(edited by Tenrai Senshi.2017)
We became aware of a problem created when Personal Story steps were reordered last year. When the reordering took place, some players were unable to complete their Personal Story. This sometimes happened if they left the Personal Story either to play Living World Seasons 2 or 3 or to play Heart of Thorns.
For players who were affected by this bug, we developed a correction that was implemented in the build of 13 December. Those who were impacted by the issue received an in-game mail when the correction was made. If your Personal Story progress was previously blocked, you should be able to continue it at your convenience.
If you believed you had completed your Personal Story, but there actually was a gap in completion due to the story reordering, your progress has been reset to your last completed quest step. This is intended to allow every player the opportunity to experience their Personal Story in its entirety.
This fix targets those characters having a gap somewhere in their Chapter 7 and/or 8 story lines only. No other Personal Story, Heart of Thorns, or Living World quests should be affected by this fix. If your progress within these Chapters has been reset and you received the letter from Scholar Aiti about your story, then you had a gap in the Personal Story at some point, even if you were not able to see that you were blocked from resuming your story. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause, but hope that the opportunity to experience your story at its fullest will help make up for our error.
i finished the personal story on my ranger….. and killed Zhaitan….. and y’all took that away from me….. and i’m really VERY kittening unhappy about that….. how does that get corrected??? i want my kill back!!!! i don’t want to have to kill that PITA dragon again on a character that already did it!!!
IF (and that’s a VERY big if) i did indeed miss something with the reordering, then just make it so that i can do the missed part, don’t take away everything i did after that part!!!!! and no, having to kill Zhaitan AGAIN does definitely NOT make up for it…..
The one upside is that you get to earn black lion keys again, no? (unless story rewards aren’t earned again a second time).
I can’t give any concrete answer on whether the CPU would give significantly better fps, but I found that using the settings to show only a small amount of other players and turning off auto show names goes a long way in helping FPS in large events.
There’s really no need to see that many players all on top of each other anyway. All it does is cause visual clutter and make it harder to see what you are actually doing, and it has no benefits. And you can manually show names on screen simply by holding a key in if you want to see where other people are, or who they are.
I am glad to see people get involved and support each other. Just because it is an online community, that doesn’t make it any less humane or personal, and this just shows it. I also feel this is part of why we need to be more aware of how we treat others, even in an online community, because it can have profound effects on them.
If burning is the name of your game, then Whirling Wrath (greatsword 2) is actually better than Cleansing Flame when it comes to triggering VoJ. It can hit up to 14 times against a single target (7 hits + 7 projectiles), can hit more people in a group (5 max targets for WW vs 3 max targets for CF), has a lower cooldown (10s vs 15s so you’re applying more burn stacks in longer battles) and it’s much easier to hit multiple enemies with its wide aoe than it is to aim Cleansing Flame’s narrow cone over multiple enemies (unless they conveniently stand in a straight line for your sake).
In addition to that, WW is also a whirl finisher, so if you use it in a fire field, you can also release burning bolts for even more burning.
To put it plainly, hitting someone with a sword is better at applying burning than breathing a large torrent of fire over your enemies. Funny that…
i haven’t even thought about bots!
bots are great, they crash the price of the beverages which i would greatly profit from. even more reason to give us the single player instance bug back.
Perhaps you were just trying to be quirky, but the idea that players would want bots in a game just so they can profit or would want to put the efficiency of doing chores over fun is, in my opinion, a rather sad state of affairs.
When you consider that the head gear for outfits can be turned on and off, it is a question of why they can’t be replaced with other head gear and, subsequently, why the head gear for outfits cannot be used on their own with other armor sets.
Then again, I don’t know how the technology for outfits works or how it could or would interact with armor in a case of mixing or matching (it might be currently impossible to achieve). The ideal solution would be to simply introduce a bit more variety on the armor side of things for more mix and match options. Otherwise, if ANet is absolutely set on outfits, at least give some customization options for them (like a few head gear options to choose from for each outfit, or a few sliders that can adjust other details on the outfit itself)
I would never give Caithe the job she was given. It makes no sense giving her such important task after her betrayal. I would want her dead, but at least get her out of that chamber away from Aurene.
To be fair, she didn’t exactly “betray” us. She was just following what she thought was her wild hunt and doing it with good intentions in mind (though it’s since been hinted at that Mordremoth might have been playing mind games).
Now that Mordremoth is dead, there’s actually no risk of Caith being influenced anymore. Trusting her is no more risky than trusting anyone else in our supposed new guild, given each of them seems to have their own agenda except maybe Taimi, and there’s no guarantee that their agendas won’t clash with what we perceive to be the greater good.
At least with Caithe we can say we know her better than we know some of the others (given that we lived through key points in her past) and so can make a better guess at her motives than anyone else’s. Someone who can kill their own friend and turn against their lover for the greater good of their race, has surely proven that at the very least, they are looking at the big picture and not just their own personal desires.
To be honest I can’t think of an other game that has auto loot in the same manner that GW2 has. Would you mind listing some that you’ve encountered? You say it’s a basic feature that every MMO has, but not even WoW has it, which could be considered the one of the most prolific and successful MMO’s to this day (it has an aoe loot type of option, but it still requires interaction and has basically the same functionality as GW2’s area loot option which is available without masteries).
Honestly speaking, if you’re going to resort to sensationalist claims that can easily be proven false, people will not take you seriously. There’s nothing wrong with making what you feel might be a helpful suggestion, but don’t make the mistake of making false claims in order to try and justify your suggestion, because then it comes across as less credible.
Gee this is hard
WoW (addon) that they endorse
FFXIV
LOTRO
DDO
need i go on?
The only claims proven false here and being sensationalist are yours.
I just asked a question, which you decided to answer with sarcasm instead of holding onto some form of integrity.
Also, listing an third party add on for WoW doesn’t count because it’s still not a feature implemented by the developers themselves. If we’re going down that road, I can simply tell you to go look or ask for a third party add on for GW2.
Also, you seem to have missed my point when I said your claim was sensationalist. I never said there were no games that had auto loot. What I was calling you out on was that you said that auto loot is, and I quote “a BASIC feature in every game”. This is provably false because I can list plenty of games that do not have it.
The Definition of Sensationalism: The use of exciting or shocking stories or language at the expense of accuracy, in order to provoke public interest or excitement.
You used sensationalism in your comment in order mislead readers into believing something that simply is not true. Now you’re getting iffy because someone is pointing it out. You’re really not going to get very far approaching a debate in this manner, because people are just going to dismiss you for your sarcasm and your melodramatic attitude.
To be honest I can’t think of an other game that has auto loot in the same manner that GW2 has. Would you mind listing some that you’ve encountered? You say it’s a basic feature that every MMO has, but not even WoW has it, which could be considered the one of the most prolific and successful MMO’s to this day (it has an aoe loot type of option, but it still requires interaction and has basically the same functionality as GW2’s area loot option which is available without masteries).
Honestly speaking, if you’re going to resort to sensationalist claims that can easily be proven false, people will not take you seriously. There’s nothing wrong with making what you feel might be a helpful suggestion, but don’t make the mistake of making false claims in order to try and justify your suggestion, because then it comes across as less credible.
This is a recurring, often discussed topic. You’ll get answers like “because outfits are cheaper/faster to make” or “they can do things with outfits they can’t do with armor” or “outfits sell better”.
Whether you accept those answers is another matter.
Technically speaking, you can now duel in PvE. If you’re part of a guild with a guild arena, you can 1vs1 in there with your gear as it is.
It is perhaps not the most ideal solution, but at least it’s better than what we had before (which is nothing).
I never understand the hate for Logan, honestly. Yes, he turned his back on his guild, but he’s probably one of the most productive members of DE in our PC’s time. He’s pretty much single-handedly responsible for a large portion of why things so far have gone so well, frankly, when considering the effects of keeping the White Mantle in check, saving Rytlock, his ridiculous stand at the end of the Core GW2 story, etc. The path of redemption is long and hard, but he’s doing his “best” (filter) and doing a pretty good job, all things considered.
Logan had an ultimatum. Be absolutely certain that his beloved would be killed, or chance his friends not being strong enough to fight without him.
Would DE have just turned around and said “forget it” if Logan had died or been removed from the fight previously, anyways? Probably not, Snaff would probably have still died, if not worse. The only thing that’d have been different is Zojja might not be bitter at Logan because she wouldn’t have had someone to place the blame on if one of her loved ones died, like if Jenna would have if Logan put his guild first.
And quite frankly, it’s telling of the perspectives on the world between the races; how utilitarian the Asura and Charr are while Humans and Sylvari put massive weight behind their feelings and how love binds them (a la Caithe and Faolain).
No, Braham is absolutely nothing like Logan. Braham doesn’t have an ultimatum to make. He’s just being a self-centered kitten.
Again, this comes down to a matter of how the character is portrayed, and I feel this is something many people don’t understand. You can have a character that literally screws the world over and people love them, and a character that seemingly does good but people hate them, and it all comes down to how that character comes across or how well they are written.
I explained in a response to someone else how Logan’s behavior in game paints a very bad impression of him. He comes across as whiny and childish and so while his reasons for leaving Destiny’s Edge might seem valid on paper, the way he behaves makes him seem more selfish and so puts those reasons into question.
When I compare Braham to Logan, I’m not comparing a list of what they’ve done, but rather showing similarities in how badly they are both being portrayed in the game and why portraying a character poorly can make them very unlikable. Of course, it’s just my opinion and others may disagree.
Caithe took the egg that contained an elder Dragon, a potential desaster for all races on Tyria away, slew her sister for a secret that was bound to be unraveled rather sooner than later and evaded us when we tried to catch her.
Braham found a powerful weapon and is probably able to raise an army with it out of people who are notoriously stubborn and independent. The only guy he initially endangered was himself. With Anet maybe wanting the Dragons out of the way, maybe he even succeeds with his brash attack and becomes a rival instead of an ally?
My personal guess is that people hate on Braham because he badmouthed the flipfloping commander and took the initiative from him like Trahearne and Caithe also did.
Trahaerne was more polite than he is, still people hated him.
People seem to love Caithe despite her doing the same and far worser things than Trahearne.
It’s not just about what a character does, but rather how they are portrayed in the process. You can have two characters do the exact same thing on paper, but how they are written and come across in game can make you love or hate them.
Also, Caithe has the excuse that she was likely being manipulated by Mordremoth. She also has the benefit of her actions fortunately not causing a large death count (in fact, despite the “potential” repercussions of her actions, ultimately they amount to little more than an inconvenience for the commander, and no direct casualties can be attributed to them). Add to that the fact that she has a bit more of an interesting back story, doesn’t treat the commander like dirt and still manages to try do what she thinks is best for everyone (and not just herself) despite probably having a darker past than even Braham, and it might become obvious why she’s less hated.
As for Trahearne, if I had to guess the main reason people disliked him, it’s because he came across as a bit bland and one dimensional as a character. He kinda popped up out of the blue unless you played as a Sylvari, and suddenly he becomes commander of the pact and the hope for all of Tyria. I think maybe people would have liked him to have a bit more depth to him, but I personally never “disliked” him, so much as just feel a bit indifferent to him.
Were it up to me, Braham would’ve never left that cave alive (not because he hurt my feelings, but because, given the circumstances, his recklessness could doom all of Tyria).
Honestly, I’m surprised I left the cave alive. I facepalmed so hard after listening to the dialogue that by all rights I should be in a coma with brain damage. XD
Actually, I played the instance with two friends as well. One I was talking to over Skype and he swore enough to make his loathing for Braham’s character development clear. The other could only type “WTF!” in the chat when we got to the end of the instance.
The character development of our PC is a little disappointing. I get trying to make him/her a kind of "blank slate, or generally featureless personality so you’re more likely to relate or insert yourself into the story easier, but our PC is just completely passive. This is a terrible trait for a leader to have….
The odd part about this is that the writers seemed more than happy to have our character take a much sterner stance against Caith for stealing Aurene’s egg, to the point of even threatening to kill her if she so much as steps out of line, but when it comes to Braham mouthing off at us and preparing to lead his entire race to its genocide, in addition to potentially messing up a perfectly good plan for dealing with two elder dragons at once, we’re overly passive in our response.
So, I’d write this off to inconsistency as far as our PC is concerned. Our character’s reaction to Caith could almost be seen as heavy handed, though understandable given the stakes at hand (the fate of the entire world, to put it plainly), but with Braham it goes to the opposite extreme and seems very underwhelming. Still, perhaps this will be developed further and we’ll see our character take a more sterner stance, but hopefully things won’t go completely belly up before that happens.
The greatest tragedies that occur in the world happen because people are too reactive instead of being proactive. Let’s hope our PC chooses to adopt the latter stance, and not the former.
To be honest, despite the premise of the thread, I’d say that Braham is worse than Logan ever was.
Logan’s choice to leave was controversial, but understandable. While it’s easy to come away from Edge of Destiny that his motivation was purely lovesick puppy syndrome, Kasmeer and Marjory discuss it afterwards, with Kasmeer saying “I don’t know what we’d do without her.” As far as most people know, the best case scenario for Kryta if Jennah dies is a smooth transition of power to Caudecus… and the worst case scenario is a political collapse leading to civil war…
I do agree with what you’re saying, and I understand the premise that Logan’s choice itself is in some ways understandable, but for me the reason I believe Logan is really disliked by many players is not his “choice” so much as the way he is portrayed as a character.
Perhaps he did make a decision he felt was best for Kryta and its people, but the problem is that the writers have not done a great job of expressing that ideal in his character as it is currently portrayed in game. Instead of coming across as a man wrought with the guilt or burden of difficult decisions, who had to weigh the good of his people vs the good of his friends and guild, we see someone who comes across as whiny and childish.
This was highlighted even by another character, Countess Anise, who commented that Logan overreacted when she used an illusion to make a Clockwork Knight look like Rytlock during the first Queen’s Jubilee event (if I recall, she even told him to “stop being such a baby”). It makes it hard for us to believe his intentions were selfless and motivated by a noble goal, because his behavior makes him seem much more selfish, temperamental and irresponsible, especially for someone who should be the thoughtful, level-headed captain of the Seraph.
This is what I was alluding to when I spoke about Braham becoming the next Logan. It’s not to say he’s literally becoming like Logan as a character, but rather that he’s beginning to be portrayed in a way that’s very unlikable. This is a trap I often see writers fall into, where they want to convey a certain theme in a character, like love or vengeance, and perhaps even want us to sympathize with them and understand them, but they instead end up making them very unpleasant and cringe-worthy just because they haven’t written it well. You can have two of the exact same types of characters written by two different writers, and the result can be like night and day. Even if both are written with the same theme or intention in mind, how they are portrayed in the end can make or break them, or make you empathize with them or hate them.
I have a feeling this entire “Dragon’s Watch” is going to be a total disaster.
So far we only have 3 members, only 2 of which are actually acting like it. The other ones are either AWOL, forced doing something else or being complete ***holes toward us.
Let’s go through the roster:
Taimi – Currently the only one that actually acts like a member of Dragon’s Watch.
Rytlock – Also did really well but is currently under arrest.
Rox – Currently has to make sure Braham doesn’t end up getting himself killed.
Kasmeer – Currently the most useless of the bunch, haven’t seen her once this season.
Marjory – Basically gave you the middle finger and left with Lazarus.
Braham – Currently the single greatest ***hole in the game, would not want him in Dragon’s Watch even if all of Tyria depended on it.When this whole “Dragon’s Watch” thing was first announced I was really looking forward to it. I thought it would be like Season 2 and HoT, where we as an entire group went on to do missions. But apparantly all of a sudden each member either hates me, has other things to do, or just doesn’t care (except Taimi). Great going so far…
Yeah, I agree. Taimi actually feels like the only useful character in Dragon’s Watch right now. While there are other cool characters like Rytlock and possibly Canach if he eventually joins, they seem to have their own problems and agendas to deal with right at the moment. Taimi seems to be the only one who, like yourself, is actively addressing the dragon problem head on and working towards solution as part of your guild.
I do kinda wish the writers would give the other characters the same attention as they have to Taimi. She seems to be the most well-rounded and developed of the lot, which is ironic considering she’s also the youngest and most inexperienced (though certainly not the least intelligent).
On a side not concerning our responsibilities, I’m still not entirely convinced that we are acting responsibly in allowing Taimi exclusive access to Dragon research which would be benefit all of Tyria, when we have 3 Orders which we should be trusting in a lot more with that info.
Actually, I think it is the most responsible thing to do. Entrusting all 3 orders with that information could lead to a dissaster.
You have to remember that since absorbing Zhaitan’s death magic, the other elder dragons can now resurrect or corrupt other life in a similar manner to Zhaitan. If you’ll recall, part of the advantage of doing that was that the elder dragon was privy to all the memories and information that the said deceased or cloned individual was knowledgeable about in life.
In other words, leaking your plan on how to defeat the dragons to more people, where many of those people could subsequently die and be corrupted by the dragons and the plan subsequently learned, seems very counter productive. And obviously the more that know, the higher the risk of that happening is. If anything, the irresponsible thing our character did was giving that information to Braham, who is not in his right mind and seems all to eager to now march to death’s door.
Perhaps this is part of the problem. Because of our lack of story choices and our inability to intervene in situations where you can see disaster written on the walls, it creates this sense that you’re at the mercy of the plot, whether it ends up being good or bad. In this case, it seems almost certain that Braham is about to commit his entire race to a disaster on what could possibly be a genocidal scale, all because he’s acting in a manner that seems childishly irresponsible.
Meanwhile, we’ll have to sit on the sidelines and watch it unfold, powerless to do anything unless the writers write our own character into a position where they can bash Braham over the head with an oversized cup of wake the hell up, because that’s just the nature of the story. That’s what irks me the most. Still, I’m hoping it doesn’t get to that and I’m hoping the writers do a good job of redeeming the situation somehow.
I think you nailed the problem on the head – the whole scenario feels so out of character for how I imagine a commander in charge of keeping the dragon-pocalypse at bay would act. With so much at stake, you don’t just let a guy free to pull off his incredibly stupid plan that he’ll most definitely regret later, and you especially don’t aid him in getting that crucial last component he needs for said incredibly stupid plan.
That was very jarring and I feel like slapping every character involved in the story for allowing it to happen as it did. If this was a book I was reading, this is the point where I’d chuck it at the wall because the plot contrivance is making everyone act dumb (and out of character in the case of the commander) and its annoying.
Hahaha! I know exactly how you feel. X’D
Braham is a young adult still realing with hormones who lost his mommy during a war.
Get some perspective maybe.
Regardless, he’s in a position of influence, and he’s about to lead a whole bunch of norns to their death and royally screw up the commander’s plan to resolve two dragon problems at once bloodlessly.
As the old adage goes, with great power comes great responsibility, and he’s not acting responsible at all. I have no respect for anyone who pulls a stunt like this when they’re in such a position of power. If he can’t get his emotions in control, he shouldn’t be calling the shots.
If it were up to me at all, I’d have made sure Braham never retrieved that scroll once it became apparent he was so recklessly out of control. He can then continue to be as angsty as he likes as long as it doesn’t come with the potential for great disaster.
Perhaps this is part of the problem. Because of our lack of story choices and our inability to intervene in situations where you can see disaster written on the walls, it creates this sense that you’re at the mercy of the plot, whether it ends up being good or bad. In this case, it seems almost certain that Braham is about to commit his entire race to a disaster on what could possibly be a genocidal scale, all because he’s acting in a manner that seems childishly irresponsible.
Meanwhile, we’ll have to sit on the sidelines and watch it unfold, powerless to do anything unless the writers write our own character into a position where they can bash Braham over the head with an oversized cup of wake the hell up, because that’s just the nature of the story. That’s what irks me the most. Still, I’m hoping it doesn’t get to that and I’m hoping the writers do a good job of redeeming the situation somehow.
I think i disagree a little with you here.
The main difference for me being that we never saw Logans fall ourselves.
We only heard about it.Here though we saw his story unfold.
We saw him when he first sought out Knut Whitebeard, teamed up with Rox, got confronted with talking to his mother and finally warm up a Little to Eir after feeling abandoned from here.And there’s the thing why i actually kinda sympathize with him.
He finally after, not sure 16-18 years?, got to know the woman he only knew as this idealized hero of legend and right when he thought they could be a family, when SHE started to treat him like a son, it gets taken away from him.Quite honestly i’d like to know how you would have reacted to this.
Would you stay calm and just shrug it off?
I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t.And while all this happens everyone tells him: Braham, just stay calm, breath…
How would this affect you?
Does it seem childish? Maybe.
But it actually makes sense.As I said, I don’t mind the whole vengeful character theme, but I also think how that character is portrayed can make or break it. When I think of a good example, I think something along the lines of “The Count of Monte Cristo” or even “V for Vendetta” (which is also inspired by the former), where you can see the character has been consumed by revenge, but they approach it in a cold, calculated and thoughtful manner. They never behave in a way that is whiny or childish, but you can still see how the pursuit of revenge has damaged them as people and how it destroys those around them. You still sympathize with them and maybe even feel like rooting for them, but they don’t seem annoying or repulsive so to speak.
In the case of Braham, however, the character is portrayed in a much more annoying and obnoxious manner and it kinda just puts me off. I just think if they’re going for the whole revenge thing, they should just do it in a way that still carries across the dread and empathy associated with the character’s feelings or actions, but not in a way that makes the character grating or annoying.
The Count of Montecristo was an adult man who had years in prison to plan out his revenge.
Braham is a young adult still realing with hormones who lost his mommy during a war.Get some perspective maybe.
If you believe that only younger men can act childishly and older men more maturely or in a calculated manner then perhaps you need some perspective, because I’ve seen more than enough cases where it is quite the opposite to know that you cannot simply label people based on rheir age demographic in such a black and white manner.
I’m also basing this on the situation they’re in.
You want a cold, calculated revenge sceam from someone who’s in an emotional state of loss of a family member and your example is someone who had years on years to hold only on to that revenge to keep his sanity.
It’s a vastly different setup being used for the respective story.
And i’m not saying that only young men can be childish or all desire born from an extreme situation would be emotional but you completely ignore Brahams backstory while saying you liked what was shown in season 2.
Actually, I was using the cold calculated revenge scheme as an example. My main point was that I just didn’t want Brahams character to be written in such a way so as to become annoying .
I don’t mind him wanting revenge or acting out, it’s just the way he’s portrayed that irks me.
I think i disagree a little with you here.
The main difference for me being that we never saw Logans fall ourselves.
We only heard about it.Here though we saw his story unfold.
We saw him when he first sought out Knut Whitebeard, teamed up with Rox, got confronted with talking to his mother and finally warm up a Little to Eir after feeling abandoned from here.And there’s the thing why i actually kinda sympathize with him.
He finally after, not sure 16-18 years?, got to know the woman he only knew as this idealized hero of legend and right when he thought they could be a family, when SHE started to treat him like a son, it gets taken away from him.Quite honestly i’d like to know how you would have reacted to this.
Would you stay calm and just shrug it off?
I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t.And while all this happens everyone tells him: Braham, just stay calm, breath…
How would this affect you?
Does it seem childish? Maybe.
But it actually makes sense.As I said, I don’t mind the whole vengeful character theme, but I also think how that character is portrayed can make or break it. When I think of a good example, I think something along the lines of “The Count of Monte Cristo” or even “V for Vendetta” (which is also inspired by the former), where you can see the character has been consumed by revenge, but they approach it in a cold, calculated and thoughtful manner. They never behave in a way that is whiny or childish, but you can still see how the pursuit of revenge has damaged them as people and how it destroys those around them. You still sympathize with them and maybe even feel like rooting for them, but they don’t seem annoying or repulsive so to speak.
In the case of Braham, however, the character is portrayed in a much more annoying and obnoxious manner and it kinda just puts me off. I just think if they’re going for the whole revenge thing, they should just do it in a way that still carries across the dread and empathy associated with the character’s feelings or actions, but not in a way that makes the character grating or annoying.
The Count of Montecristo was an adult man who had years in prison to plan out his revenge.
Braham is a young adult still realing with hormones who lost his mommy during a war.Get some perspective maybe.
If you believe that only younger men can act childishly and older men more maturely or in a calculated manner then perhaps you need some perspective, because I’ve seen more than enough cases where it is quite the opposite to know that you cannot simply label people based on rheir age demographic in such a black and white manner.
I think i disagree a little with you here.
The main difference for me being that we never saw Logans fall ourselves.
We only heard about it.Here though we saw his story unfold.
We saw him when he first sought out Knut Whitebeard, teamed up with Rox, got confronted with talking to his mother and finally warm up a Little to Eir after feeling abandoned from here.And there’s the thing why i actually kinda sympathize with him.
He finally after, not sure 16-18 years?, got to know the woman he only knew as this idealized hero of legend and right when he thought they could be a family, when SHE started to treat him like a son, it gets taken away from him.Quite honestly i’d like to know how you would have reacted to this.
Would you stay calm and just shrug it off?
I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t.And while all this happens everyone tells him: Braham, just stay calm, breath…
How would this affect you?
Does it seem childish? Maybe.
But it actually makes sense.
As I said, I don’t mind the whole vengeful character theme, but I also think how that character is portrayed can make or break it. When I think of a good example, I think something along the lines of “The Count of Monte Cristo” or even “V for Vendetta” (which is also inspired by the former), where you can see the character has been consumed by revenge, but they approach it in a cold, calculated and thoughtful manner. They never behave in a way that is whiny or childish, but you can still see how the pursuit of revenge has damaged them as people and how it destroys those around them. You still sympathize with them and maybe even feel like rooting for them, but they don’t seem annoying or repulsive so to speak.
In the case of Braham, however, the character is portrayed in a much more annoying and obnoxious manner and it kinda just puts me off. I just think if they’re going for the whole revenge thing, they should just do it in a way that still carries across the dread and empathy associated with the character’s feelings or actions, but not in a way that makes the character grating or annoying.
If it’s only about viability in most game modes, then the strongest picks are probably Ele and Mesmer.
But really, if I were you I’d choose whatever you find most fun. There’s no point in being viable in a game mode if you aren’t having fun while doing it, and this is a game at the end of the day.
Okay, I have to say this, I am liking the new Living Story season so far, but one thing I don’t like is how Braham is developing as a character. He’s quickly going from a character I used to like to a character I am now beginning to loath.
For me, the Braham I liked was the character we saw in LS2. In particular, his protective big brother relationship with Taimi and his friendship with Rox was something I enjoyed seeing develop. For obvious reasons this took a turn during the expansion story and Braham has since become a whiny, revenge-starved maniac who quickly disregards the issues, feelings and opinions of others in order to fuel his own Agenda.
We already saw some of this development in the expansion with the way he treated Tiami like a useless child and kept brooding about wanting to kill Mordremoth, but I had hoped that since Taimi had saved him and proven that she was more of an asset to the team, that he’d cool his head a bit and start seeing the bigger picture. Unfortunately, this latest LS episode proves otherwise; he’s become even more whiny and selfish than ever and still treats everyone else on the team like expendable baggage.
I have to say, I hate whiny characters. That doesn’t mean to say I hate characters who have a revenge complex, but I prefer it when they’re written in a manner that makes them seem more cold, calculated and thoughtful, and less like a spoiled child who rages and gives everyone around them the middle finger whenever things don’t go their way.
To me, this is why people disliked Logan, because he was whiny, often childish and abandoned his teammates because he was blinded by his own personal agenda and failed to see the bigger picture (which also lead to more than one ally’s death). Unfortunately, I see Braham ending up in the same pit and even if this is a ploy by the writers to create a fall and redemption type story for Braham, I’m afraid that by the time he finally comes around again the damage will have already been done and Braham will be irredeemable as a character in the eyes of many players.
If Braham is going to remain a mainstay in the player’s primary entourage, then I’d encourage writers to please take more care of him as a character and not drag him through a river of muddy salt.
If you want to believe that it doesn’t take 9 months in spite of having a full staff of people, I don’t see what anyone could say that would change your mind.
Not wanting it to be true won’t change how long it takes.
And if you want to believe whatever you are told based on vague information, then that’s fine, but don’t be surprised when other people question it and ask for a bit more information so they can better understand it. You say you don’t see what anyone could say to change my mind, well the answer is that they could just say a bit more than what they have. Give me information, help me understand the limitations more, give me some proper insight into the development challenges or the size of the team, etc, don’t just give me a vague timeline and little else and expect me to nod my head like an ignorant child who must always accept the absurd notion that their parent always knows best.
This is one thing that irritates me about some members of our community. They accept whatever they’re told and never expect more. We allow our expectations to drop and it often leads to a drop in quality on deliverables in the game. When we lower our standards, so do the devs because it lets them get away with less, and ask more for it. And frankly, I think that’s not only an injustice to ourselves, but to the devs as well.
I expect more. And you know what? That’s actually a compliment to the development team, because it means I believe in their capabilities and their potential. I certainly wouldn’t waste my time asking for something on a game forum unless I actually cared about the game, or believed that the team was capable of achieving it. It saddens me to think that so many players out there are willing to accept mediocrity though, because I think that’s insulting both to themselves and the development team.
But hey, you can just keep on about how not wanting to believe it won’t change how long it takes. You can accept the status quo without ever questioning it, or without ever expecting more. But I hope you don’t believe that you are actually doing the devs a favor with that mindset, because lowering our expectations could hurt the quality of this game in the long run.
Personally, I’d like to see this area being utilized more. It seems like a waste to have put so much time and effort into creating such a grand looking set piece, for it to only be used in one story instance that has little to no replay-ability once achievements are earned.
Perhaps they could utilize it in a new fractal. They could rework the engagements for group play and make it more fun and interesting. It would be a very welcome addition.
GW2 has immense variety, especially for a game that is “only” 4 years old, I can’t see how this is even an issue at all.
Unfortunately, for me it’s a bit of a lack of variety in some particular areas that in part adds to my concern about the lack of armor development lately. Take male medium armor models for example. 99% of them involve trench coats. I can only think of two male medium armor chest pieces off the top of my head that don’t involve trench coats of some kind, and the idea that we may have to wait for an expansion to get more armor in order to hopefully (but unlikely) break the trench-coat trend seems a bit depressing to me.
It’s a similar issue with light armor and butt capes.
Don’t get me wrong though, I DO appreciate the variety that is there, and I love being able to customize character appearances to the extent that I can. I just hope the devs don’t lose touch of that and let armor fall completely by the wayside. I just feel outfits lack that sense of fun and variety.
That’s 21 different sets. Even if we were to pretend they were all released over the course of the 4 years GW2 has been out, it’s still an armor set every 2 months. When we then consider that a lot of this was released early in the game’s lifespan, it becomes obvious that the long waiting periods people are implying are and were simply a fallacy.
There are a lot of implicit assumptions in the statement of one set/two months. I’m going by the evidence we have to date:
- Mike O’Brien is on record stating that it takes 9 months to develop a full-fledged set of armor for 5 races times two genders times three weights.
- At full throttle, they aren’t even producing that many outfits (which they’ve stated are far easier to produce).
- They have been releasing new armor sets since launch.
None of us want it to be true that ANet is unable to produce armor sets more quickly, including ANet.
I think it’s just as much of an assumption for people to think they understand the intricacies regarding the production of armor vs outfits. We’re given a very vague statement with no real information and details regarding how long it takes to armor, and everyone takes it at face value without considering that there’s more to it than meets the eye.
Questions that arise are “How many people does it take to make an armor set over those 9 months?”, “Is that full development time from conception to implementation?”, “Is the team working on it full time or just on and off?”, and so on.
Another question would be “How long does it take to develop outfits, comparatively speaking?” Seeing as how we have never actually been given an exact time frame in that regard, making astute comparisons as if we have been adequately enlightened seems far more strange to me than my simply looking at past evidence and taking a guess at it. Certainly, a guess is all anyone can make with how little information we’re actually given on the matter. It would be nice if the devs gave us more info and less vague statements, then perhaps I’d be more satisfied with the answer.
To be honest, I just have a hard time wrapping my head around the idea that it can take a team of people 9 months to make 3 armor sets. I get that maybe the team has diminished greatly since launch, but to me that’s a bad sign for the development of the game as a whole. If it was performing well, then surely they’d have the budget and team necessary to ensure content creation continues to flow smoothly? And if they aren’t performing well, is that not a sign of bad design decisions, which subsequently lead to a smaller player base, less players spending and thus less income needed to fund development? Of course it might be prudent to assume either way.
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/shrug. Half of your OP is a negative assessment of outfits. If you only wanted more armor you could have stuck with discussing armor and how it could be made faster. And yes they are different teams making the two. The armor people make armor and the outfit people make the cosmetic, statless, one piece outfits.
Q: then where is the team making the armor? We haven’t had a full armor set release since the expansion’s launch
A:
1) the upcoming expansion, as said in this quote
Armor sets are by far the most expensive reward we can make. A full set includes heavy, medium, light, times five races, times two sexes, so it’s like developing 30 sets. It takes nine months to develop. (That’s for a normal armor set — legendary is much longer.) It’s not something we can do for Living World episodes. Individual pieces are good rewards for Living World episodes; full sets are more something for expansion packs.
2) the Legendary armors (precursor and Legendary) they are working on, which they say take even more work to make than a regular set, since they have animations.
“Half of your OP is a negative assessment of outfits. If you only wanted more armor you could have stuck with discussing armor and how it could be made faster.”
No, half of my OP was a comparison of why I felt armor sets are superior to outfit sets and why I believed there was value in their development. I had to make the comparison to highlight that even though the cost of developing armor might be greater, the rewards are also greater. However, I also made it clear in the title that it was my opinion, and in my closing note that it didn’t mean I wanted them to stop developing outfits.
It is possible to point out the shortcomings of a particular feature without actually “hating” or “flaming” or even being excessively negative about it. But if people want to read more into it by their own volition, then I cannot help that.
“1) the upcoming expansion, as said in this quote”
This is part of why I think it’s important to bring up the value of armor again. If ANet has resigned themselves to only developing new armor sets for expansions, despite having released them far more regularly with normal updates in the past, then it simply highlights their belief that armor sets are either not important to the player base, or lack value for the playerbase and thus are worth overlooking for extended periods of time, possibly even years, between expansion launches. I wanted to highlight that this is not the case for many of us and it might even be said it could be reason enough for some people to stop playing the game altogether.
I don’t understand the 9 months thing either and I also would like more armor. I just don’t think that decreasing the numbers of outfits would make armors arrive more frequently, given that they are undoubtedly made by different teams with different skills. One is a cosmetic, one piece item and the other is a far more complex item. imo, nerfing outfits isn’t going to make a difference if what they need is more people who have the skills to make armor for this game.
Perhaps, and as I mentioned in my comment, I’m not asking them to stop making outfits, or to remove them. I really just want more armor.
However, if they are being made by separate teams, then where is the team making the armor? We haven’t had a full armor set release since the expansion’s launch. Perhaps you’d say they’re devoting an entire year just making legendary armor, but to be honest, I find it very hard to believe it would take that long just two make three armor sets, even if they have some fancy transformation. We’ve seen far more complex mechanics introduced elsewhere in less time. X__x
Edit: to add to this comment, legendary armor was actually meant to come out with the expansion and with the introduction of Raids. The fact that we’ve had to wait for a year post expansion launch for these sets and the armor still has not come out is kinda disappointing.
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6 Armor sets were released on the gem store.
Aetherblade: June 25, 2013
Phoenix/Magitech/Braham: July 30, 2013
Trickster/Viper/Phalanx: October 29, 2013
Flamekissed/Flamewalker/Flamewrath: November 26, 2013
Zodiac: February 18, 2014
Incarnate/Rampart/Strider: April 15, 2014From August 2012 to April 2014 (release to the last gem store armor set) we got 6 new Gem store Armor sets, that’s ~20 months for 6 sets
And June 2013 to April 2014 is less than a year for 6 sets
To be honest, I don’t agree with the idea of compiling three vastly different armor sets like Viper, Trickster and Phalanx as one armor set. It’s very misleading. I’d see it more as three sets being released at the same time, given their themes and appearances are unique relative to one another.
People are using two different definitions of sets here. The above is using set as one weight and 2 sexes. ANet is using 2 sexes times 3 weights. So you can’t use the gem store example and say 21 sets in X amount of time and compare it to ANet’s explanation of how long to make one set.
Yes, this is true. But I think it’s also misleading for ANet to compare a single outfit to a set of 3 different armors. Even then, I don’t recall them ever actually giving a definitive timeline for how long it takes to develop one outfit, so making comparisons as a whole might be a fruitless endeavor based purely on speculation.
Still, I prefer to compare things in a 1 to 1 basis rather than 3 to 1.
Let’s say they cancelled all outfits and only created gem shop armor. Based on what ANet has said about the difference in what goes into the two, that would probably mean we get maybe one additional armor set/year instead of 5-6 outfits. Those who don’t like that one set are going to have to wait another year for something that they might not like either.
For better or worse, ANet tied themselves into knots with the infrastructure that is used to produce new skins: no dyes on weapons/backs, massive amounts of animation (that has to work with all the other animations going on), make it work with the game’s physics, plus the usual static design (i.e. how it looks when we are playing dress up, mostly standing still).
There isn’t any sort of simple solution that hasn’t already been considered, that will get us more skins more of us like more faster [sic]. ANet just isn’t going to be able to release enough to satisfy our voracious appetite for new looks for our old toons.
I don’t understand why it would only be one set a year, when before outfits were released, we were getting new armor sets far more regularly than that. There’s simply no evidence to insinuate that there would need to be such a long wait between each new armor set release.
To remind people of what armor sets were released on the gem store before outfits took over, here they are:
- Aetherblade Light
- Aetherblade Medium
- Aetherblade Heavy
- Braham’s Armor
- Flamekissed Light
- Flamekissed Medium
- Flamekissed Heavy
- Incarnate Armor
- Krytan Armor
- Magitech Armor
- Phalanx Armor
- Phoenix Armor
- Primeval Armor
- Profane Armor
- Rampart Armor
- Strider’s Armor
- Trickster’s Armor
- Viper’s Armor
- Zodiac Light
- Zodiac Medium
- Zodiac Heavy
That’s 21 different sets. Even if we were to pretend they were all released over the course of the 4 years GW2 has been out, it’s still an armor set every 2 months. When we then consider that a lot of this was released early in the game’s lifespan, it becomes obvious that the long waiting periods people are implying are and were simply a fallacy.
It’s very well to say make more armor however they said it takes 9 months to make one set for 2 sexes and 5 races. How does your suggestion get them out faster than that.
I doubt that outfits significantly compete with armor in production time. Outfits can probably be made by a couple of people who don’t have the specialized knowledge of how to make armor in this game. In other words, the armor team and the outfit team are different and the armor team needs to do and know more.
I wouldn’t personally make too many assumptions about which team makes outfits vs armor, however, I don’t agree with your 9 month development time implications. If it took that much time for a team to make 1 armor set, then how is it that we had so many armor sets at launch? Wouldn’t they have eaten up all the development time and left none for creating the numerous maps, creatures, skills, classes, dungeons and other content? To me it just sounds like an excuse to deliver less quality content than they did before.
We actually used to get armor much more regularly on the gem store before the introduction of outfits, and usually they were released in sets of 3 for each weight. I can assure you there was not a nine month waiting period between each release. In fact, it was much more regular than that (Yes I get that there would be more than one team developing them, but with how regularly they were released before, it does cast a shadow of doubt on the time implications stated).
I actually find the entire argument to be rather suspect, but I am giving ANet the benefit of the doubt here for the sake of being objective. That being said, even if we get one new armor set every 3 months instead of a new outfit every month, I still would prefer that because, as mentioned in my point on variety, that one new armor set would introduce far more options for new looks than even 10 new outfits would.
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Continued…
Counter Arguments
Now, this topic has often come up before, and people have subsequently offered a variety of points to counter the argument for more armor sets vs outfits. I will address some of those here:
1: Outfits can be used or swapped out at any time without needing to worry about transmutation charges!
This, I find, is a very poor argument in the armor vs outfits debate, because it refers to a quality of life issue that can very easily be amended. All ANet would need to do is remove transmutation charges so that armor can be changed at any time just like outfits.
2: Armor costs more time and resources to make!
Yes, this might be true, but it also gives a lot more in return for the time and resources spent, as mentioned in the point about variety. Aside from that though, this argument doesn’t make much sense to me because the game had a LOT of armor sets at launch. Why was it fine to make so many then, yet now suddenly they are considered so costly that seeing one new set in a few months feels like a miracle? Why didn’t they just make outfits from the get go?
3: We already have lots of armor sets! Outfits still need to catch up to their numbers…
I never understood this particular argument. Why do they need to catch up? Why must we get more of an inferior product, just for the sake of matching the numbers of a superior product? Why can’t we have more balance at the very least when it comes to armor vs outfit releases? As mentioned, one armor set introduces vastly more aesthetic options than even multiple outfits can, so I think it is worthwhile to focus on them more than they have been focused on lately.
Closing notes
Just to finish, I want to reiterate again just how much value I see in the introduction of new armor sets, because it cannot be stressed enough. Creating unique characters or coming up with fun new combinations and seeing what others can come up with is part of the charm of playing an MMO, and much of that charm I feel is lost with outfits.
That being said, I am NOT asking for outfits to be removed, or for them to stop being released altogether. I understand that there are certain types of looks that perhaps can only be achieved with outfits and they allow ANet to circumvent a few odd limitations that armor might impose. I just don’t want them to completely undermine the introduction of new armor sets, because to me, variety and customization is more important.
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It’s no secret that for a long time now, ANet has been prioritizing the release of new outfits instead of armor for a variety of reasons, some of which they have stated outright. One of these reasons is that it takes a lot more time and effort to develop armor sets than outfits and so while new armor sets have been scantly given over the past few months/years, outfits see far more regular introductions.
But to be honest, I’d prefer to see us going back more towards the introduction of new armor sets on a regular basis as opposed to outfits, even if it means seeing a decline in outfits and even if it means we wait a bit longer between each addition, and so I decided to give a more in-depth insight as to why I believe this to be the case so that ANet and others can discuss or consider it more thoroughly.
1) More Variety
To put it plainly, because armor pieces can be mixed and matched with other armor sets of the same weight, introducing even just one new armor set effectively gives us THOUSANDS of new possible aesthetic combinations. This simply cannot be overstated (and it may even be said that I’m being modest here)…
Comparatively speaking, introducing a new outfit on the other hand, gives us a grand total of ONE new appearance combination, due to the simple fact that outfits come as a complete set and are completely devoid of the option of mixing and matching, or any other form of customization outside of dyeing them different colours.
This effectively makes the worth of one single armor set equivalent to hundreds of new outfits as far as the introduction of variety is concerned. This is part of why I’d rather see new armor, because the value of one armor set in my opinion far outweighs many outfits.
2) Lack of Customization for Outfits
This essentially leads on from the first point of variety. The problem with outfits is that there’s no real way to customize them to make them feel unique. If you buy an outfit, you are doomed to look the same as any number of other players who have bought the same outfit. You cannot tweak your appearance at all, aside from choosing to either hide or show your head piece.
But this leads to another problem. If there’s a particular part of the outfit you do not like, like the gloves or boots for example, there’s no way for you to tweak, hide or replace them. I have seen a few occasions where a guildy of mine has refused to buy an outfit altogether simply because of one small part on it that they disliked, despite liking the rest of it, a problem that would have been easily absolved if they had the option to replace said parts like they can with armor. Likewise, in many cases players might like a particular part of an outfit that they’d love to incorporate into their armor sets, but they cannot because outfits cannot be pulled apart so that their pieces can be used individually.
3) Outfits = Loss of Identity
Now, I will admit this reason is more personal and very debatable, and thus has a bit less weight to it, but I thought I’d just express my thoughts on it in any case.
The final problem I have with outfits is that they don’t adhere to any class theme or armor weight, and so they can effectively overwrite the identity of a class by introducing aesthetic choices that seem wholly bizarre. Seeing a Mesmer wearing enough plate mail to make a modern battle tank jealous, for example, seems a bit odd to me and it makes me question why armor weights were introduced in the first place if they’d ultimately be rendered moot by outfits.
If that’s the case, why not just let all armor weights be transmogrified with pieces from different weights so people can look however they want? (Yes, I know reasons have been given, such as potential clipping issues, but I don’t agree with those reasons because clipping is an issue that exist even within pieces of the same armor weight and, oddly enough, with some outfits as well).
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Sure, I suppose if you don’t mind your view being blocked by ridiculously huge wings. Who needs to see where they’re going, right…?
I think the cap should remain personally. In fact, I would have said that dailies should not have given achievement points in the first place. All it does is create this unnecessary gap between new players and older players based on the amount of time spent in game, which the new players would never be able to close through any amount of effort or skill (unless the older players stop playing entirely).
We should be rewarding skill itself and encourage the idea of having fun in games overcoming challenges, rather than rewarding players for undertaking menial, boring tasks for a set amount of days/months/years. We already have birthday rewards and titles to show off how long we’ve been playing, and if push comes to shove, they could add titles for specific amounts of hours spent if people are really that desperate to feel important (though that seems a bit overboard to me). But achievements should be just that, something you achieve through skill and effort, not something that lands in your lap simply from logging in every day. All that does is turn gamers into zombies.
On a note about the armor skins you get through achievements, I think that entire system is ludicrous. Imagine you’re a new player coming into the game, you see this nice armor set you want, and then realize you’d need to commit years to getting it at least. As someone who has been playing almost since launch, I still don’t have a full set of Hellfire or Radiant armor, and I’ve done event achievements from LS1 to current, along with seasonal events, dailies and, once upon a time, monthlies as well.
Veterans can harp on about standing out and being noticed for their commitment all they like, but as a veteran myself, I feel sorry for new players and even older veterans who have had less time to play than I have, because they are messed around by a system implemented by people who seem to have forgotten that games are meant to be fun and rewarding experiences for everyone, not just a select minority. It’s even worse now because we don’t get event content as often and so earning achievements has become slower than ever for newer players.
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As a guy in real life, I actually prefer to make male characters over female in MMOs. That’s because I see my characters as a representation of myself in game and so I like to be represented as the gender I actually am (though I do make females when I want to emulate a specific character idea).
That being said, I do understand why a lot of guys like to play as female characters in game, however, I find it sad that some use the excuse “I don’t want to stare at a guy’s a** all day”, etc, to justify it. It seems rather immature to me, and almost gives off the impression that guys in particular are so sexually insecure that they feel the need to project the idea that they can’t stand to look at a male figure without feeling disgusted, as if others would somehow doubt their sexuality if they did not do so.
For me personally, however, I feel that being attracted to females doesn’t mean you have to play as one any more than being attracted to females in real life means you must get a sex change to become one. There’s nothing wrong with being comfortable being a guy and it’s sometimes nice to role play as such in a game, especially when you do meet girls who are also (shock and horror) attracted to guys and find it odd when their boyfriend or husband irl is playing as a girl (lesbian relationships ftw?).
In the end though, people must just play what they like and not feel the need to come up with excuses for it. Lol.
To be honest, Wings of Resolve is fine as is and does not need a buff. It has a good area heal (nearly 4000 hp), condition removal, immobilize removal, is good for mobility, can even leap across gaps (allowing you to make jumps you couldn’t make normally), is a leap finisher and has a relatively shot cooldown for all those benefits (30 seconds untraited and 26 seconds traited).
It’s really hard to justify a buff to it to be honest. X__X
I doubt that they would design guild halls in the old maps, considering you need HoT for them….
You don’t actually need HoT to access guild halls, though you do need it to benefit from all their features.
Hopefully such sounds would only be audible for the user and not for others. It’s already annoying enough when you have a Dreamer user nearby spamming ponies that neigh in such an obnoxiously loud manner, to the point where I often turn my sound down to save myself from it. I wouldn’t want to now hear transformation sounds being spammed everywhere.
The noise pollution in this game is high enough as it is. DX
My guess (and it is just a guess) is they do it for 4 reasons.
1) It reduces the number of armour skins on the gem store at any one time and therefore the claims that there are more armour skins on there than in game (which was never true, there are 21 gem store sets total and 24 just from dungeons).
2) The Style section is kind okittenward to browse because the preview means everything is squashed into one long list, cycling things makes it easier to scroll through everything without forgetting what you’ve seen.
3) It creates ‘artificial scarcity’ – people who might be undecided about buying a particular set will get it while they have the chance rather than risk deciding later they really do want it and then finding they can’t buy it. (And yes the other side of this is that people will try to buy it, find they can’t and lose interest/get something free in game instead, but it’s a proven marketing tactic used in all kinds of situations, apparently it works.)
4) It means they can periodically do big announcements about stuff in the gem store and draw attention to it without their artists etc. having to spend time creating actually new things, which frees them up to work on Living Story, Expansion etc. stuff.
To comment on some of your points:
1) If this is a legit reason, it seems rather silly to me.
2) It makes sense, but they could stand to cycle things a bit faster, rather than having some sets on the gem store for months on end and others missing for equally long periods of time.
3) Creating allure through artificial scarcity only works if you actually bring the item in question back every now and then to capitalize on the desire you’ve created. As you mentioned, people tend to forget about items if too long a period passes where they cannot acquire it. Then they find an alternative, often find it’s better than what they had envisioned originally, and then lose the desire to acquire the gem store armor entirely. Again, this can be alleviated by cycling through items a bit more regularly, keeping a good balance between both sides of the spectrum.
In all honesty, I’m not sure why they insist on removing sets from the gem store for such overwhelmingly long periods of time in the first place. It’s like intentionally reducing the potential sales for a product you technically “always have in stock” (because it is digital).
I’ve been testing scepter with the zealous scepter trait (get 2 stacks of might every time virtue of justice passive procs for 10 seconds while wielding scepter, no internal cooldown). It’s quite easy to get 25 stacks of might with the symbol and the extra free hits it gets on top of it.
Couple that with vulnurability on symbols, symbolic avenger (10% damage boost), Unscathed contender (20% damage boost) and pure of sight (7% – 13% damage boost) and it all adds up to quite a bit. Scepter might end up being a lot stronger than people might have assumed at first sight, especially with more aoe capabilities now mixed in the equation.
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Sword has been reworked! No more projectiles on auto attack! Symbol on Skill 2! Improved Zealot’s defense!
I could cry tears of joy. :’D
Staff line of warding is a bit more complicated 40 sec for somethign that gets ignored very often, is lacks something for the 40sec CD.
The difference between Wave of Wrath and Lind of Warding is that Line of Warding actually does something useful once every 40-32 seconds, and Wave of Wrath is always trash in any serious situation, unless you consider farming trash mobs in WvW to be a “serious situation”.
The one thing that wave of wrath is good for is hitting targets through walls or obstacles. A guardian using a staff can actually do quite a bit of damage though a gate to offenders on the other side, especially if you’re hitting a lot of targets and proc-ing Virtue of Justice (if traited for aoe burning, the stacks add up quite quickly and the damage is good even without condition gear). Have five guardians standing behind a gate and I’m sure you’d give typical ram offense attempts a lot of trouble.
The problem, again, is that these are very niche situations. For the skill to shine, ideal factors are required.
Btw (Q:) does resistance makes player also invunerable to any kind of CC?
EX: players dont have stability and use resistance to get across a line or warding.
Since some classes on gruops are stacking 1minute+ resistance
Resistance stops the effect of any condition while it is active. It doesn’t, however, remove the condition.
So for example, if you are crippled and apply resistance, you’ll move normally until the resistance wears off, whereby you’ll then start to move slowly again. It also won’t stop effects like launches or knockbacks as far as I am aware, because those skills fall under control effects and are not conditions (fear and taunt fall under both control effects and conditions, but because of the latter, they are prevented by resistance).
As for line of warding, it also falls under the “control effect” category because of its knock back effect. It isn’t applying a condition.