Guild Wars 2

Not talking about liquid gold. I feel like I remember seeing a while back that new methods of getting low level crafting materials would be added (other than having low level alts to open stuff on being the best way). I havent really found this other than map rewards.

Since ascended crafting is so important now far various reason, maybe add some salvaging items to the drops from mobs and chests (mostly chests I guess for the sake of them still being a daily reward?) in the different dungeons that specifically give salvaged items tuned to the level of that dungeon, and in higher quantities compared to open world salvage items.

Mallis.4295:

The one to Rule.2593:

What if I told you monetary gain was never the goal of raids? It’s for legendary armor + ascended gear+ skins.

And besides, other than legendary weapons, what else would you really need gold for? This entire game is a skin grind, I don’t know what you were expecting if not different skins and armor that you can freely change the stats on when desired.

This hits the nail on the head. The point of raids isn’t to give monetary rewards. It gives things that you normally acquire with monetary rewards, except these are raid-only and have actual prestige to them unlike legendaries and other garbage skins which you look at and think “wow that guy farmed/bought 3000g”.

completely agree, unfortunately, they also basically removed what, in my opinion, was the biggest non-monetary rewards in fractals ascended chests.

SUGGESTION: Make encryption box tiers. The current version is a “Small encryption box” and would exist just as it does now as tradeable and with the same drop rate. These come from level 1-20 fractals.

Pre-HoT, in a 21-30 fractal, armor chests had a 4.2% chance and weapon was 1.8%. Medium encryption boxes are NOT tradeable. They come from 21-50 fractals. These contain a chance at an ascended chest. The chance at an ascended chest from one of these boxes should cause the number of encryption boxes received from a medium length fractal in the middle of that range (mid 30s) to be approximately 1% for armor and .5% for a weapon. per fractal island. With more boxes given in longer and higher fractals and less in shorter and lower fractals. In this range, T5 materials should also have about a 50% chance of being 3 T6 instead of 5 T5.

Pre-HoT, in a 41-50 fractal, armor chests had a 11.9% chance and weapon was 4.2%. Large encryption boxes are also NOT tradeable. They come from 51-100 fractals. These contain a chance at an ascended chest. The chance at an ascended chest from one of these boxes should cause the number of encryption boxes received from a medium length fractal in the middle of that range (mid 70s) to be approximately 3% for armor and 1% for a weapon per fractal island. With more boxes given in longer and higher fractals and less in shorter and lower fractals. In this range, the 5 T5 materials should always be 3 T6 and should have a chance (10-15%?) of being a lodestone instead.

implimenting encryption boxes in this way 1) adds ascended chests back into fractals and 2) allows ascended chests to easily scale based on fractal length, fractal difficulty level, masteries and any other mechanic that may be added to increase these rewards.

I enjoy fractals as content; I want them to be in a good place; i want them to be long term content that sticks around, is expandeable and is expanded on (though I have other comments on the current structure and whether its really extensible or not). But in order to do that, there needs to be some long term rewards that provide some amount of utility to the player. Skins and minis are great and all, and I will be getting them in the future, but they take a backseat to things that have utility to me, the player. Ascended armor from fractals has utility. It allows me to play a content I enjoy AND, over time, get alts geared up in best stat gear. Aside from currently doing dailies for the legendary backpack and doing some dailies in the future for a ring if I need one, I gain no utility from fractals. And even then, I will just be doing swamps and molten boss because there is little reason to do anything longer.

I had I hopes about the changes to fractals especially when they said that this was going to be the endgame 5 man instanced content. But then they had their rewards neutered as if fractals were also to be disincentivized.

Keys, on the other hand, still seem like an unnecessary mechanic.

SKIP TO HERE The primary reason I and many many others (based on comments both here and reddit) did high level fractals was for the ascended chests.

Fractal encryptions do not contain much meaningful content.

+1s are nice for getting alts into fractals, but why do I need them if the primary rewards for doing the highest levels are either extra boxes (without much meaningful content) or non-eistent (ascended chests)

Comparison of current reward structure vs what was stated
- That major daily reward (chance at ascended) was not moved to the new system in any reasonable sense.
- Longer fractals seem to only give a couple extra +1 infusions and encryption boxes
- Higher level fractals give more fractal relics, just as before, more +1s and more encryption boxes.
- Higher masteries provide more +1s, more encryption boxes and more stabilizing matrices (faster material acquisition or more keys)

None of those things relates to one of the major reasons people did fractals: ascended chests, and they all only seem to increase the less meaningful rewards.

The concept of fractal encryptions I understand (keys I understand a little less). they provide a simple way to have an increased drop rate of a set of items based on a number of different factors like fractal level, mastery level, fractal length etc etc. But the current reward structure fails to make them meaningful and fails to increase the drop chance of the major rewards.

If you dont want to read the background part skip to “Skip to here” or to “Suggestion”

Some time ago when we were told that fractals were going to change from a 4 instance to 1 island system, the question was immediately asked “why would anyone do anything other than swamp”. The answer was dailies and increased end rewards for longer fractals besides the higher rewards for higher level difficulty. I want to take a look at these increased rewards and make some suggestions. This
is the blog post first written to explain the new rewards and this is the relevant statement about increased rewards for longer fractals.

First, aside from the normal blues, greens, yellows and oranges, from the end chest we now receive lots of +1 infusions and fractal encryption boxes. From the dailies we receive daily boxes.

So, whats in these? the daily boxes (the do 3x some level range in particular) were meant to replace the daily reward chest given at the end of a full pre-HoT fractal run with additional rewards added. We know that is contains the following: Contains a Pristine Fractal Relic, 10 +1 Agony Infusions, a Tome of Knowledge, 3 Fractal Encryption Keys, and a Stabilizing Matrix. and has a chance at an ascended ring. However, based on the blog post were were told that they would have the chance at ascended equipment and ascended rings. However, the chances# at rings have dropped significantly and the chance at a chest is nearly non existent. Further, the daily chests, which should be containing the major reward (ascended chests) does not receive a drop rate increase at any point between 51-100.

Whats in the encryptions? based on the blog post we were to see, among other things, “These encryptions may give you a new Mini Professor Mew, new ascended aquatic-breather recipes, high-level crafting materials, or many other rewards.” Not counting any cost for keys since some can be gained through the dailies, we do see the mini and the aquabreather recipes (this is a good addition). However, “High level crafting materials” have translated to T5 fine materials which are now almost vender trash based on the TP prices. “Many other rewards” has been implimented as an extremely slim chance at an aetherized weapon skin and a wide variety of actual vender trash averaging 16.7silver per box, and more +1 infusions.

One of the Fractal masteries states that you will receive increased rewards from your daily fractal chests. This sounds great, except that, in my experience and based on the wiki, the only thing that really changes is, again, the number of +1 infusions (I think) and stabilizing matrices. another states increased rewards from the end chests which has appeared to only mean, again, more +1s and more encryption boxes.

I would be all for either another wallet tab for these things or even an extra ingame unlock that gives you a slot in individual character an inventory section just for keys like material storage in the bank.

definitely depends on the class and the content. Hammer on my scrapper is definitely a power weapon and has some nice stuns and things that make the new maps easier, but high level fractals and probably raids will want me taking a viper pistol/pistol condi build.

Dear ANet, a I know its a pvp lobby, but a breakbar golem would be great. Let it mimic a fractal boss.

Also, guild hall indestructible golems would be incredible.

ZachAttack.3957:

That Guy.5704:

There is a hidden participation bar only really revealed through data mining (and it needs to be exposed in the UI honestly). your participation through events works like a pvp reward track. you get some amount of credit per event (and per type of event?). you then get the different items spread evenly over the track, the cheapest item lots of times, the 2nd cheapest less, and so on, just like how pvp tracks are structured.

Look here for an idea. Whether they are still structured exactly like this post release, I have no idea, but it should show you whats actually going on. https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/3gjs8g/datamining_hot_map_reward_tracks/

If it is structured, I am seriously doubting that the rewards are based on price. I got more giant eyes from mount maelstrom last week than glacial lodestones, and eyes are more than 6x the cost of glacial lodestones. And if you are referring to vendor price, that sounds even less likely.

No, they are probably not based on price, that was a bit of an oversimplification to get the concept across, maybe its item rarity, maybe its the scarcity level ANet desires, I dont know, point remains, you get 1 item alot, one less, one less than that etc.

Lemondish.3268:

…

I disagree on a few of your points, but where we do agree it tends to be the exact same feedback the developers have heard since BWE3. Gyros do not follow well enough. …

This (all of the post, not just the quote) is where I am at when them. If I am in scrapper, I am running hammer, if I am running hammer, I am mostly in melee, if I am in melee, blast doesnt need to track the target. I can go blast gyro +hammer 5-> 3 and take huge chunks out of breakbars.

However, yes, the pathing still needs to be worked on. sneak (or all defensive gyros, heal, sneak and bulwark) needs to pulse itself swiftness as I still outrun it when I have swiftness and it barely keeps up when using mechalegs, I will get ahead of it as soon as it hits a rock. I honestly think that, since gyros are supposed to be “hovering” anyway, they should be able to hop up a step as high as a character could jump up.

The only actual skill I dont have much use for as of now is the sneak toolbelt in pve. Have it also apply a new 3 second aura to the player that blinds when struck or something.

mov.1246:

One word to describe this hammer: AWESOME
Where do u got the Dredge Lesson on Metalcraft from?

If a dev reads this, this needs a “Hint:” in the tooltip. something about a massive dredge mine in a mountain or something. That would narrow it down from the entire game to a handful of places.

There is a hidden participation bar only really revealed through data mining (and it needs to be exposed in the UI honestly). your participation through events works like a pvp reward track. you get some amount of credit per event (and per type of event?). you then get the different items spread evenly over the track, the cheapest item lots of times, the 2nd cheapest less, and so on, just like how pvp tracks are structured.

Look here for an idea. Whether they are still structured exactly like this post release, I have no idea, but it should show you whats actually going on. https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/3gjs8g/datamining_hot_map_reward_tracks/

miljac.4295:

Encryption boxes always drop high value junk items, from 10s to 5g. The money isn’t gone, it’s just slightly randomized now. A full run of 3/4 fractals usually now gives out way more than before hot

but the average is still low. https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/dungeons/1000-Fractal-Encryption-Result/first

from what I have seen you are getting a 1 gold trash item from the 51+ dailies, and something like 50s and 20s from the journeyman and adept respectively. Prior to HoT, you, I think, received 1 gold per set of 4. Now, add in fractal encryptions using just the keys you had drop and you come out a little ahead on the Master dailies, you might break even compared to pre-xpac on the journeyman levels, but be behind on the adept. In other words, all that really seems to have happened was liquid gold moved from adept to master fractals.

did it last night (probably in the same map as some of the other posters). Guy in LFG said “we are pushing for T4 VB” So, I joined, there was some minor amount of map chat going on and we finished smoothly with a few minutes of extra champs and airship supply gathering while waiting for the final chest. Overall pretty smooth. Dont know if there were some commanders on TS or not, but there was never any mention of that.

^ that, and I think I can assume the material from the other hall doesnt get deposited either.

lorddarkflare.9186:

Systemic changes:
-1/2 of whirl finisher projectiles should home.
-All Gyro detonations should be unique skills
-Gyros should have a VERY aggressive leash
-Final Salvo needs an HGH-type buff.
-Stabilization core should apply to all Gyros, should be AoE, but have 1/2 to 2/3 duration reduction.

Gyro Changes:
-Sneak: Good. Toolbelt could be less PvP-centric I though.
-Medic: Good. Needs condi removal. Should scale better than HT if healing power.
-Bulwark: Good. Toolbelt could use a lower recharge.

-Purge: Needs a complete redesign. Toolbelt as well. One of them should be good.
-Shredder: Needs additional functionality. Toolbelt is very good.
-Blast: Needs complete redesign. Toolbelt is functional, but redundant.

I wish medic had a little longer uptime. This should be one in particular that begins its cooldown on spawn.

When running hammer, I find blast is good in group content for breakbars. blast +hammer 5→3 destroys almost any break bar in the fractals I have done so far with a hammer (still need an ascended hammer) without others needing to contribute (which, yes, they should be doing), also, blast could be a blast finisher.

bluesnacks.2301:

My sneak gyro has been following me exceptionally well lately

It does very well on flat terrain, I have found I often need to wait for it on any terrain that varies. snowblind fractal, many places in the new map, etc. the pathing needs some work. Imo, thematically, since it is “hovering”, gyros, at least the sneak gyro, needs to be able to go “jump” up terrain that players can, and should be able to “fall off” terrain as well.

EDIT: I would also like a echo the desire for a pve toolbelt for sneak gyro.

under your achievements section in the hero panel, click “fractals of the mists” and then hit “fractal dailies”. this is where the various personal chests come from.

My primary reason for doing fractals has always been the ascended chests. while I wasnt at level 50 reward level for too long before the expansion, those chests were a great incentive to both level up my reward level and engage in the content. I enjoy the content itself, but those chests were, again a primary incentive.

Since the expansion, drop rate of those chests has been awful, I am in a guild that will have at the very least 1 party running 51+ dailies every day. I feel confident saying at least 60 champion chests of the mists were earned since launch, and I dont recall anyone saying they have gotten a champion chest. Besides that, xp rates are low for the time spent, mobs seem to drop far less and the liquid gold that was to be moved from dungeons to fractals is missing. That said, I never payed attention to the liquid gold from fractals, it was always about getting ascended chests, the gold was a bonus.

The following is, based on the new encryptions, keys, etc, and prior drop rates# what I would have expected loot tables to look like.

A champion chest of the mists has a set of guaranteed items. Often, there is nothing more than that, however, aside from those items, I think there should be a 100% chance to receive another item on a loot table that may look something like this (lowered numbers compared to pre-expac are due to fewer fractals per daily chest, though, of course, I would have preferred the same rates)

• 45%: a ring of some kind, almost all infused
• 3.4%: ascended weapon box.
• 10%: ascended armor
• 9%: fractal skin
• .1%: fractal tonic
• 5%: golden fractal relic
• 2.5%: golden fractal skin
  - new to the list?
• 10%: bonus 10 stabalizing matrices
• 10%: Tome of mastery, consumed on acquire, grants either 5 spirit shards or 75k xp toward masteries if you are currently training a mastery.

This comes to 95%, I am leaving 5% for any items I dont know about

Now there are the fractal encryptions which have also proven to be very lackluster

If the trash from these items were to replace the liquid gold from dungeons, their values should all be doubled. Granted, I dont know what liquid gold raids may bring, I understand the economic need for keeping liquid gold in check, and I, personally, dont mind getting loot items over liquid gold, but as it stands the other rewards in the encryption boxes just arent worth much either.

T5 materials, these drop everywhere, the TP price of all but the blood is currently around 40 copper each, and that is HIGHER than middle last week when they were barely above 30c. They arent worth the cost of the spirit shard to upgrade them, and there isnt a decent use for them at the moment as far as I am aware except the old, make/forge or sell rares, ie TP Wars. Unless there is a use for all these lower tier fine materials coming with raids and legendary armor, they are going to become vender trash. Suggestion: for the encryptions, instead of 5 T5, make that 2-3 T6 or 1 lodestone.

The other items currently in there are fine.

Some additions that may be nice

Mystic coins.
Mystic salvage kit maybe
ascended salvage kit
20 slot box claim ticket (from a vender somewhere, various versions of 20 slot bags to choose from)
spirit shards
unidentified dye
black lion key
some more fractal bosses as minis

been what, 10 days since release? have probably had 60-75 mist champion (or whatever they were called for the 51+ dailies) earned in my guild in that time. as far as I know, no one has seen an ascended chest. Prior to the patch, there was about a 12% chance of armor and 4% chance of a weapon. I know 60 isnt a huge sample size by any means, but, even if the chests were nerfed by 25% ( to compensate for 3 instances instead of 4), I would still have expected to see a half dozen chests, 1 or 2 at the very least if we were really unlucky.

I do enjoy running fractals for the sake of the content, but one of the primary reasons I did them regularly was for the ascended chests. Once I get the legendary backpiece and the silver fractal skins from the vender, I dont really see a reason to continue in doing them.

They said they wanted to make fractals their primary 5 man endgame content, and thats great. I didnt expect a reward nerf, particularly after they talked about moving liquid gold from dungeons to fractals, which hasnt happened either. A reward adjustment based on number of instances per daily reward chest I can understand, but it has seemingly gone much farther than that.

RSLongK.8961:

Ok, but from where specifically?
the daily box?
the new “fractal/encryption needs a key” box?
from boss directly.

i am confused with the garbage being thrown latelly.

this is what I am wondering as ascended chests was one of my primary motivations for doing fractals and was, prior to the patch a large part of the overall value (not marketable value but still) of a lvl 50 fractal run. Prior to the launch, lvl 50s had about a 12% chance at armor and 4% chance at a weapon box. Has this drop chance been replaced? I would expect about a 9% chance and 3% chance respectively from 51+ daily fractal chests (3 instances not 4)

Also, if a dev somehow reads this, any chance at changing the almost useless T5 materials in encryptions to T6? it would make these boxes and thus fractals more worthwhile.

Being able to hold the mouse button and throw grenades or mortars is great. As I recall, there are 3 options for ground targeted skills: default, click to activate click to cast; fast cast with ground targeting, and instant. For most ground targeted skills (everything that is not your auto attack), my personal preference is fast cast with the target, it lets me adjust aiming a little if needed prior to releasing the button.

However, this means that, with action camera every cast of the #1 skill on grenades or mortar requires a single click. If I change the ground targeted skills to “instant”, I am able to press and hold 1 in order to continuously cast auto attacks, which is great, but I lose my target on that and ALL other ground targeted skills.

Is it possible to allow press and hold functionality on auto attacks when the fast cast with target targeting option? or is this already possible somewhere and I am just missing it.

I understand the need to change te reward structure for dungeons. I have felt for a long time that the amount of pure liquid gold pumped into the economy per dungeon path was too high. I was happy to see how silverwastes was structured in that it gave materials, including bags which could have their materials tuned based on the player’s needs by specifically opening on x level character, which could be used by the player or sold for gold. While I dont think the chest farm is quite a healthy thing, overall silverwastes was a step in the right direction.

Please note, the following is written even though I know that the developers seem to want to pretend dungeons are obsolete and dont plan on doing anything with them aside from, apparently, nerfing their rewards so that those gold generation sources may be moved elsewhere.

Dungeons dont need an outright nerf; dungeons need a rebalance in their reward structure away from gold and toward other things. For instance, nerf the ending gold as of now you get 1.31 gold per normal dungeon path (with some exceptions of course), lets move that to, say, 50 silver total. Now, rework the structure in a couple ways.

1) increase the drop rate of cores and lodestones where it makes sense. Golems/inquest across all dungeons should have a chance (and higher than current)at charged cores and lodestones. Destroyers in all dungeons, destroyer cores and lodestones. All flame legion and effigies should have (or have a higher chance) of dropping molten cores/lodestones. Undead should have a chance (or higher chance) of giant eyes. As a few examples.

2) Further, We have dungeon armor and weapon skins, add in some unique skins that drop in the dungeon itself. In CoE add in some drops for a shoulder or backpack skin based on the things that are coming out of Subject Alpha that drops from subject alpha. Add a subject alpha mask as a head piece. Add a mini essence of alpha ooze drop. In Ascalon Catacombs, give a unique drop to the cave troll, add a mini ghost eater to the ghost eater’s loot table and maybe a mini ectoplasmic ooze as well for example

3) We have recipes for amulets that drop from the last boss, how about recipes for actual unique skins from the last boss that use the different offerings.

4) Furthermore, you could add a chance (50% or so) for a Bag of Wondrous Goods, to drop a new crafting item (call them artifacts for now) specific to each dungeon. This item could be used in the above weapon recipes and, perhaps, also be used in a forge recipe like this to turn a regular exotic item into an ascended item with the same skin:

1 Dungeon weapon
75 artifacts
1 ascended crafted item (made of 1 deldrimore steel, 1 spirit wood plank in the case of a weapon and 1 offering from the specific dungeon)
1 anthology of heroes

dungeons should be rewarding and content should not be disincentivized, but I do agree that the current reward structure with the heavy emphasis on gold generation should be altered.

Order of events, happens frequently, is repeatable but not 100%.

1) doubleclick salvage kit
2) click rare item
3) kit disappears from inventory at the same time the confirm dialog opens
4) item is salvaged, kit is missing, but the mouse cursor is still in salvage mode (in other words, I havent run out of charges)

This has happened a few times to me and only after the patch that reactivated the salvage kits after a confirm dialog.

This seems to happen most often when the item is the LAST rare/exotic salvagable item in my inventory. That said, my normal order to salvage is all things I would use a basic kit for, then moving to rares, so its possible it wouldnt happen were it the last salvagable piece of gear.

As a further test, and the reason I specifically mention gear, this happened in one instance and I had some raw ambrite sitting in my inventory, salvaging one of those made the salvage kit reappear in my inventory., but it doesnt seem to happen in the middle of salvaging multiple rares, though I may have just missed it.

Channel Pillar.

WP said something about the torches in a video and it gave me an idea, provide an interactable that has a channel time, either multiple items with different channel times or a single item where channel time can be chosen. Allows games where you have to get to the other side of the arena and activate 1 or more interactables to win the match without them being toggled off by your opponents.

Flag

For obvious reasons, capture the flag. Give a bundle that has a couple skills attached to it, personal swiftness, aegis and rooted invuln OR, grants the holder a break bar. Successful CC or breaking the break bar causes the flag to be dropped.

Nike.2631:

I’m actually holding off on filling in mission hero points on my 80s… so that after HoT hits I’ll have the double motivation of getting the HPs and getting easy XP towards the core masteries. I kinda want auto-loot.

and those nice little map event reward bonuses. Some arent much, but some maps are silver doubloons, T6, lodestones and things like that.

I’m new to using the API and, obviously then, to this sub. Has it been suggested before to expose daily time locked tasks for a given account? By this I mean dungeons’ bonus bouncy chest, world boss bonus rare bouncy chest, timegated crafting as examples. Reason being is that players in some timezones, east coast for instance, would be playing in the time 2 hrs before and 2 hrs after daily reset. Its easy to see ingame whether you have crafted a certain recipe by simply going to the crafting station, but theres no way to tell if you have completed a certain dungeon during that gw2 day before or after reset the previous calendar day.

So, does this mean that ANYTHING with a break bar is going to now essentially be immune to the actual effects of things like slow, chill, blind etc? There were things in the beta that were just normal or vet ranking but had a break bar (punishers I think they were call as well as some mounted things). Those should be affected by the individual effects of these conditions. Slow, chill and weakness at the very least.

I am going to agree with Spoj on this one. By making these things simply breakbar fodder, we are negating and essentially trashing mechanics that can be used in boss fights. We are tossing out the potential to have mechanics for which we need the effects of these conditions as counters. Sure, there will probably be trash mob encounters (things that arent legendary rank) where things like this are useful, and thats great.

I also think that categorizing CC as hard and soft CC isnt the proper way to do that and the divisions are causing some over generalizations.

What we have is total mitigation, partial mitigation of varying degrees and effects.

Total mitigation is anything that can be used as an interrupt: stun, knockback/down, daze, fear etc.

partial mitigation would be blind (especially if an attack is broken up into multiple smaller ones), weakness, chill, slow Some of these are stronger than others.

effects would be immobilize and cripple. These do not stop or slow down damage dealt as long as what you are fighting is in range.

Total mitigation should go to a break bar when a break bar phase is active (I will get to that distinctions). Blind, maybe. but I feel the others should allow their effects to go through, perhaps even at reduced effectiveness (not at reduced time) when applied to legendary rank enemies. (with some exceptions, of course, doing this to tequatl would be silly). This should open up some control over the boss as well as open the door for mechanics that are best countered by slow, chill, cripple, immob, and things like that.

EDIT: I also feel that the break bar’s current implementation especially on enemies ranked lower than even champion is a bit unfortunate. When we first heard about breakbars I envisioned a scenario where things functioned like normal until the enemy was getting ready for a big devastating hit. Unfortunately, from what I saw and what is currently the prevailing understanding as seen in the wiki, CC of any kind ONLY affects enemies with a break bar when the breakbar phase is active (goes green) other than that, these enemies are simply immune to CC of any kind. I feel like breakbars should be more difficult to break but only block CC, especially soft CC if it must block those, during this big attack windup time. That said, the scaling in the beta was weird, when scaled up sometimes, like on elites and champs, the breakbars never dipped below 50-60% before it was killed making it a non-mechanic, in other cases like the wyvern, the breakbar was so easy to break, it was, again, a non-mechanic.

tl;dr, I feel that causing “soft cc” to be eaten by a break bar is negating all these soft-cc’s and thus either artificially limiting the potential boss encounters have by simply removing counters to possible mechanics OR it will make encounters artificially harder (but less engaging) by removing a set of tools players have within the encounter.

AlphatheWhite.9351:

It gives the mesmer a place in support…which is good.
If alacrity happens to be too powerful specifically because icebow is powerful, doesn’t that say more about icebow than alacrity?
Also, having a mesmer means having 1 less icebow.

I am not denying anything about it helping out mesmer. I am glad it does in fact. My point was actually about what is says about icebow exactly like you said.

What I dont want them to do in the future is to nerf alacrity because of how it interacts with 1 or a couple specific skills elsewhere in the game that are themselves too powerful

all these changes look great for a chronomancer. One thing I am seeing though, is that alacrity is even better for elementalist in pve(if there was any question about its power before anyway). a chronomancer that can get 9 seconds of alacrity up (illusionary avenger + well of recall traited with “all’s well…”) puts icebow 4 on an 8.33 second cooldown. Maybe thats too long and it will still get dropped after going icebow 4 -> 3, but it still has the potential to even further increase its power.

just want to second another person that auras should stack in duration when an aura is applied that you already have.

Warning, comments from a non-thief. Basically I played this as a daredevil in itself, not as someone who plays a thief.

I felt the staff was a little underwhelming on the damage side as a whole, minus vault. I put together a dodge endurance build for DD and found things just took forever to kill, I didnt feel like staff was doing acceptable damage overall until I went full dps traits and made an ascended staff (besides the zerker gear, ascended trinkets and scholar runes).

For vault, I would agree with an evade in there somewhere. Probably at the beginning for 2 reasons. As someone mentioned, so that the damage could have been interrupted and so that it can be used as an evade as well. Putting the evade at the end means anticipating longer before incoming damage and would feel different than other evades.

I wanted to use distracting daggers, but they just didnt feel like they were working for me. I would arm them, but then felt I needed to go ahead and use them or else I would drop them on the floor or something like they were slippery. I feel like it should either act like a mantra that has an infinite time limit on them until used. Or, though it would probably take some different tech, remove the equipping time and have all 3 charges each have separate 25 second cooldowns. So, you can spam them but have to wait for them all to be back up, or you can essentially cast 1 every 8.33 seconds.

Now, will evasive empowerment work with pulmonary impact from palm strike? can I fist flurry → palm strike → dodge and expect a 10% boost on pulmonary impact?

Does bandit’s defense currently block for the full duration or does it perform the knockdown as soon as it you have been hit? as it is only a 1 second block anyway, if it does not currently block for the full duration and only then activate reflexive strike, I believe that it should do so.

In pve (I dont know what the balance would look like in pvp with the following change), I found myself not bothering with finishing blow because of the long cast time. I used the first 2 in the chain often, especially with the various ranged mobs, then would go to a vault instead of finishing blow. It has a cast time now 2x that of vault now, its on a 40 second cooldown and does damage around 40% less. What if it was given a damage bonus to disabled (not downed) foes? so if you land impact strike or uppercut on the same target and its not eaten by a breakbar or stability, you get a damage bonus on that long cast time.

Gaile Gray.6029:

Thanks to all of you who are posting solid, substantial feedback or even just a few thoughts on the subject. The thing I particularly like is that you’re sharing constructive ideas and suggestions that the team can use in the future to offer improved events.

Thanks, and please continue to share if you have other ideas!

Honestly Gaile, many of us commenting on this thread are doing so because we know the caliber of stuff that the devs are capable of and, especially now, we want to see new players experiencing that so that the game can grow. We know that if they see some awesome stuff they will want to stick around and I hope to see some of that stuff roll out in more live bonus events. ….I also hope to see these blooms reused in future events so I can get some of the things at the merchant that I know I will not be able to get this time around :P……just throwing that out there.

In addition to my post, I want to mention that I am worried about this event for new players, especially the free players as this is their first big event and are interacting with the community in a very different way. Something along the lines of my post which essentially is just a spin on silverwastes anyway, might have resulted in commanders at each one, large numebrs of players organizing and cooperating more or less spontaneously across a map wide meta event all for a common goal. Something like that would have been amazing to see for a brand new player and would have been a great place for guilds to get together and maybe run a control point as a guild. As it is, its a zergfest where even taking the time to communicate your next waypoint could means that you dont get your tag on an event in. it is really unfortunate as I really thought this would be a great place to show new and free placers just what the devs are capable of and just what kind of large scale organization is possible in this kind of game. unfortunately, the implementation has brought out the most selfish play styles.

here is a description along the lines of what I expected to see as an example

Around each map there are 5 spots chosen that are traditionally friendly areas of some kind or may not be, but the groups that are normally hostile ally themselves temporarily to fight off mordremoth. 3 of the ones in Diessa might be Village of Butcher’s block, Redreave Mill and Town of Nageling as an example. Bulliyak kitten nal might be an example of a normally hostile area but the flame legion ally themselves for the event. Their respective waypoints would be contested thoughout the event unless ALL mordrem in the area of that event are dead (this would happen if you were able to defeat every mordrem before the next wave spawns.

At each point there is a large capture ring around it like any of the many defend/capture events around the world. At the start of the event, the players own the area. Every 2 minutes or so, a wave of mordrem attack. 1 wave consists of 6 groups coming from 1 of 2 sides. each group consists of 1 “planter” (get to that in a second) 1 champion, 2 elites, 3 vets and 3 vet menders. All of these should have hit points well above what the ones in the current event do. All of these have a chance to drop a blossom (25% chance?). These spawns will be happening at the edge of the capture ring.

These groups are escorting the planters into the center of the capture area and the planters have extra high hitpoints, have defiance, but dont attack. each wave has 2 types of planters chosen between troll, thrasher, terragriff and husk. 3 of the groups are escorting one type while 3 are another. consecutive waves will not have the same type.
During these spawns, the same vines from this event with the same mechanics (though with mechanics scaled down a little) can appear on the edge of the capture area and toss some extra mordrem into the center of the area. These extra mordrem should be considered a part of the vine and have no drops themselves, but the vine can allow blossom drops. In these groups hitpoints scale, numbers do not.

If 2 of the same type make it to the center of the control point, damage against them is heavily reduced and they begin a 10 second channeling process together, but gain a break bar. if the channel is broken, they will become vulnerable for some time (15 seconds?) and try again unless 1 is killed. If the channel is not broken, it will summon a legendary version of the type doing the summoning. Basically it drops in the legendary from silverwastes.

Once the legendary spawns, new incoming waves stop until the legendary is killed. The legendary doesnt drop anything. Once the legendary is within the area, it is considered to be occupied by mordremoth.

this event has map rewards based on the number of map wide waves completed (remember waves stop when a legend spawns) and a multiplier (10% bonus?) per control point that is occupied by players rather than mordremoth ie, no legendary.
If, at the end of the 30 minute event, all 5 points on the map are controlled by players, a bonus 5 minute event begins where breachers (the big worm guys from verdant brink) come out of the ground at each control point. A bonus map wide reward is given based on the number of breachers killed.

Differences (hopefully what this design would encourage/provides) individual rewards encourage participation, map rewards encourage splitting and cooperation. fewer locations with contested waypoints encourages staying in one place but split and provides a bigger sense of urgency if you cant just port to the same spot. The legendary without a reward and the breacher encourages successful completion (over failing for a better reward) of the whole map meta event rather than zerging at one place for individual rewards.

vince.5937:

That Guy.5704:

vince.5937:

This is why I put in a disclaimer that I’m a full Carrion necro, not something built for toughness or reflect. However, I also feel that having to burn both of my dodges to avoid the Snipers is a bit harsh. All of the other things in my setup that I can use to negate projectiles (such as Death’s Charge) take long enough to cast that the sniper’s already landed a good chunk of his volley on me, and it hits hard enough to really make the fight a pain.

EDIT: Really? Censoring kitten -n-a-l?

Yea, I do understand that, like I said though, I think a part of the issue is in the necro itself not the design of the sniper or even your build. lack of options for this kind of thing, long cast times or close range requirements. These issues then necessitate a double dodge. I ran around with a tempest most of the weekend and by the end, all I found I needed to do for a sniper was either icebow 5 or magnetic aura which a tempest has 3 sources of (if traited for it). my main (engineer) I will probably run a pistol shield in the new maps for the block and daze. Run in with a shield 4 reflect and then knock down when I get close. I could go on with other classes, necro just needs some reflect/CC to feel ok in this map. I played reaper for a little while and readily admit I havent done much with a necro in the base game and so had little experienc with it anyway, but I went back to playing either an ele or revenant after not too long.

Luckily Robert Gee posted somewhere about looking into the axe and scepter for reaper and as I remember one think he mentioned was either a block or reflect.

Ideally I’d like Death’s Charge to not spin you so far forward. If it wasn’t such a high-mobility skill in a low-mobility area I’d happily have swapped to Shroud to spin my scythe and block that attack. Unfortunately, there are about 2 major land masses in Brink that don’t lead to a cliffside death if you use Death’s Charge.

hmm, maybe the suggestion here is to make death’s charge stop progressing forward if you reach your target? If you could death’s charge in place when on top of your target, it would be a nice damage boost for necro too (even though reaper seemed to have pretty decent damage in shroud).

over the weekend not even playing the beta the whole time I was even online, and spending some time just climbing, not to mention bugged events that didnt complete, I got 1 gliding, 2 itzel and 1/2 nuhoch levels. I dont think thats too slow at all especially since they are account bound.

vince.5937:

This is why I put in a disclaimer that I’m a full Carrion necro, not something built for toughness or reflect. However, I also feel that having to burn both of my dodges to avoid the Snipers is a bit harsh. All of the other things in my setup that I can use to negate projectiles (such as Death’s Charge) take long enough to cast that the sniper’s already landed a good chunk of his volley on me, and it hits hard enough to really make the fight a pain.

EDIT: Really? Censoring kitten -n-a-l?

Yea, I do understand that, like I said though, I think a part of the issue is in the necro itself not the design of the sniper or even your build. lack of options for this kind of thing, long cast times or close range requirements. These issues then necessitate a double dodge. I ran around with a tempest most of the weekend and by the end, all I found I needed to do for a sniper was either icebow 5 or magnetic aura which a tempest has 3 sources of (if traited for it). my main (engineer) I will probably run a pistol shield in the new maps for the block and daze. Run in with a shield 4 reflect and then knock down when I get close. I could go on with other classes, necro just needs some reflect/CC to feel ok in this map. I played reaper for a little while and readily admit I havent done much with a necro in the base game and so had little experienc with it anyway, but I went back to playing either an ele or revenant after not too long.

Luckily Robert Gee posted somewhere about looking into the axe and scepter for reaper and as I remember one think he mentioned was either a block or reflect.

yea, the wyvern at the end of the itzel event didnt scale in this beta. The last test it scaled up and had much more health and such and made for a more interesting fight. but yea this time it stayed at its base level without scaling.

I felt mobs were designed in such a way as to not allow you to just run through and not care about aggro but instead make you pay attention and learn their mechanics.

Snipers typically came 1 in a group, they really hurt but have low hp. a reflect devastates them and a knockdown or stun usually gives you enough time to get in range and burst them down. Unfortunately, every class has a reflect of some kind except for necro (and thief’s is on the elite), and necro doesnt have much for a long range CC, though it has some mid range CC. I probably would have been either running spectral grasp (a pull is an interrupt) or flesh golem for the knockdown. This, i feel, is an issue with necro and not with the mobs themselves.

Similarly with pocket raptors, once you figure out how to deal with them on a given class, they arent that bad.

Map Rewards

• These were a little confusing. To the point where I had to actually test them in order to figure out basic mechanics and even now I dont feel like I have a good understanding of what is going on. The tooltip on the map says “Next reward”, however, paying very close attention to what I received, I only got the “next reward” about every other time. If the “next” event does not give the “next” reward, it should be stated as the “next” reward.

• There also seemed to be a “primary” or “common” reward (usually fine material) and a “secondary” or “rare” reward. I am unsure if the selection for the next event was random or on a set rotation. If they are on a set rotation, then it would be nice to simply have them in progressive order on the popup. Perhaps, rather than being every other event (if thats what it is and if thats what it needs to be), there is always a reward of some kind and the “basic” reward is a cloth, leather or metal based on that map’s level. It definitely felt less rewarding then it could have simply because it seemed like a bit of a tossup as to whether I would even get a reward at all for the next event.

• I couldnt know what the next reward was without opening the map up and checking the popup. It would be nice if this were marked somewhere. maybe put a single line box at the top right of the screen in the objectives section of the ui or put the same icon and hover-over popup somewhere on the minimap’s menu.

• Similarly, I didnt know if I had received a map reward unless I payed close attention to the right side of the screen where rewards scroll down. The icon for the rewards would do well to be on the event medal you click.

• Seeing things like silver doubloons on the map was encouraging, but because they were in brisban, there was often times where I was waypointing around looking for events. Events in some areas, especially lower level ones, can be too sparse in events and makes this kind of system actually highlight the fact that it is lower on events and that can be frustrating. I understand that everyone is working on the expansion, but it might be worth it to gradually fill in some more events into some of these areas. Perhaps not in one giant lump, because that could take alot of dev time, but having 1 or 2 events or an event chain be rolled in to some of these areas ever few patches as time permits. Other ideas would be 1) to simply widen the range in which normal events are highlighted on your mini map/main map 2) put event starter indicators (little circle/star icon) on the world map without a range 3) there are sometimes npcs that call you for help and then point you in the direction of an event that is actually happening. These have no icon, maybe have an exclamation point like GW1.

Difficulty

• This was good, various mobs were more difficult then we have generally seen yet. The snipers have some pretty low health which is a good way to balance their really high attack. My glass ele didnt have enough def/hp to eat a full rapid fire channel, but a magnetic aura destroyed the sniper.

• The smokescales are a bit of a pain (but thats not a bad thing). However, it seemed sometimes they were still perma evading while they were just walking and I dont think I was being blinded either so something there might need to be looked at.

• In some events, we scaled them up to spawn champs and champs had a break bar, thats fine. but the break bar scaled so far that an icebow 4 that the champ walked out of did more to the HP bar than an icebow 5 did to the break bar. I saw revenant hammer #5s go down and multiple taunt chains on champs and the breakbar just laughed. It basically became the old 100 stacks of defiance non-mechanic. A look at the higher level of breakbar scaling might be in order as well.

• Overall, though, the types of mobs and their mechanics forced me to learn which mobs were which, know their attacks, know what to focus, figure out strategies, think before I engage and look through all my utilities in the open world. All these are positives. Before, I would have a “mapping” build on most characters that focused utilities on passives (signets) and movement abilities. Having to find combat utilities in open world was a good change. There was one particluar time where me and 2 othre people went to run across a path and there was a vet smokescale and a regular one blocking the path and something happened I hadnt ever seen in a level 80 area: we all stopped. It might be nice to have some kind of short range “say chat” style targetting that people nearby can see even if they arent in your party.

Day/Night

• Night felt like a different map. But I think it felt too disconnected from the day events. This wasnt as much the case in the south where we were escorting Laranthir, but it certainly was in the north where we mostly just ran around with frogs. I feel like the day and night, though it should have a different feel, the theme should be a bit more connected. I also feel like there were too many rally points. I think it would allow for more interesting mechanics if there were fewer rally points and harder assault phases. I made another post about this topic here https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/hot/Number-of-mobs-at-night-time/first#post5367394.

Masteries

• Masteries acquisition felt like it was in a decent place. The xp required scaled up as you progressed within a certain mastery line. It should certainly take some time to max things out.

• This feels like a good framework within which to work in the future. Players will be looking for new masteries for new abilities with living story updates, but you dont want to run into a situation 5 years in the future where there are 50 mastery lines with 10 masteries each as soon as a person gets to 80. It will just be way too cluttered. Mastery tiers could progress this without being a huge content dump when you first hit 80 but giving players who have unlocked alot something else to unlock. Maybe maxing out both itzel and nuhoch lines (tier 1 lines) unlock a little story instance where some high ranking itzel and nuhoch together take you into some secret area and grants you access to a whole new mastery line (a tier 2 line) about further jungle exploration.

Dark Saviour.9410:

As I said elsewhere, I’d prefer the current defend events be replaced with much larger, longer ones that have multiple mechanics and a large base rather than a couple of useless barricades that you just circle-camp and fight in. Each at a structure more akin to the Silverwastes forts, but larger and better would be ideal, but at least something that feels suited to a long onslaught. And I’d have the scale of the attack and ‘style’ vary by night (Full army vs. ‘tactical’ strikes, etc).

Elsewhere, I’d slim down the mobs on the ‘standard paths’ significantly. As you deviate from them, density could increase, but I’d say just have more dangerous types of mobs instead (IE: Smokescales and Raptors pack it in for the night because something worse shows up).
Maybe on certain nights, Mordrem ambushes become more of a thing as well. Add some intelligence to it, so a Mordrem will stay stealthed and keep away from the fray if 10 or so people are in the area, but will attack if a straggler is left behind.

yea, I agree with this. Just in the area we had available, there were what, 6-7 rally points? (some said unavailable while some said contested at the start of the night phase, I dont really know which is which and how you make some available). Thats too many for what should feel like troops gathering and bunkering down for the night. Also, at one rally point we got supplies back and got to level 3? i think and one npc or popup text said they were building turrets….there were no turrets and if there were, they didnt do anything.

If there are going to be even more rally points farther out in the jungle, then with the full map available we are going to end up with a situation where players and npcs are spread very thin.

Night should be fewer rallys and more organized/difficult assaults and I think that would make for a more engaging series of events.

Maybe the events could progress something like this:

Daybreak starts off just like it does now

15 minutes before night fall should be when the main events in the area are wrapping up instead of right before nightfall. During this time, the pact forces begin setting up camp and players escort primary figures (Laranthir for instance) around the area, gathering troops and end the escort at say one of 2 primary rally points in the area (the “area” being what we played so far). These rally points are larger, have stronger fortifications and some heavier defenses but only because we have rallied some troops together into the same area during the day instead of leaving everyone spread all over the place, like a good little commander should.

Other of the current rally points could have a few npcs holding out against mordrem, and we can go and get them all (3-4 or 5?) and bring them back to one of the primary points instead of trying to defend a bunch of little points all around.

Of course, during night fall, this will mean people are more congregated, so, assaults should be harder and more organized with a back/mid/front line setup. Snipers/slingers (like in silverwastes) on the back line for instance, trolls and menders mid and melee in front, but also mortars/arrow carts inside the defenses maybe some cannons somewhere like in WvW for players to use. allow vines to tunnel under the walls but nothing else can actually get inside unless the walls are broken. Make some of the escort npcs classed as “engineers” and rather than giving a defense upgrade tier, improve something different. One engineer increases siege damage while another adds 50% to wall hit points no matter what tier the defenses are at.

its either a troll or a sniper. I found, particularly in a really glassy build, that the rapid fire from snipers was long enough to not be mitigated by a single dodge. However, their HP is low enough that a reflect on one rapid fire would kill them very fast (didnt take the full channel). As a test I ran up to one on my tempest, popped a magnetic aura and didnt touch it with any attacks and it killed itself in about 4 hits.

How they designed the mobs and their layout in the new area force you to be aware of which kind of mobs are in front of you, decide your strategy before engaging and pick a target to focus. Its a good step forward.

Arcadio.6875:

If they have new islands in this expansion, they can put it in the 1-100 schedule. They can introduce levels past 100 with new islands and mistlock instabilities in the future. I don’t really see much of a problem with that. By the time they get up to that point, the fractals community will have been in at level 100 for some time just like how we’re 50 now.

Of course they will probably introduce some new way of getting new people from 1-100 super fast lol.

I know they can add any new ones into the new 1-100 system. Thats not what my question was about. it was about future expandability. As it is currently described, yes thats what they would have to do. It just seems like, were they to introduce new islands later, they would want the fractal system to widen with their introduction, not simply add on on top.

Klazmaunt.2591:

Huge fan of the fractal weapon box. Nothing worse then FINALLY seeing a skin pop up, only for it to be one you already have.

One day, Fractal Greatsword….one day.

Got my first and only skin a few weeks ago……it was the spear….

the fact that fractals will provide a legendary backpiece in no way means legendary back pieces will not be available elsewhere. In fact, I expect other sources of stat swappable backpieces to show up. If not, then that is an issue.

if its just the skin you want but dont want to participate in fractals to get, well, its a skin based on completion of content. I think that is a good thing.

I have a question about the new fractal schedule. The end of the blog post states the following:

“…we view fractals as our infinitely expandable, endgame version of 5-man dungeon content, and while we will be continuing to discuss fractals in future……This is instead a way for us to continue to expand the content and rewards for fractals.”

However, it was stated in the post (and better on subsequent posts on reddit and in the forums), that the different “islands” (swap, cliffside, jade maw, etc) would be tied to specific levels and, thus, specific mistlocks. If, for instance, F1 (fractal level 1), is ALWAYS swamp and F2 is ALWAYS cliffside, and F3-F100 are ALWAYS the same island per level, how is that expandable for new islands? This seems like a massive development headache. either all levels will have to be rearranged, shifted, etc every time a new island is added, new islands will ONLY be available above 100, or new islands arent actually in the future for fractals and its therefore not going to have an expansion of content.

I am not trying to complain or to propose anything at the moment, I am just wondering what I am missing because this system doesnt actually seem too expandable.

whiteflower.9425:

Im pretty upset, I did level 50 after reset, did level 38 now and didnt get my daily chest.

This is still a recurrent bug.

Fix it.

well, this is a major necroed thread, but what is your personal reward level. if your level is 35 for instance and you do a level 50, then you only get credit for for doing a 31-40. a 38 also counts as 31-40. If you are level 50 and you do a level 38 then that also counts as a 31-40, but doing a 50 then would count as a 50.

You may understand all that already, but just making sure that your issue doesnt fall under this.

I have seen a decent number of people asking for the tablet to follow them almost like a ranger spirit used to. I thought about this too, but in the end, I dont think a simple follow is a good idea. There were actually a few times when I didnt want the tablet to be right on top of me. The thrasher champ at vinewrath is a great example of this. I placed it over the champ and popped the bubble up and left it there while I was running around doing staying out of poison range. There are quite a few other instances around the game where a blocking bubble is a great advantage and where you are not actually in the bubble. Similarly, if this is meant to be a support legend, you may want to send it over to a party member and help them out for a minute. If it was just following, then that would not work. Further, if you just have the tablet follow you around all the time, then the entire tablet is pointless anyway and all the skills should just be cast on yourself and the object should just be deleted.

I would rather see something like following you at the current desummon distance if you move out of that range, OR, follow you at pet distance if you have been out of combat for 5-10 seconds or something, OR, being given options for a command stance (current functionality) and a follow stance (follows like a pet). But, I really think that the commanding movement around the battlefield area during combat needs to be preserved.