:

Your reasoning is inaccurate though. Saying that “Ele is never ready to burst” following a Deep Freeze shows how inexperience you are on using Elementalist.

Then explain to me? Could you burst down someone on an ele if Deep Freeze was only a 1.5 second Stun? If you can then your kitten good.

You call CnD -> Backstab a “burst down” because according to you, that’s all you can do within that 1.5 second window.

What skills, rotation, movement, etc would you use? The faster I can see is if you are already in Fire with D/D, you use Deep Freeze in 300 range or less, drop the Bow and cast Fire Grab ASAP. Would the rotation last 1,5 second?

More like Deep Freeze – > Burning Speed -> Fire Grab while Arcane Power is active.

Maybe another rotation would be better? I don’t really appreciate you saying hows inexperience I am on my Elementalist. Calm yourself down.

I never said that you’re inexperience, I said that your inexperience is showing in your response. You’re the one who need to calm down.

If you are as experience as you said you are, then why would you over look Burning Speed in a D/D set?

Is deep Freeze the new meta with Ele roamer? I NEVER been deep freeze in WvW.

The OP is not talking about what is meta. And I’m simply disputing your inaccurate reasoning that Elementalist cannot burst that’s why they need a 5 second stun. It’s obviously not true.

Maybe some Ele with their ice Bow for burst AoE used it before dropping the bow, but it so rare and easy to dodge.

You can catch someone with Deep Freeze if you’re tactical enough and set them up for it. Basilisk Venom is breakable so it’s less reliable and even in longer cooldown compare to Deep Freeze.

Bottom line is, your reasoning doesn’t justify the lengthy duration of Deep Freeze.

Don’t talk down on me on something that so few people use.

Well, gee, that’s not really the topic here now is it?

Oh ya i’m such a bad elementalist since i don’t burst people down with Deep Freeze.

Nobody here says that you’re bad, just inexperience. A lot of Elementalist who has a lot of experience in many aspect of the game and many other builds never given an Elemental Weapon build a chance, thus the source of their inexperience — and so was yours.

EDIT: Yes now I’m convinced that you are inexperience when it comes to Elemental Weapons.

MrRuin.9740:

Sir Vincent III.1286:

“transmutation charges for Map completion after April 15”

Is this retroactive? Just like the PvP gets TCs per rank, will the PvE gets TCs for 100% map completion BEFORE April 15?

I just need some clarification on what this mean.

They’ve covered this already. Transmutation crystals and stones are being converted into charges (1:1 and 3:1 respectively), so yes whatever stones you get for map completion now will be converted.
Retroactively getting rewards yet again for maps you’ve already been rewarded for and having said reward converted to the new system…you must be kidding. They aren’t going to reward you again.

I’m not trying to kid anyone just wanted a clarification since the notes I read was very vague and can mean one way or the other.

PvP also received glory points as they rank up that were used to purchased skins prior to the removal of glory points. Thus, receiving Trans Charges after April 15 per rank is rewarding them again. So for Arena Net to reward PvP again after April 15, I wanted to know if PvE will receive the same.

But thank you, I think I get what you mean, however still doesn’t answer the question.

Belzebu.3912:

All the transmutation stones/crystal you currently have will be converted to charges after the update, so yeah it is retroactive.

EDIT: Remembering that the transmutations from map completion is already in your inventory (if you didn’t use it), so you won’t get extra ones.

I’m asking my question based on the fact that the map completion reward doesn’t always give Transmutation rocks — you either get a Trans rock or a BLC Key.

So for those who did get a key instead, won’t they receive Trans Charges?

“transmutation charges for Map completion after April 15”

Is this retroactive? Just like the PvP gets TCs per rank, will the PvE gets TCs for 100% map completion BEFORE April 15?

I just need some clarification on what this mean.

Thaddeus.4891:

Swim.6830:

I was thinking of the 5 second non-removable root/stun, in case it wasn’t clear.

It was really clear and I answered you. Its better on paper because the Eles is never ready to burst down the oppenent as soon as the stun apply with the Ice Bow. On the other end 1,5 sec of the basilik venom is enough for me to get you a clean backstab for 8k dmg. And if the thief run full glass, then its a easy 10-13k dmg on you. An ele can do the same with Deep Freeze, but it take longer, so that’s why the stun is longer and can’t be remove.

Your reasoning is inaccurate though. Saying that “Ele is never ready to burst” following a Deep Freeze shows how inexperience you are on using Elementalist.

Thaddeus.4891:

If on paper Deep Freeze seem more powerful than Basilik Venom. Longer Stun duration, shorter Cooldown, also apply chill.

In reality, Basilik is more easy to use, quicker to apply, and when you apply it you are ready to attack.

I’ll give you an exemple. I’m a thief, I approach a target, use my Basilik venom and then steal on him. He’s now stun for 1,5 second, which is enough for me to CnD then Backstab for a 5-8k hit. 45 second later? I’m ready for another round of Stun and hit.

Now i’m a Elementalist. I keep my distance from my target, spawn a Ice Bow, use the skill 5 of him to freeze him. Then what do i do? Drop the bow, use ride lightning, switch attunement then Fire grab? You need to be fast as crazy to be able to pull that off. I could Lighning Flash on my target then use skill 2 of the Ice Bow, maybe drop the bow and then Fire Grab if you’re really quick? So the difference? With Basilik Venom you are ready to hit as soon as the target is stun with a profession famous for its burst down dps in melee. For the Deep Freeze, you are not ready at all to attack, either because of the range or because you don’t have the right weapon ready. Also Deep Freeze is a telegraph attack easy to dodge, while Basilik Venom can come from any attack.

You can always drop a Lighting Hammer to your frozen target, leap in with your hammer in hand then pound away. gg

Chuck Zitto.2367:

Just lol if they do add a ring to metor. Yet another nerf to one of if not the worst classes in the game. Actually if they do fix the ranger pet to use its f2 skill on demand like they are claiming it will I think I will move ele down to worst class on my list.

It’s sad but I have to agree.

What’s happening now with the bug is that, when I use steal, I get an item and mug dealt damage but I’m still standing where I trigger the skill — then the server misplaces me making all of my skills have a distance check error (i.e. target too far, you need to face the target, etc). That’s really frustrating when you pre-cast CnD and never get teleported.

godz raiden.2631:

Stooperdale.3560:

That’s an interesting an idea that I’d like follow up on. I am just using shadow refuge then setting off to run past mobs. Will blind on stealth really be pulsing two seconds after the shadow refuge has ended? It’s surely a straight bug if it is?

(Just to clarify this is without shortbow, no falling, no drop in health, no other skills used, no dodge roll caltrops, enemies are inactive with nobody else nearby, no fancy sigils/runes.)

Yes, the blind on stealth trait seems to pulse, which makes the description of the trait seem a bit wrong.

Thanks, this is a great insight. I would assume that it pulses every 5 seconds while in stealth since it checks after the duration and triggers again thinking that you just gain another stealth.

That makes sense, but only, it’s not working as intended. :/

Sir Kaboomski.1508:

I was actually assuming it would be one large ring.. If it is multiple small ones then I can see what you mean… that wouldn’t be AS helpful, but it’d be better than nothing still.

Either way will not be of any help. It will just add another graphical clutter to be processed on client-side unnecessarily.

Besides, I’m only replying to the WvW comment and perhaps the indicator might be of some use in other part of the game like in PvP. However even then, your chances of getting hit by all of the meteors is too slim that it’s not even that important whether you dodge it or not — and the chance of an Elementalist using a staff and channeling a skill in PvP is even slimmer.

Sir Kaboomski.1508:

Sir Vincent III.1286:

Sir Kaboomski.1508:

Mainly it becomes problematic when multiple Elementalists drop them and they overlap (perhaps especially on top of walls in WvW) because it is realistically impossible to tell where one ends and the next begins.

Seriously? With all other AoE going on while the walls are under siege with multiple red circles you worry about which circles are from Meteor Shower so you can run out of it?

Your argument is really only valid from a “welp, I guess since I’m standing in a billion red rings, whats one more anyways?” standpoint.. Dunno about you but I don’t purposely stand inside red rings lol…

Reading comprehension 101. What I said was, with many other rings on the ground, how can you tell which is which? How can you tell that you dodge the first ring into another? That’s right you can’t.

And for someone with half-a-brain will know that the gate, wall, etc is going to get nuked and it’s a no-standing-like-a-kitten -zone.

My point is, even if they are to add the missing indicator ring, you’ll never be able to tell the difference which ring is from which skill in that scenario.

If they added the missing indicator you wouldn’t need to tell the difference, you’d just know you’re standing in a ring and you should probably move.

Doesn’t really matter if it’s being remedied by the patch anyways.

The ring of AoE for Meteor Shower won’t make sense since each meteor doesn’t affect the whole area, only where the meteor struck. Your chances of getting hit by every meteor is low even if you don’t dodge unlike standing on the AoE of wells and arrow carts.

cheese.4739:

Sir Vincent III.1286:

Sir Kaboomski.1508:

Mainly it becomes problematic when multiple Elementalists drop them and they overlap (perhaps especially on top of walls in WvW) because it is realistically impossible to tell where one ends and the next begins.

Seriously? With all other AoE going on while the walls are under siege with multiple red circles you worry about which circles are from Meteor Shower so you can run out of it?

My point is, even if they are to add the missing indicator ring, you’ll never be able to tell the difference which ring is from which skill in that scenario.

Actually Meteor Shower is the only Staff Ele skill that has a radius of 360 in any situation, so the arc of the circle will let you tell which is which… more of the problem is “I can’t see the circles at all there’s so much stuff going on”.

I doubt that very much. The only positive indication of Meteor Shower is not on the ground, it’s what’s falling from the sky.

At any rate, the addition of AoE ring is pretty significant in sPvP, where folks will now be able to tell where the AoEs will be falling – no longer will it be possible to chuck MS partially over a point and watch someone run out of the point into the heart of the effect.

Back to what the OP had posted, what do you do when they overlap from 2 or more Elementalist? If a circle indicator will even be implemented, it will show circles for each individual meteor instead of the actual affected skill area since MS doesn’t really affect the whole area compare to wells, for example. If that’s the case, it would be even more problematic.

Kadin.2356:

I’m most likely just going to take a hiatus until they realize what a condition laden cluster-F they’ve created with this.

You and many others including me.

Weird terrain slopes perhaps? There are times when I am running down a hill that I will take falling damage that puts me in combat.

Bomani Komenwati.3658:

I’m confused, they say “Put simply, if critical damage-stacked builds are more effective than other approaches, the build diversity decreases”. That is all fine, but why is the answer to nerf crit damage instead of buffing other types of damage potential? It goes over better to do an upgrade rather than downgrading. Seems less like a punishment that way.

They already said that they try to prevent “power creep” so at any chance any power goes higher, they get nerfed. Think about it as stealing from the rich to help the poor — ala Robin Hood. Also like in Robin Hood, Anet refused to deal with over taxing the citizens so they can get out of poverty — just like you said, improve other “poor” build rather than nerfing the “rich” ones.

On a positive note, “Attainable critical damage currently in PvP will remain relatively untouched”, whatever “relatively untouched” means.

Because in PvP there is no armor stats, they will not get affected — at least that’s what they said, you know how it goes when Anet said something.

In answer to the celestial gear complaint someone mentioned, maybe this will help on the path to forgiveness,
“To compensate, we’re increasing the overall effectiveness of Celestial gear by improving all stats by 6% of their current values.
Celestial gear in PvP had incorrect stat distribution so we’re increasing its effectiveness to be proportional to the new PvE values. This should open up more build diversity and allow you to bring your builds from other areas in the game into PvP.”

Anet talks about the total damage output of any particular build so the changes will tweak many things, not just Crit Dmg. However the idea of these changes encourage new build diversity is a myth.

Without improving other builds, there’s no reason to switch. The decision for a build is not about whether ‘zerker is better than vakyrie stat-wise, rather is ’zerker better than vakyrie in taking out most professions. Vakyrie and Celestials gives a lot of survivability than ’zerker thus has better stats, but you’re not going to take out a bunker Nerco or Guardian with a valkyrie set — you’ll need a ’zerker with that. As long as that remains to be true, they have to nerf ’zerker to uselessness before they see build diversity — and that is unfortunate.

Sir Kaboomski.1508:

Mainly it becomes problematic when multiple Elementalists drop them and they overlap (perhaps especially on top of walls in WvW) because it is realistically impossible to tell where one ends and the next begins.

Seriously? With all other AoE going on while the walls are under siege with multiple red circles you worry about which circles are from Meteor Shower so you can run out of it?

My point is, even if they are to add the missing indicator ring, you’ll never be able to tell the difference which ring is from which skill in that scenario.

exos.6831:

any advice? i feel totally useless when i come up against an engi.

Shortbow or P/P+Ricochet.

We don’t have much tools at range but all the bouncing projectiles will destroy all the turrets really fast. Getting too close to them almost always spells doom.

Bombsaway.7198:

Really liking a crit based spec too, but need help!

Running
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Trouble is what do I take in CS and SA.

Choices for CS:

Side Strike or Furious Retaliation? I can make a good case for either. Fury right now as I tend to get you down to 50% fairly quickly from stealth.

Hidden Killer or Executioner? I love 100% crit on stealth attack but my crit is at 50% anyway. On the other hand, 20% increase in damage is just huge.

Furious and Executioner compliments each other very well, that is if you can reduce them to 50% health fairly quickly as you claim.

Choices for SA:
I know I won’t live without Shadows Embrace (condition removal) and Shadow’s Rejuvenation (Heal) but the third could be:

Shadow Protector (Regen) or Infusion of Shadow (Initiative) or Cloaked in Shadow (blind).

If I use cloaked in shadow, does the blind reveal me?

Blind doesn’t deal damage so the answer is no, it won’t reveal you.

As a dagger main hand, I’d take;
IV – Shadow’s Embrace
V – Infusion of Shadow
XI – Shadow’s Rejuvenation

And use Hide in Shadows as my Heal skill.

About: Mega Server and the increased population

The load time for each map gets ridiculously long most of the time even with the highest speed connection.

Right now, loading time to Gendarran Fields from login screen ranges between 46s – 75s.

Switching maps averages of 30s – 46s load time.

Even waypoint in the same map has loading time.

Purchasing an SSD is not an option.

How are you planning to speed up the load time to ensure that we spend more time on playing than waiting on the loading screen?

I play other MMO games with the same mega server technology and I hardly experience any extended load time extending longer than 10s-15s. As a basis for using the same technology, will GW2 make any improvement on the load time with this similar server technology?