Guild Wars 2

Follow-up: New equipment box (like the fractal ones)

Ascended slot-safe box.
uses Bloodstone / Dragonite / Imperial fragments to create a 20-slot invisible box that collects Ascended items.

I’ve come back after a long break, and I think there are 2 things which have struck me which would be really helpful to have.

1: “favorite” waypoints. Maybe 5 or 10 of them, which you can select from any WP known on your account. When you select it on the map screen it scrolls to that waypoint. Rather than zooming out and back in and hoping you were close enough you could click/double-click your favorite and port right there.

2: When Timer-based world events are in the daily, have a countdown included till the next natural spawn time (and potentially a waypoint or POI related to them to guide a player)

I’m trying to decide what to make for a second/third Ascended armor set.
95% of the time I am on my Guardian, I also look to share the armor with Revnant with HoT.
I have finished

• 6/6 Heavy Zojja (Berserker)
• Zojja’s Greatsword
• 5/6 Zerker Accessories (rings, amulet, earrings … been lazy on backpack)
• 3/6 Celestial Accessories (rings, earring)

my plan:

• Zojja’s (Hammer, Mace, Sword, Scepter)
• 6/6 Heavy Wupwup
• 2/6 Celestial Accessories (earring, amulet … is there a celestial ascended backpack?)

Alternate weapons ( Bow?, Focus?, Shield?, Torch?)
I don’t really know if there is a worthwhile third+ stat set to invest in. I hear Celestial isn’t good for guardian, but it’s a nice balanced set and it’s not like making charged-quartz is that hard. I also don’t know if it’s worth investing in a second stat set for some weapons.

PVT
Healing Power?
should I really be investing in an Ascended set for them, rather than just exotic? just looking for some input.

I think player-housing (rather than just home-area in your racial town) would be a nice thing to add. I would probably even drop some money on it.
That being said I think it would require an change of the “home instance” which exists now. I also don’t see it being something before guild halls.

My version:

Guild Hall – you are allowed to enter your own guild hall, which earns decorations (through PvE, PvP, WvWvW & especially during limited time events). At some point in the guild hall, is another transition which would take you to your “room”.

Guild room – this is your personal “house”, it follows you from guild to guild. You can personal earn upgrades through content (size, decorations, features). Your guild room would now contain all the things which are part of your home-instance (nodes, etc. which could be moved/placed like furnishings)

You could visit someone’s room by going to your room, then selecting the “join” from the party menu, or when they enter their room selecting the pop-up (same as joining in a home-instance).

The major fall back that people would want is an “outside” to decorate, and being linked as part of a guild hall just isn’t functional. FF-XIV added housing which plots were auctioned, I feel then as I would here that it would leave to a have/not system where people felt they were jilted from not being able to have a specific plot of land.

alternate thought (to ramble) if guild halls were in “the mists” player houses could be purchased on plots outside of their guild hall, and appear/disappear around the current guild they are logged in/representing only if they are there and representing the guild. I like this idea but I’m sure it would cause some issues!

The short answer to “Why are non-human races so much like humans in Fantasy and Science fiction?” is because they need to be relate able to the audience.

The second part to this is it is much easier to design something you can relate to, than something completely foreign trying to remove unconscious similarities. And you can “double up” on resources when designing for similar races.

I have extra character tabs, bank tabs, and bag slots on my main (guardian)… which I bought a LONG time a go when gold > gems was a “good” conversion.

I will probably end up buying unlimited logging and harvesting tools, and the copper salvage someday.

I would like but probably won’t buy the home instance nodes, and the additional crafting license. As I look to finishing my ascended armor set, it might be nice if I just had 2 “crafting” PCs and wasn’t possibly needing to duplicate recipes or change characters to pass of parts.

The long and short of it is, I am looking forward to HoT.

Changes to Skill/Hero points? approve, I don’t like the current system and it sounds like the new system will be simpler than the current one for unlocking.

Changes to Trait lines? approve, I don’t like that my combat power is tied to the traits I chose. Sure more is better, and we get “stuck” with only 3 lines, but we get more potential out of each line.

Changes to Traits? cautious. I think we’ll find that nearly every choice in a trait line is fairly direct for us. I don’t think we’ll see too often where people pick the same 3 lines, but not the same traits in the lines (at least for “effective” builds), but that’s the story with the system we have and the Meta concept of min-maxing so it’s not a big change.

Changes to Armor stats? cautious. I understand wanting to spread the stats taken from traits around, I would have rather seen it as two different selectable groups. I think it should be ok though with only needing to carry various accessories to change up stats enough.

Addition of elite spec? cautious. I don’t carry around every weapon combo I could use on every character. either the spec is going to be something I like, in which case I won’t NOT use it (yes we can field change but it’s not fluid for me), or I won’t like it won’t touch it.

Legendary quests? AGREE. I haven’t ever gotten a precursor, having a specific path to build up and earn one/multiple will be nice.

just my 2 copper. You can agree or disagree, but I think it’s something nice to look forward too.

Guardian / Warrior / Mesmer / Elementalist / Thief

The rolls work well together and are more forgiving than the 3/1/1, or 4/1 “speed” builds. They’re also not exceptionally slower given that the players have equal knowledge about their class and the fight mechanics.

Guardian : Support (shouts/reflect)/DPS
Warrior : Support (shouts/warbanner)/DPS
Mesmer : Support (feedback/time warp)/DPS
Elementalist : Support (combo fields)/DPS
Thief : Support (Conditions/stealth)/DPS

Thief <→ Engineer <→ Necromancer, any of these can really fill that slot, although easily maintainable group stealth is why I say Thief wins out.

My Top dungeon Crew (assuming doing all story/explorable paths for every dungeon):
Guardian, Warrior, Mesmer, Elementalist, Thief

Guardian : party support, and moderate damage.
— Blind (area), Binding Blade, Regen/Protection/Retaliation, Condition Removal, Light/Fire fields
Warrior : massive melee damage / moderate survivability, good party support utilities
— Vulnerability, For Great Justice & Warbanner, also can use combo fields effectively
Mesmer : additional party support
— Feedback & Time Warp
Elementalist : party support (buff stacking), or massive area damage
— Flaming Greatsword, Fire/Water fields
Thief : conditions
— Bleed, Poison, Stealth, makes good use of combo fields

Optional changes might be,
Thief <→ Necromancer, I consider Necromancer a BETTER condition job, however the single target, area burst and stealth that thief can provide I think out shines Necromancer on most content you would experience. I’m fairly sure that Thief also takes much better advantage of combo-fields compared to Necromancer.
Mesmer <→ Engineer, as long as the party has the guardian… there shouldn’t be a huge need for feedback, and you never “need” Time Warp. Engineer can help stack/maintain vulnerability along with providing positive party support allowing the gaurdian to focus less on party maintenance.

As far as meta is concerned though 1 Guardian is pretty much all a party needs, while more can be helpful (fractals) it’s not the be-all end-all class once you’ve got one working for you, aside from being (fairly) easy to play.

I also would have a hard time wanting to swap out the Mesmer and Warrior for another class. Mostly because while they don’t fill “niche” roles like the guardian, there are no other classes that perform equally in their roll, without stepping on toes of how other party members would be playing.

I don’t mean to hate on Ranger so much, but their skills don’t match up well for a condition build, nor does “their” damage hold up for a self build. This being on dungeon content where pets are likely to be wiped out, or they have to sacrifice most of their traits to prevent it.

TL;DR
Guardian, Warrior, Mesmer are the top 3. That’s a pretty agreed upon consensus. For some content the support of the Guardian isn’t needed. For most content there is little/no need for more than 1 Mesmer.
Meta: Guardian/Warrior x3/Mesmer or Warrior x4/Mesmer
Mine: Guardian / Warrior / Mesmer / Elementalist / Thief

I’m with GabGar, All professions CAN carry a party. The question when slightly rephrased becomes, which professions are MOST LIKELY to be able to carry a part on most content.

One of the big things I’ve heard for along time is “situational kitten is situational”. If you restrict yourself to thinking about one class using one weapon combination, with only one set of traits/skills you are going to end up with a giant pile of maybe’s and if’s about what will work out the best.

Guild Wars 2 really does help focus players on having a single build (your traits) and working off that by changing weapon types / armor stats, and utility/elite skills. You could bring in multiple trait books and respec every encounter in a dungeon to be the best and do it by yourself, while adjusting gear and skills but is that really a reasonable solution?

So taking those as a starting point, we can look at possible builds (just in traits), and take any 3 skills/1 elite and the best weapon/armor options for the fight … and then guess at player skill to come out with an estimate of what a class can do.

I would rank them something like this:
— Guardian is probably the easiest class to play on a “solo survivable” level, even against dungeon content
Guardian
— Thief and Mesmer both have a very wide array of utility skills to bring to the table. Thief can likely escape a fight or continue on with good use of stealth even after the update. Mesmer lost quite a bit with the kick to their elite skill, however well played they still have some of my favorite CC abilities to just make a fight easier for the party.
Thief
Mesmer
— these classes have very good options for carrying a party, however they either require much higher skill level or builds which may not be common. A few easy mistakes can end their run.
Warrior
Elementalist
Necromancer
— these classes are much less likely to carry a party, generally because of how combat tends to flow they are less likely to make a single outstanding performance, instead providing sustained benefit throughout a dungeon with moderate skill level
Ranger
Engineer

That being said, when I’m playing on my Guardian, Thief or Ranger…. Do not use non-piercing projectile attacks. The gravelings will get in the way and absorb the damage. AoE attacks are your best bet, most melee classes have a sweeping weapon which will do arc damage in front of them. If nothing else the basic auto attack will hurt a group of enemies and the burrow.

Guardian … Greatsword or Sword are your best bets. Staff hits max of 5 targets, and scepter is projectile. Use #1 and #2…. #4 works too
Ranger … if you have piercing attacks with long/shortbow those work, if not you’ll need to use Greatsword (pretty sure Sword attacks are single target)
Thief …. Shortbow if you really want to stay ranged, otherwise Dagger or Sword will work for sweeping damage to hit all the targets with basic attacks. DO NOT STEALTH it will break aggro you have on stuff and they will go to your team mates or if you’re trying to kite directly to hodgins.

DO NOT ever run behind hodgins, don’t spawn seed turrets near him …. if you’re not next to someone who’s downed you probably can’t res them safely/in time… and try not to get knocked through the door.

As an Elementalist, I can usually take out 3-4 burrows by myself. Begin with a greatsword for you + one ally, take out the first left burrow, drop an ice bow as the first is going down, run up toward the second and hit stability and use #4 this will kill that burrow and you won’t get interupted (unless you die). Someone else should take the second bow and kill the THIRD borrow in the left line (not the one right at the end of the stairs). At this point there should be very few gravlings out, and only one line to worry about, your allies should be able to kill the one on the stairs… while you make it to the far right side to the second burrow on the right path, and use #4 (which should now be off cool down). Your ally with the other ice bow should be able to destroy the final burrow in the top left, if not drop some new ice bows and have at it. Total time about 90s tops

I have both carried, and been carried. The thing is though that I know I don’t/didn’t do it alone. As often as not (if not much more), I’m carrying a guild member.

In some cases, this can be as much as having someone die very early in a fight. Or shortly though the fight realizing they have come unprepared/ill-prepared. Be it under leveled gear, not knowing how their weapons work, or how to use their utility skills as long as we can make it work I usually get by with minimal complaint. I don’t ask that you have superior slaying sigils, or potions, food, full exotic armor or anything like that… but there are times it’s pretty obvious with how it’s going. (I do know some people that do dungeons in 60~75 rares on their level 80 characters, and more than 1 person who has forgotten to spend significant numbers of trait points).

In terms of things that I feel I’m often carrying people on… Fractals are a big one, mostly because it’s gated content but it also has a big learning curve. I can actually feel when I haven’t played them recently and that I’m not dodging as well as I used to. Some of the specific ones,

• Ascalon, pulling warriors
• Ice Elemental, people who aggro EVERY SINGLE small elemental
• Dredge, people who can’t dodge/survive agony… or can’t time lava dumps
• Cliffside, people who don’t play supportively and ‘forget’ the rolls discussed in party chat for seals
• Volcanic, not using projectile blocks against the elementals…. not helping to kill the elementals
• Uncategorized, charging into the poison room before crystals are set…. frequently “pulling” more harpies than we have to be fighting (yay knockdown)
  Now as far as dungeons…
• AC, Kholer is just a pain. Twice over if you can’t dodge/stun break and you insist on fighting him without the troll (or pulling him off the troll… then insisting to make them fight again)
• CM, if you don’t have a projectile block/absorb set and you can, you’re just plain doing it wrong
• TA, LEARN how to skip to the nightmare vine that is 5-10min saved on every run. LEARN how to fight the vines safely, or at least how to res yourself.
• CoF, If you want to call speed run, then you better not be the first one downed… or staying at range when it’s safe to melee (most of the time)
• HotW, some things are worth skipping, some it’s just faster to clear it. This is SOOO true when you start needing to wait for someone who didn’t make it.
• In ALL dungeons if you’ve skipped content, and someone is having a hard time catching up because they died in the proccess…. GO BACK to either help clear, or help them through it. If they didn’t make it the first time and aren’t certain they can, they’re not likely to do it the second time!
  I can’t say much about SE, CoE, or Arah

As far as being carried, I feel it most in CoE, and I’m sure I would if I did all the Arah explorable modes. I don’t know these dungeons very well, and while I like to think I’m pretty good at playing in general I don’t know which fights are melee-hostile, and necessarily which speed running tactics people are using. I’m willing to listen to how to do a fight, and try to keep up with everything.

I primarily run a Guardian, with my favorite alt being my Elementalist. Ranger/Thief aren’t my style although I tried, and I can’t even explain how hard a time I’m having with my Mesmer!

TLDR yes I have carried a pug (and guild member), yes I have been carried as a PUG.

So this is somewhat a multi-part thing.

New Rank/Account Flag : Guild Commander
The rank can be bought via the guild panel, there is a limit to how many people may be assigned to this rank (1 > 5 > 10 max), the rank may only be assigned by the guild owner.
This allows access to forming a squad (max of 15 people) for PvE content, there is no floaty and it does not apply to WvW. Only Guild Members are given the option of joining the squad.

When a Guild Commander enters a dungeon instance they are given a new entry option. Under this option any player in their squad can join, the instance owner is the guild commander (so they can change parties inside if they need to).

What this would do is provide a platform for entry into larger content (PvE) without needing to adjust the party structure as it stands.

New Dungeon Content
One new path for each dungeon can be created for this Guild-content. Each area would start with a common gathering point where the NPC would mark the map for major and minor objectives, followed by one meta-objective.

Minor objectives would work like progression bosses in dungeons

• 5~10s
• Bag of Goods
• Unlock a Waypoint
• NOT required for completion

Major objectives wold be independent bosses or minor quest lines, like a dungeon boss / dungeon unlock event

• 10~20s
• REQUIRED for completion

Meta objective would be like a world boss / major event

• 1 level of XP
• 20-50s
• 60-120 tokens
• Chest with 6 items, at least 1 Rare (same as world-boss chests)

if you infuse a ring (upgrade it in the mystic forge) it will make the ring account bound. If you set an infusion in the ring, it will not do anything (versatile simple infusion)

bumps If anyone has some advice I’m happy to hear it

WOW that was a lot to explain all 4 and thankfully I don’t have to track 4 topics if I can get some replies here even if it’s only about one build or another, something that I’m doing wrong… or something you think I’m doing right, who knows! Seriously though I’m pretty happy with how my Guardian and Elementalist play. I’m getting rutted fairly well into my Thief but I’m not sure if I’m just going about it all the wrong way to be both helpful as condition/DPS in group play, and survivable for solo PvE. The same for my Ranger.

Again this is for PvE content. I almost never go for WvW besides the occasional supply camp raid, and I don’t do anything in the Mists.

right … so to start this off I consider that I successfully run a Guardian and Elementalist. I’m getting pretty good at my Thief, and always feel abysmal on my Ranger. I was hoping to get some constructive feed back over various builds, without having to post in each class’s separate forums.

all I can say is WOW you guys run a harsh group.

Scepter is one of Guardian’s 2 ranged options, and the only one with 1,200 range. Kinda important to keep one around for fights that are not melee friendly (there are a lot of those, especially in fractals), or for pulling. no the damage isn’t great, but low damage is better than being dead

Thieves (as it’s been posted) have kitten for party support. They do damage, they (when played well) can evade very well. They can spread some nice conditions (although not as well as a necro)… and that’s about it. Support options are Smoke Screen and Shadow Refuge, the first is nice if you can blind / need blocked projectiles, the second is nice for losing agro / running.

As far as skipping content, if you don’t say you’re NOT doing it… I’m going to generally assume that you are. If I don’t know how for that dungeon I’ll ask first, and follow to the best of my ability and learn quickly (especially for multi-runs)

lets see….

magic find gear… do you ask for all gear ping before a dungeon? I mean… that’s elitest right there, can’t deny it. I’m not going to say I wouldn’t rather nobody ran it, and that it’s not selfish, but hey if we can clear the content than fine.

Following Targeting can be a pain sometimes, especially if you’re mobile and stupid right-click targeting changes up what you’re attacking (often!). Maybe you’re just cleaning house with all the other stuff and not dieing…. again if you’re not getting yourself killed have at it.

as far as the Jade Maw fractal… if you’re not moving them all away at the final bit where he targets everyone. I expect everyone to know how to dodge roll. you don’t need a crystal at your feet.

and finally…. you don’t have to be level 80 to do a good job in the dungeon. and you can easily be level 80 and completely suck at playing your job. Go take a look at level scaling sometime it actually matches up well to best at your level = best at lowered level. And you could go watch the AC low level run that was done a week or two ago too.

Given your post I have a REALLY hard time believing that you stand up to the concept of not having a hard time helping new players if they don’t play perfectly your way you feel justified in kicking them.

Scale rewards from world boss chests to account for how long a character has been on a server, even if it just takes say 3 days to get full rewards, it will help curb how often people can guest-events and swarm finishing them in minutes.

So I’m having a hard time deciding what Thief traits to take for my playstyle~

I find myself almost stuck using a short bow in most situations as it’s the only “area” weapon so damage jumps way up when you can poison/bleed multiple targets without having to worry if they stepped just a bit to the side. I tried running down the trait line for Shared Venoms, but… I don’t like using Venoms, they feel kinda lackluster for me.

I like the mobility I have with sword/dagger, but I keep feeling like I can’t use it in most dungeons, just because meleeing isn’t generally a viable option. I keep considering trying out Dagger/Dagger for more combo options, but I still feel that melee is pretty harsh. I don’t really like the skills for +damage/crit based on positioning either (side/behind enemy) so trying to stay away from those. I feel like I’ve got a pile of moderate junk that I have to sort through and that I might be getting more just stacking for the stats that I want, rather than looking for abilities and trying to take those.

Currently I’m thinking of doing something along the lines of:
15 Deadly Arts (Vulnerability on Crit)
15 Shadow Arts (Gain Initiative when Stealthing)
20 Acrobatics (Gain Might on Dodge, Gain health when using initative)
20 Trickery (Steal gains Fury/Might/Swiftness, & Stealing Grants Vigor)

This would be for dungeons (all) and world explore…. but not for WvW or sPvP

Currently I’m using Power/Vitality/Condition Damage armor (with runes for +bleed duration), and Precision/Condition Damage/(I forget third stat) accessories, with Soldier crests

So I just hopped on one of my alts and figured I might be able to get off easy at level 30 and buy a bunch of “Dessa’s Experiment Journal”s to fill out all of my skills early, and start doing some dungeons at near-full capacity (less a few traits). Turns out they’re level 80! Honestly I don’t know anyone who runs fractals regularly that needs to spend the relics on skill points =/ Can we get the level of these lowered to make them appealing to be used on low level alts?!

Path 1: There are 2 sets of 3 burrows, so start off knowing that. Also Ranged attacks will often get “absorbed” by all the little adds before they hit the burrows, if it isn’t an area affect ability it might be better to stick with melee. Remember to use Condition removal to get rid of bleeding from the hatchlings.
If you’re going to be using Ice Bows, I find it better to use them after the first burrows, to quickly knock down the second ones at range before much can spawn, make sure at least one other person is looking for the bow to pick it up.
As others have said, don’t stand near / run past Hodgins, If you’re going to try to protect him you need to be pro-active about hitting (to aggro) all the spawns from the burrow, and kiting them around away from him while your team kills the first three burrows. The new AC you can’t really just hit the burrow once to have aggro on everything it spawns unlike before so make sure you’re watching!

Path 2: You can try to kite the Ghosts, or to pull them when you get back after you wipe. Killing fast here actually doesn’t help since they’ll respawn (very quickly), so if you have a set of PVT or similar armor to help keep you alive that will help. Also if you have to split up so you’re not all being hit by AoE’s … assuming that you can survive/kite/dodge for 30s when you’re not actively trying to fight them.

Honestly … if you’re a brand new player and you want to push to do “end game” (scaled dungeon story/explorer) as soon as you can, I would expect you to make a point to not only learn how to use your skills, but also look online to figure out how to participate in the content. And I would also expect you to invest in having the proper equipment for the situation.

I’ve got nothing against people wanting to do things as soon as possible, I just don’t expect content should be “walk up and face roll it without needing to study, prepare or come properly equipped”.

Join a guild, level up, get some equipment, read about what you want to do before you just jump in.

As far as fallacious to presume that level 80’s are running Exotic/Ascended yeah it probably is for every players every character and alts. That being said the major complaint is that 80’s are better than 35’s (or lower leveled characters) in scaled content. This is what I would consider a “fair” comparison. yes, the weapons could be legendary… but the point is to show a best/well geared 80 is not THAT much numerically better than a 35 who is “equivalently well geared”.

I think without someone showing me more conclusive data, I’m going to say that there isn’t a huge increase when looking at scaled content. at MOST you’re looking at 45 trait points (135 scaled stat points at 35), and another 200~ stat points beyond that between exotic/ascended equipment.
As you increase the scaled level closer to 80 I suspect we’ll find that the rate of scaling (80 exotic ~= best gear for that level cap), but I’m not going to jump around the world to figure this out.

I don’t think in scaled content higher levels SHOULD be massively more powerful, what’s the point of scaling the content if they are? If I wanted to faceroll all the content I probably wouldn’t be playing a game that did any sort of scaling at all.

There are a lot of people claiming major difficulty running the new AC. One of the major claims why this is too hard is because a level 35 in appropriate gear will not have the stats to survive.

Given you are level 35 there are a few things I think we can assume,

• you have access to your Elite skill
• you have access to each skill you may want to use
• you have spent 25 trait points
• you have level 30/35 armor/weapon(s)/accessories, with runes/gems in each piece

Given you are level 80 we can set the following conditions

• you have access to all skills
• you have spent all 70 trait points
• you have level 80 armor/weapon(s)/accessories
• you are using full exotic/ascended with superior runes
• you are not using magic find equipment
• you are not using a legendary (not required but it’s fair)

So with level scaling how much difference is there? I would suspect the net difference will be numerically small (5~10%) and have less effect on the outcome than the foreknowledge of the event, having picked the right skill(s) to be prepared, and investing in the best equipment available for the level.

80 Guardian (Traits: 20 / 0 / 20 / 20 / 10)

no weapons/equipment

• Power 312, Attack 312
• Precision 256, Critical 4%
• Toughness 312, Armor 312
• Vitality 312, Health 3415
• Condition Damage 0, Condition Duration 20%
• Boon Duration 10%, Healing Power 56
• Critical Damage 6%

with weapons / equipment

• Armor: 1211
• Scepter 895~1010, Shield 806~909
• Power 744, Precision 348, Toughness 830, Vitality 546, Crit Damage 3, Healing Power 25, Condition Damage 171

• Power 520, Attack 853
• Precision 353, Critical Chance 20%
• Toughness 544, Armor 942
• Vitality 464, Health 4,935
• Condition Damage 48, Condition Duration 20%
• Boon Duration 10%, Healing Power 63
• Critical Damage 6%
• Agony Resist 7

Taking some easy to measure ones,

Armor 312 (1116) vs Armor 942 (3218)
312/1116 = ~28%
942/3218 = ~29%
(942-312)/(3218-1116) = 630 / 2102 = ~30%

Agony Resist 25 > 7 = 28%

Assuming these two stats are representative of the scaling, then initial stats, and equipment bonus’ are reduced to 28~30% of their level 80 value when being dropped to 35.

Lv80 Exotic, Heavy Chest Armor

• Defense 363, 101/72/72
• Defense 109, 30/22/22 (stats dropped to 30% of full value)

Lv80 Rare, Heavy Chest Armor

• Defense 321, 89/64/64
• Defense 96, 27/19/19 (stats dropped to 30% of full value)

Lv35 Rare, Heavy Chest Armor

• Defense 117, 29/21/0

Superior Rune

• 6 runes of Divinity would attain 60 to each stat, for 6 stats, and 12% critical damage
• or 120 net stat gain, 4% critical damage
• 5/1 rune for stat gain would be 165/40, 25
• or 72 net stat gain

Minor Rune

• 10 / 6 = 16 × 3 pairs = 45 stats

Overall it seems to me that it takes Exotic armor at level 80 to be equivalent to a best equipped level 35 character. You will gain a slight edge from the third stat, and you can make a bit more headway from using Superior Sigil’s, and I mean common who invests in top of the line level 35 equipment the moment they level? And who invests in buying skill points early to have access to every skill. You’ll also have 450 (135 scaled) extra stat points, and access to a few more trait skills that you wouldn’t have at level 35. But all around I would say it’s a fairly even scale down from level 80 to level 35!

So I guess there isn’t much reason to say lower levels can’t come into the dungeon, at least any more than there is to say people without full exotic/ascended can’t go… Skill > gear and hell it turns out if you get to level 80 to do the same stuff you did before you need the best gear to do it without having more skill!

I LOVE the new changes to AC. It was easy before … and I’m not just talking skipping content / exploits, I mean the entire thing was just easy. If you knew the mechanics (which in some cases was pure DPS) than you could do the entire thing without any real risk.

The new AC changes that.

Spider Queen
The additional mini-spider damage was ramped WAY WAY up. You’ll need to bring some projectile block or absorb to clean these out before you can fight her safely. The venom from the well’s was also scaled up, it means that non Tough/Vit builds will need to watch their step and probably use heals. Seriously I appreciate that there’s some more regular danger for Zerker builds

Kholer
His health/damage have been reduced (yay) but he spawns adds through out the fight. If you forget about them they overwhelm you, so it’s a balance between DPSing him and keeping the adds clear, while keeping everyone up. It’s a nice change

Troll, Traps, Graveling Burrows
None of these were changed much. I do wish the stalker evasion bonus was lower, or wore off faster. But nothing major here.

Howler
Really hasn’t changed much. I think the extra spawns he brings out are more dangerous than they were before, but it just means a lot of extra kiting. The Graveling knockdown jumps are still pretty rough though since they can chain and keep you down in the beam.

Ghost Eater
I LOVE the new traps! It’s… a bit buggy, but that actually makes the fight easier right now. If he gets stuck on a trap because of defiant stacks just knock them off after you charge one or two others without any danger!

Collosus
It would be nice if there was a bit more hint that you NEED to have the War Master to finish this fight. It’s nice to see that interrupting him should stop the rocks though (see the dev post above). I would also like to see some of the dome sanctuary effects that prevent enemies &/or projectiles from entering work like the War Master shield so your team might not need to be completely reliant on him.

I think AC can be done faster if you know what you’re doing, although there is more danger it’s … easier to handle if you know what you’re doing and emphasizes dungeon knowledge / dodge skill / preparation over all out DPS

Static dungeons where you can know where each encounter is, and who and what you’ll face at every turn are what we’ve been looking at so far. I want to propose a more-random type dungeon.

Bosses would be more movement based (like Kholer, TA Mesmer, Alpha, Lupicus).

Generic enemies would be “invisible”, they would assault from through walls (like the AC Troll), around corners (aggroing before you can see them) or running up behind the group.

Layout would be more of a maze than linear, with the final reward in one of multiple spots that you don’t get to know when you enter. There would be a few ‘large rooms’ around the maze where if the party chose to clear the enemies then a Waypoint and small chest would appear.

I would love to see a dungeon like this where a party couldn’t build for any particular fight because they wouldn’t know what to expect going into it, this might stick you with the right (or wrong) weapons equipped and maybe having the wrong skills set. It would force party to fight on it’s back leg and see just how well they could work together!

I would love to see a sub-forum for each dungeon in the main forums. Sometimes I’m just looking for recent comments on the changes to Fractals, sometimes I’d like to find out more information about CoF or SE. Rarely would I like to search for both at the same time though.

I would love to see a way to turn-off some of the UI options. Specifically I would like to be able to disable the personal story from showing up on the quest menu and mini-map. I would also (occasionally) like to be able to turn off “World Explore” mode which would stop renown hearts from showing up as well. Also since Daily/Monthly take up the same slot in the UI allow a manual toggle for which you would like to have available at any time.

Larger instance events. I would love to be able to do Fractals with 10 or 20 people, I understand balancing (and scaling) is an issue with things like this but it would be really nice to be inclusive. I know I could manage this in WvW with guildies but … I’m a PvE junkie