Guild Wars 2

I’m deeply against that change which is a big design mistake.

Recent politics shown a will to increase rewards : participation rewards, and skirmishes rewards. And those were a good thing, and an incentive for players, new or old, to come back. The queues in BL’s since skirmishes rewards have been aired are a neat evidence of this.
Now, rewards are tied to participation, and the message of this change is : you’ll have a harder time to get participation. Which means : you’ll have a harder time to get rewards. As someone stated : keeping participation high won’t be a pleasure, it will be a chore. Of course, WvW should be played for itself, but it’s obvious that the game mode isn’t attractive enough for itself to keep players going.
I’ll add on that first idea that new players already have a hard time gaining skirmishes pips, and that change will put back their head in the mud, which is a strong turndown for new blood.

Now, as a lot above stated, it’s also a turndown for parts of the gamemode itself : scouting, roaming, and in a nutshell, the whole small scale scene will be struck hard by this change. Even attacking a defended keep will be a risk ! There’re also other situations where the change is bad :

1. Just imagine the oddities of matchups provides you with a strong domination over the two others. You go to home BL because that’s the only one available. It’s mostly your colour. You can switch map because of queues. You’re doomed, and you just leave and do something else.
2. You’re a somehow new player in WvW that doesn’t know how to play well, and enjoys doing small stuff like sentries and camps. You go outside of spawn, you take a camp, you run a bit, you’re ganked. By the time you reach another objective without being ganked, you’re back to zero. You won’t probably go back to WvW anytime soon.

There’s no need to be paranoid or have an especially twisted mind to imagine a bunch of players will recognize themselves in such scenarios. And I’m sure there’re a lot of others ! Yet I also recall devs stated they wanted players to actively play the game. If playing what the game has to offer in several not-so-rare situations is that unrewarding that it’s just isn’t worth bothering, players shall go do something else.

So my conclusion is : considering how much those changes may impair the participation gains for new players, there’re very strong odds that all the new blood that came because of skirmishes chests may just drop WvW for good, and I don’t think that’s desirable.

On a side not on the gank topic. I think it’d be a good idea to give a player 5mn participation decay, should he get damaged by an enemy player (directly or through siege).
It’s already frustrating enough to be killed, and if a kill means losing time hence participation reset, it adds to the frustration. Death is a punition in itself, having to run back is enough. It’s not a matter of l2p or “git gud”. It’s a fight : one loses, one wins. The losing part may have done its best, and deserves a little something for that.
I also underline the reset should be on damage, and not on kill, because I can foresee gangs of trolls just downing other players to make them waste time, and I really don’t want that to happen. That would also solve the case of spawn camping.

What kind of nonsense is that change ? The decay timer is now insane ! There’s no point in roaming, no point in scouting or defending. There aren’t enough actions that prevent the timer from falling down, let alone improving it.

Just by the time you run to a point, maybe engage in a fight and lose, and have to run again, you’re losing far too much ! There’s no serious way to keep participation up when you play small scale, and it has to be tweaked !

Or put such an insane timer only for people having the “invulnerable” buff one gets at spawn. That would make sense and be fine.

It’s always been that way. Actually, as long as the toxic blossom is here, 3 events (bombs, mortars and golem) will follow each other in an attempt to take it down.

I’d really appreciate wardrobe sorting by source.

In its current state, wardrobe sorts by item type (armor piece, weapon type) and it’s now become quite a mess. Here’s a suggestion :

Level 0 : Armor
Level 1 : Armor piece (as it currently is)
Now adding Level 2 with :

• Dungeon
• Karma
• Craftable
• Drops only
• Game-mode specific
• BLTC

Maybe I forgot some sources, but that’s the general idea. It could work the same for weapons.

Thanks everyone for all the feedback and positive thoughts ! It’s really nice from you to take some time to help me.

I’m currently giving a try to some signets. Some things turn out in a satisfactory way.
I’ll also get rid of geomancy sigils, maybe in favor of a sigil of malice, or maybe blight…

I’m keeping the stat change for a later and deeper revamp, because I’m reluctant wasting my nightmare runes.

Thanks again !

Hello ! Thanks for your nice video ! It’s always interesting to see what players have found. I just have a little request : can you post here the typical sequence you’re using ? I have some trouble following what you’re saying (I’m not a native english speaker) and as skills are used in a short amount of time…

Well, ok. I’m just a lazy quaggan ! But I’d really appreciate you to write down some examples

As Sviel stated, the first purpose of towers was to control access to some areas with walls and barricades. If you didn’t own the towers, you had to walk around them, i.e. take the long way. That wasn’t impossible of course, and took far less work than getting the barricade down on your own.

I also think, but I’m really not sure about it, that towers were intended to get the waypoints, instead of keeps.

Anyway, these ideas had their own logic which can be argued upon. Unfortunately, as that logic was impairing the k-train’s movement, it’s been broadly despised, and they were removed, letting the towers in their current state.

I think that they could get back some interest if towers connected each other through a teleporting system NE-NW-SW-SE-NE etc. As the devs put this idea in keep’s shrines, it has very few odds to appear, though.

Thanks for your detailed answer !

Hello !

We’ve all seen people AFK-ing at spawn or elsewhere, gently waiting for their participation to go down to zero. Out of prime time, they’re mostly no harm, but when servers are queued, it can be troublesome. Even for them, having to wait 15-20 mn isn’t really enjoyable.

That’s why I’m suggesting a bail out option, allowing a player to instantly gain participation and pips he’d get, should he stay at spawn till it drops to 0, at the expense of an unability to go back to WvW for an equivalent amount of time.

It could be a button next to the “leave the mists” option in the UI. When clicked :

• the sytem calculates the time needed to reach 0. It’s easy, considering the decay rates.
• then it evaluates the number of ticks that’d happen in that time interval
• then it checks the forseen participation at each of those ticks
• it eventually adds all the appropriate pips and participation.

Once the player is out of the Mists, he can’t get back in for the same amount of time, with the “buttons not available”, just like the way it works when you’re in combat.

narcx.3570:

No… When things say they are triggered by a Heal Skill, it means your #6-slot-heal-ability, not any ability that heals you.

Maniac Persistence and Demonic Defiance due combo though, assuming they are both off cooldown.

You probably misunderstood me. Empowering Misery is Mallyx’s 6-skill. Regular healing skill.

Now, if everything is off cooldown, here’re the events that are bound to happen :

• Get resistance
• Self apply torment
• Recieve bonus healing because you have torment on you
• Remove torment because of rune.

Now, in which order does all of this work ?

Hello folks,

I’ve recently been considering using Superior runes of nature’s bounty and I’ve got a question concerning its work with Mallyx’s Empowering Misery : in which order are effects applied ?

Indeed, Empowering Misery adds a bonus healing for conditions, but the rune will remove one of them, so is it removed before the bonus healing ? Or do you first get the bonus healing, and then one condi removed ?

The wiki gives no answer for that, so I thought I’d ask here…

Addition : and while we’re at it, a trickier one : if you also use Maniacal persistance alongside Demonic Defiance how does all of this work ?

Thanks everyone for the feedback !

zealex.9410:

Dire and traib are both defensive stat sets if would be brolen if you had the same preasure with this much added survivability. The stat sets are already too strong imo.

That does not answer my question. I can’t help but to tell a little bit more about the situation. I used to have a mostly exotic set, with rabid and viper. When I happened to be able to craft an ascended set, I decided to go full dire/trailblazer, because I’m reading to nausea on the forums that those stats are “oh so powerful”, or “ez mode”. I wanted to give it a try, and that’s honestly wrong. I don’t feel dragged by them at all, otherwise, I wouldn’t be here.

Cyninja.2954:

It might very well be both.

The switch of gear will have taken a big chunk of offensive stats away for more tankiness.

You’ve lost significant amounts of precision (from rabid) and power (from viper) in favor of only expertise (which in a wvw roaming build can be useful but loses to condi cleanse). You’ve gained mostly defensive stats which is quite useful, if you were having a hard time surviving.

Going by what you said your build worked for you, meaning you did not suffer any significant survival issues. Exchanging more survival for less burst might very well hurt your roaming capability.

I indeed feel so. It’s a sad biais in this game that the most of your survivability comes from being able to end the fight fast (either by winning or running away). I didn’t have that many issues given a fairly high toughness (rabid), cleanses (inspiration) and the usual mesmer mobility and decoys. I’ll try to put back more offensive stats.

Cyninja.2954:

Looking at your utilities, Mirror Images could maybe be exchanged for SoD for some extra condition damage (since you have 0 direct damage now) and an on demand stun.

I might also exchange Phantasmal Disenchater. You have Restorative Illusions which should cover you condition cleanse wise, maybe exchange that for Signet of Illusions for more burst or Signet of Midnight for the condition duration and on demand blind (for synergy with Inemptitude).

I’ll try to put signets as you suggested, eventhough I’ve never been fond of them (in any class). I had those summons in order to keep shatter pressure. Mirror images was also a fair stun breaker. Disenchanter’s first purpose wasn’t to cleanse me. It’s mainly a low CD summon, and the boon breaker thing is useful too. I often switched to defender too.

eldenbri.1059:

Since I get into a fair number of outnumbered fights, I need pretty high survivability.

To get more burst in my condi attacks, I used balthazar runes to extend burn duration. Then the burst sequence is to do prestige and iMage twice using continuum split. That can get somewhere around 10 – 14 burn stacks. If I do that correctly, it takes about 20 seconds to kill all the camp guards (if they are grouped together).

This is a little video I made to illustrate. https://youtu.be/Fa1vwgpnZdU

It’s not the same burst you get from power attacks, but it might be a good tradeoff.

Thanks for the idea. I’m sorry I’m not so fond about it, because I don’t remember efficiently burst sequences (and I’m a bit clumsy).

babazhook.6805:

Bigpapasmurf.5623:

Just came from WvW and there was at least 80% encounters that had condi builds (most running in groups) from 1 server (real skill right?). Get yo troll hide outta here.

This not what I see at all on HOD. I saw a swing to Condi builds for a short time on the servers we faced and now it more Power builds again.

I think the balance healthy. I also think persons with a bias towards a certain build have them register on them more readily when they encounter the same and fail. 5 power guys running in group is not all that unusual either but a person that plays power is not as likely to run to the boards and complain about power builds if they die to such a group in 3 seconds.

I am not speaking to you in particular. This just a general observation.

Thanks for your answer. I was beginning to think I lived in another dimension, since I rarely see any condi user in my small scale encounters. Mesmer and thieves all switched to power. Only some necros still play condis…

Hello !

I run a condi mesmer mostly for roaming. Here’s my current build with some inconsistencies due to using stuff that I formerly had.

Anyway, I used to have a more mixed stats gear (viper and rabid), and I recently switched to full dire/trailblazer, much to my disappointement actually. I’m not sure whether it’s the loss of the direct damage part, or if it’s the illusionary reversion nerf (my bet on that one), but I’m not so happy with it anymore

I’m lacking a lot of pressure, since I can’t add stacks that much. The high durability is nice for some duels, but I feel utterly ridiculous when I see the time I need to take a camp… (I’m far faster with other classes, power or condis). I may switch to more trailblazer trinkets, but I’m not sure it’d help.

Any advices ?

Roughly, when attacks are sufficiently close to another, the damage tick just raises, instead of having several damage ticks. My opinion is : spear 2 provides fast paced attacks, and impossible odds speeds everything up as well. So the “over 90000” thing is the overall damage built up in several “spear 2 casts”, written in only one tick.

Jackpot !

On one hand, I agree with the fact that every tower + keep lord, Lykesh and that Earth lord put aside are huge CC spammers. Typical ANet design : nerf stability for players and roughly at the same time, enforce mechanics that require tremendous amounts of stability to be countered. A bit of toning down would be nice, and it’s a good thing to me.

On the other hand, ABL lords are mere punching bag with no specificity altogether (every tower lord is the same, e.g.) and no use against anyone. As aphrma said, the lord can be really helpful for outmanned defenders.

ThunderPanda.1872:

Question:

1. How do you maintain participation by afking in game? Please teach $$$$$$

Strictly, you can’t. Yet, it often happens that after say, 1 hour of gaming, that you’ve reached max participation. It then only takes some little tasks here and there to keep your participation high, and so you can wait for significant amount of time at spawn, instead of running all around.
It still needs some commitment to watch participation not drop, and go do some chores from time to ime, that’s why I don’t really call that AFK-ing.

ThunderPanda.1872:

2. How do maps stay outnumbered if a lot of people move to the map because someone told everyone that a map is outnumbered?

It just cannot, and that’s why it upsets me a lot. I don’t specifically play or aim for outnumbered buff, yet I enjoy getting it when I feel a bit alone in a map. That’s why I think people mass jumping to “my” map and make everyone including me lose the buff. Not only do they lose it, and they had it coming and only have themselves to blame, but I also lose it, and it’s not deserved.

SpellOfIniquity.1780:

I appreciate/recognize when someone is better than me or when I’ve made crucial mistakes but those kinds of fights are getting fewer and further between. Both with the people I fight and with myself as well, there are just so many times where either I win and I shouldn’t have or my opponent wins and they shouldn’t have because of mechanics.

As someone who only plays small scale, I perfectly relate to that.
Depending on whom I’m playing at a given moment, I know there’re fights that I can engage and when I lose, I end up saying “should better’ve done that”. These are the exception.

Unfortunately, there also are encounters which I don’t even try. Because I know, just from the profession, some skills, food and utility, that I’ll be helpless. Not because of skill, but because of perma evades, perma invulns, or perma stuns. In a nutshell : mechanics that allow the opposite player to play as if my chair was empty and I was afk brewing some tea. Of course, the set of encounters varies upon the toon I’m playing, but as I can change toon on the fly…

That said, some may argue it’s mechanics, and it’s balance : you can’t kill anyone with every toon. Some encounters have to be harder than others, there’re natural enemies, etc. I agree with that. To me, issue is : natural enemies aren’t skilled players or smart tactics in that game. Natural enemies are mechanics favoring a one-sided fight, and eventually making me feel helpless.

Red Haired Savage.5430:

ThomasC.1056:

I found worse ! Some other day, we had a T3 keep that was under attack by a small pack of people. When the scout called for help in the /t, the local comm (who wasn’t giving a skritt about the attack, btw) yelled in the /t : “Please, don’t come and help, or we’ll lose the outmanned buff !”.
Aformentionned comm was actually running more or less alone, and tagged up just for the +1 extra pip’.

Isn’t that great ?

You wouldn’t have happened to be on a certain blue bl, and the t3 keep was bay was it?

Nope, that wasn’t me.

I’m not sure whether I should feel relieved or more terrified by this, though.

Just tried tequatl : the dragon spawns, and several minutes later, everyone gets kicked to character selection screen.
We come back, some where they were, some at the entrance of the map, and some in LA, then Tequatl spawns again 2 minutes later.

4 times in a row…. And maybe more, but I didn’t want to stay and watch that boat sink.

Zaxares.5419:

It is remarkable, yes. But it’s also causing a lot of unhealthy gameplay styles, such as people constantly hopping from one map to another (and causing a great deal of frustration to players who have been valiantly defending their patch on an outnumbered map), or players who just build up participation and then go hide in a corner somewhere, occasionally venturing out to kill a dolyak or camp guard to keep their participation up. This, in turn, also contributes to the problem of queues, probably more so on big servers, because these servers can’t get Outnumbered anyway due to being so stacked, and so more players are forced to just idle in maps in order to get the necessary pips for their rewards.

I found worse ! Some other day, we had a T3 keep that was under attack by a small pack of people. When the scout called for help in the /t, the local comm (who wasn’t giving a skritt about the attack, btw) yelled in the /t : “Please, don’t come and help, or we’ll lose the outmanned buff !”.
Aformentionned comm was actually running more or less alone, and tagged up just for the +1 extra pip’.

Isn’t that great ?

OriOri.8724:

ThomasC.1056:

Hello folks !

I’m opening this thread to share a fear thought about next elite specs.

As you may now, we should get a new X-Pack soon™ which will come along with new elite specs to unlock. Currently, WvW players can unlock them by spending Proof of heroics on notarized scrolls of Heroics. It currently costs 250 proofs of heroics to fully unlock an elite spec.

Since HoT came some times ago, and the new skirmish rewards are now giving a significant amount of Proofs, I think unlocking the next set of elite specs is not too much of a worry for dedicated players (it costs 2250 PoH to unlock the nine of them).

Yet, I’m somehow afraid that, with that in mind, ANet comes with a way to make the unlocking more of a hassle, either by introducing a new currency, or by changing the conversion rate from 1 PoH = 1 Hero Point to something less profitable. It wouldn’t be the first time they do such things in ordre to “make the new content more desirable”.

So, my wish is ANet must not follow that road, and keep things as they currently are on the topic of unlocking elite specs with proofs of heroics.

Any thoughts on this ? Am I too anxious ?

You’re worried that you might not be able to instantly unlock the new elite specs? Jesus, why is it so far out there for you to have to play the game after the expansion comes out in order to purchase the next expansions elite specs?

My worries are of course not that extreme !

When HoT came out, there was somehow a “collision” because new contents was to be enjoyed with old builds, and new elite-specs builds didn’t have that much new content to enjoy. I’m still mixed-feeling about all this, because in the next xpac, the excitation for new things will come from new PvE stuff and new skills/specs. The thing is : if you don’t have content to use the new skills, then what’s the purpose of them ? Then again, I’m over-exaggerating, because you can always do some old content, but …

That’s very different from other X-Packs of other games, which were more like the revenant introducing. I buy the X-Pack, I start the rev, and I can insta lvl 80 with tomes. What’s wrong with that ? In GW1, I bought Nightfall, and I ran a Paragon. Insta new stuff. Yet, elite specs should be somehow gated ? I’m not saying it’s bad. I’m just saying I’m perplex.

Specifically for the case of players not wanting to set foot in PvE, I think making a new currency would be stupid, because it’d time gate new stuff without other justification than hype reasons. Now, in my case, I’ll enjoy the PvE stuff, and unlock things at the pace they come.

Hello folks !

I’m opening this thread to share a fear thought about next elite specs.

As you may now, we should get a new X-Pack soon™ which will come along with new elite specs to unlock. Currently, WvW players can unlock them by spending Proof of heroics on notarized scrolls of Heroics. It currently costs 250 proofs of heroics to fully unlock an elite spec.

Since HoT came some times ago, and the new skirmish rewards are now giving a significant amount of Proofs, I think unlocking the next set of elite specs is not too much of a worry for dedicated players (it costs 2250 PoH to unlock the nine of them).

Yet, I’m somehow afraid that, with that in mind, ANet comes with a way to make the unlocking more of a hassle, either by introducing a new currency, or by changing the conversion rate from 1 PoH = 1 Hero Point to something less profitable. It wouldn’t be the first time they do such things in ordre to “make the new content more desirable”.

So, my wish is ANet must not follow that road, and keep things as they currently are on the topic of unlocking elite specs with proofs of heroics.

Any thoughts on this ? Am I too anxious ?

I have some male toons, human and sylvaris, light and heavy armor. In a nutshell : tons of light armors are pajamas, and tons of heavy armors are fridges. This is an absolute pity.

Moreover, specifically for sylvaris, there’s a specific unexpected distorsion of shoulder, arms and maybe leg pieces that’s a real shame considering sylvari and humans are roughly the same size… Anyway, it makes a lot of gear unusable on sylvaris because of that.

I’m all for more revealing designs, from the sexier mesmer, to the barbaric warrior ! That note about the wasted sylvari glow is also true.

TLDR : give copper salvage o’matic abilities to standard merchant.

Long version :
As many players, I get tons of useless green and blue stuff from doing various metas and I end up recycling them. So, I go to a “standard merchant” (the ones that sell salvage kits), I salvage from my inventory, then I sell junk, then I buy a new salvage kit, then I salvage from my inventory, then I sell junk, etc.

The idea is : give merchants a tab where the merchant offers to recycle our stuff, with the same price and capabilities than a copper-fed salvage o’matic. It’d cost roughly the same (and if not, adjust prices), and I could do everything from the merchant UI, instead of having to buy another basic kit whose 25 charges will be used in a split second.

I’ll go for direct craft : you can buy all the reciepes, and marauder set uses “standard” ascended things, and not “improved” HoT damask patches, so transmutation would be a waste of ectos and mats.

It’s indeed weird. Usually, it’s 2-handed > 1-handed > off-hand only.

Good luck having an answer on this.

I agree with that suggestion.
It’d incitate players to “stay till the end”.

Right now, I’m 90% sure I won’t be able to make it to the end of my last chest, and the associated tickets. This week was terrible, and we’re going to lose the matchup, we’ve been rolled over the whole time… Knowing that I can play on reset day and get some tickets would incitate me to stay a little more for that specific reward. Otherwise, I could just go do something else, wait for reset, and come back.

The outnumbered buff feels indeed in a bad place to me too. Theoretically, it’s good, but it tends to undesirable behaviours.

I’m not for the reset participation on map switch. Even if reaching T3 is easy, it’d put a strong weight on the tracked rewards which may still be a thing for some people. Moreover, it’d make an incentive not to switch maps at help calls.

My suggestions on that matter are:

• Either get the outnumbered pips granted only if the player stays on the outnumbered map for more than, say, 75% of skirmish time. It of course requires the map to be outnumbered at least 75% of the time… It wouldn’t prevent AFK, but it’d prevent hopping.
• Or get “bonus” pips for each X WXP or Y Participation gained while the outnumbered buff was up, and those bonus pips are added at next tick. I’d rather count both, because some things reward WXP and not participation, or participation and not WXP.

On the AFK topic, I can understand players who are at max participation and waiting for it to drop before leaving. For that situation, I suggest a “bail out” option that’d calculate the rewards tracks and pips gains made if the player was to stay AFK till participation drops to 0. It’s not a very hard calculus. Then the gains would be awarded, the player gets back to LA, and can’t get back in WvW for, say, the next 30 minutes. Or if we allow a player to come back, participation is frozen to 0 for the next 30 minutes.

For people just doing small stuff to keep participation high, and then go back AFK-ing at spawn, I’d add an “as long as you’re as spawn, your participation counts as 0” thing. It’d force them out, and therefore make them vulnerable. Higher risk may imply they participate more. Otherwise, have a faster decay at spawn. It can be associated with the invulnerable boon there.

The usual overused “condi issue” put aside, I feel like the sudden influx of new players shifted the meta. I only play small scale, there’re encounters everywhere, and I’ve been seeing more and more power-stunlock builds the last two weeks.

Even power mesmers are now being a thing. So, anyone else has this feeling the new meta fashion is shifting ?

Calculations put aside,

• What is the chance to drop an ascended weapon box in roughly 2 months ?
• Is it possible to craft an ascended weapon with 2 hours a day PvE farm for 2 months ?
• What proportion of PvE newcomers already are able or willing to farm to craft their weapons the old way ?

Don’t get me wrong : I’m glad new players are coming. I truly am, even if queues bother me. I hope some newcomers will find WvW fun, and will stay [strike]in spite of[/strike] not only for the rewards. All that ruckus from tuesday was a nice bait, and now that fresh blood is here, I wish it to stay.

The issue is : if the ascended things seem as elusive as a mirage, players coming for them will just go “it’s not worth it”, and the population will decline again. The pace will need to be high, because new things come in PvE every 2-3 months. And an X-Pac is on its way, with probable new skins and new stats. Playing WvW for ascended gear acquisition will need to be competitive with new PvE content, and that’s why it has to come as a reasonably enjoyable and fast way to get some.

That said, 1 to 2 months for an essentially beginning player seems fine to me.

I did the maths on the following basis :

• I’m aiming for a mistforged weapon, so 350 tickets. It’s one of the most expensive thing there is.
• I’m considering a bronze player, in the last-of-the-skirmish server
• Playtime is 2 hours a day.
• I’m not counting the time required to get the tier 3 participation.

I’m therefore counting the slower pace : 2 pips/skirmish.

At this pace :

• 25 tickets are earned a week.
• It can go to 45 if the player manages to reach the silver chest (doable, it’s only 3 hours more than my calculations).
• It therefore takes between 8 and 14 weeks to get an ascended weapon.

Now, I’m calculating the fastest pace for the same player : I’m therefore adding loyalty bonus and outnumbered bonus. It makes 8 pips/skirmish.

At that pace, that player can finish diamond rank in the week, therefore winning 175 tickets. It’d take 2 weeks of luck to be able to buy one weapon.

All in all : it looks like a bronze player in the ever-losing server, dedicated enough to give 2 hours a day to WvW would be able to get enough tickets for a weapon in roughly 2 months.

Hello !

Thanks a lot for that update and sorry for your loss.

As some did, I’d like to point the new ascended materials made for WvW ascended gear, that should go in the ascended collection as well.

I’m going with Seiken on that topic.
I play in daytime (no prime), and mostly on DBL. So let’s just say that I’m almost always playing outnumbered. Yet, just before the tick, outnumbered vanishes, and it comes back afterwards.

I’m going to the same conclusion : players are expecting DBL to be empty, and thus have the outnumbered bonus, stack in the map for tick, and remove the outnumbered bonus.

I think the bonus should be a “bonus granted for next tick” thing, instead of based on current map status. Like, if you played more than, say 75% of the skirmish outnumbered, then you gain the outnumbered +5 bonus for next tick only.

SlippyCheeze.5483:

thefiresoflurve.5691:

Auto-shared Pact Crowbars/Exalted Keys/etc would be awesome. Honestly not too hard to hit up a bank and shift them between characters, but it’s annoying.

Shared Inventory Slots work for this just fine, and items will be used directly from them.

They do. The only issue about that is any new key you get won’t go in the shared inventory slot, but use a new one. It’s a minor annoyance though.

Oh, and they’re really expensive too :p

EremiteAngel.9765:

In medieval times, large empires used signal towers placed at strategic locations within their empire’s large expanse of land to provide early warnings against any enemy incursions. When a soldier in the tower spots an enemy from far, he would light a bonfire and the smoke would be seen by other towers down the line and they would start lighting their bonfires too all the way back to the main garrison to alert the commander.

Would it be viable to have such signal/scout towers in WvW? If yes,

• Where should they be positioned? Somewhere away from the main roads so enemies have to detour a distance to take it?
• How strong should the structure be should an enemy force try to take it? And if they do take it, the enemy will not be allowed to hold the structure unless they leave players stationed in it. Allied players can still re-occupy the tower without having to force their way in if there are no enemies stationed in it.
• Should it provide a wider field of vision to the player that is stationed in the tower?
• Should there be a limit to the number of players allowed into the tower?
• Should we remove cross borderlands team-chat and make this option available only to the scouts that are stationed in these towers?

The impossibility to use /t or /m is meh, even if I understand the logic.

That said, the idea is interesting, and here’re some mechanics ideas.

• I see it as a deployable siege weapon, an expensive one, deploying the tower.
• It wouldn’t take too much room if it’s designed like an asura console on the ground, with a levitating platform (the same as in earth shrines)
• Only one player could go in it, like a golem. While inside, the player is “invulnerable” till the tower is destroyed (and then the player just pops out, with part of his health removed)
• The tower provides a wider field of vision, and a farther detection range.
• Skill 1 would be a ranged AoE thing that places enemies within radius under the “marked” status (like sentries or watchtowers) for 2 mn
• WvW rank points would allow for the radius to be bigger, and for the skill 1 to also reveal stealth enemies (and mark them), for less health loss when the tower is destroyed, or mark also applies vulnerability thing.

Something like this could be an interesting addition for scouts.

Honestly, the main reason you may want to go there are the story and farming stuff.

Each of these maps has its own currency (rubies, jade shards etc.) with which you can buy ascended trinkets with selectable stats, at the expense of a little farming.

There aren’t any dynamic events like SW or HoT’s map, even if there’re some champions. Yet they’re not that much interesting for loot. Maybe Doric Lake is the most interesting events-wise (in terms of frequency).

I’m not sure those maps are now heavily populated, and you’ll see that Frostbite frontier is mostly full of AFK farmers…

Good luck !

Vavume.8065:

McKenna Berdrow.2759:

The weapons will be on the vendor as well.

As well as what? where else will they be available? I’m talking about Mistforged weapons btw, not the hero weapons from reward tracks.

Probably the ascended armor.

A silly question with a maybe obvious answer : mistforged weapons remain of exotic rarity, or are they upgraded ascended ?

I’m deeply for that idea of unlocking stats for a given weapons or armor set. That’d be so much better to save space, and time, and above all : try new things without thinking : “I’d gladly try those stats, but I’ll have to sell one of my kidneys.”

mulzi.8273:

Bunter.3795:

-Snip-

Good Summary. I’d also like to add how damage is applied in both Zerk and Condi. In Zerk, most of the high damage skills, with a few exceptions, are applied in close range. In Condi, most of the damage is applied from range and worse, most of the AoE is condi.

This fosters a different play style for condi where you can safely bomb from a distance and run around like a chicken with your head cut off letting your dots do their work. In most cases, you don’t even need to target your opponent as you can just Aoe large areas and it will usually hit. Whereas in Zerk, you have to actively engage your target consistently to do damage.

When you take this ‘feature’ with the mechanisms Bunter described where condi does not need to sacrifice survivability for max damage like Zerk has too, you end up with a very lazy play style. Low Risk, High Reward = Condi. High Risk, High Reward=Zerk.

And human nature has folks gravitating to the Highest reward with the least amount of risk. Hence the lazy condi world we now live in.

I agree with both these answers, which leads to me to the conclusion that condition damage is actually in a good place. The issue is more that power damage is underperforming, hence the need to rely on heavy DPS, food, buffs, bursts, and stunlocks.

I also agree with :

Well condi can be countered… hardcountered and softcountered, as opposed to DPS

Meta builds do not bring

• condi cleanses,
• resistance,
• trooper runes,
• generosity and purity sigils sigils
• condition duration removal food (sweet bean buns anyone?)
• condition duration removal runes (melandru? hoelbrak, antitoxin…. it was a thing in WvW?)
• plague signet and condition transference (necro’s?)
• light fields and blast, whirl and projectiles?
  and
• => CONDITION CLEANSE SKILLS <=

All of this is also true, but why don’t players use them ? Why don’t players use knight, cavalier, sentinel or cleric’s stats ? My answer is : players are looking for max damage output in the shortest amount of time (highest possible DPS). Some possible explanations :

• Players are lazy jotuns that can be bothered to handle a fight longer than 4 seconds.
• The general fight system doesn’t provide interesting fights, hence a wish to close them as fast as possible.
• The risk of having a long-lasting fight is too high to be affordable.

Or it’s a mix of all this.

Anyway, I’m still wondering : let’s take for granted that it’s now impossible to burst a prepared opponent down in one rotation, and that current glassy burst builds are now non-viable excerpt for some hardcore people. The logical consequence would be power damage would have to shift towards less bursty more bunky stats. Would that actually be such a bad thing ? From a PvP point of view, I’m honestly not sure of it. From a PvE point of view, as long as encounters will be swarm of mobs smashing like giants with an insane HP pool, it may be troublesome.

Astralporing.1957:

True in theory, but in practice all those uses and places are not equal.

Equal doesn’t mean a thing… Of course a ministrel build does not “equal” a marauder build, because it doesn’t serve the same purpose.

Which shows that the issue may not be conditions or gears, but “Does GW2 provide such varied gameplay that all those uses can be relevant, and a player can have fun fulfilling the purpose he decided for himself ?”

Honestly, I’m truly not sure about that, because that requires organized teamwork and coordination. So it could work in instancied content, or with guilds activities including sPvP or even WvW. For the average casual PvE-er, the only purpose is to stack damage (direct or condi doesn’t matter so much). There’s some improvement though… I hope that the recent focus on healing stats is a sign the next X-Pac will allow for more roles to become enjoyable and fulfilling.

Hello,

There’re many things to answer and uncover in your post… But there’s one thing that needs to be made clearer before all :

Aldath.1275:

However it makes me feel bad that the playstile I love has 0 spots on endgame content, quite opposed to what GW2 promised when I got into the game.

What endgame content are you referring to ? Raids ? Because in that case, it changes completely the whole discussion.

Then, I’m not sure it’s totally ANet’s fault : there’re optimal ways to deal damage or do things, but there’re also less optimal ways, maybe more tedious, maybe not as reliable, but more enjoyable. The issue is a lot of players only consider the so-called current trend optimal way as the one and only way to achieve something, and tend to dismiss the rest.

Svarty.8019:

The breakbar mechanic has made WvW a far less enjoyable experience. I thought it sounded really good at the time, but I didn’t know CC would be doled out with the elite specs (and then they nerfed stability – and lots of WvW players quit the game).

Honestly, if players had a breakbar, things wouldn’t be that bad ! To me, CC’s are spammable because some mobs have a breakbar and as an individual stun or daze doesn’t remove enough, it’s made so that dozens of people stun or daze to remove the breakbar. If stability worked the previous way for players, it’d be far better.

That said, just consider DBL’s lords (towers and keeps) : their CC spam is insane. Wasn’t it honestly possible to design Grella without having her CC you at each and every skritting blow ?

Nusku.3941:

Maybe they have it there because condi is super high meta right now, no idea. I don’t mind it to be honest.

I don’t think there’s an intended relation between these two, beyond the fact that condi builds don’t rely on CC as much as power builds do.

Someone suggested changes to resistance : resistance doesn’t negate applied condition effect, but prevents further condition application. I think that was a not so bad idea.

phys.7689:

ThomasC.1056:

Obtena.7952:

I just don’t get that mentality; a condi-damage can’t equate to a certain amount of a person’s HP … but if that’s a burst from a power build, no one has any problem with that.

That may be one of the biggest unclear thing about the whole DPS scene. I’d add : “there’s not enough clears to cleanse the condi application”. That’s true. There also isn’t “enough clears to cleans the CC application from power builds”. Yet, the stunlock issue doesn’t pop every week as condi does.

power builds and cc builds are not one and the same, cc access seems to be more tied to class than damage type.

True about the class thing. Yet, you can consider power mesmer, berserker, daredevil, and even dragonhunter to a certain extent : all these rely a lot on CC application to correctly land their rotation without too much disruption from the dummy in front of them…

One can say that condi builds are braindead, but not as much as power builds consisting in handcuffing the opponent behind his chair to burst him without interference.

I’d love the idea and the overall hero thing, but I’ve got nightmares figuring how the AI would handle my builds…

Hello,

Thanks for sharing that build. I’m currently using that build with the same basics :

• Used dire weapons because this is those I had previously, and was too lazy and unsure to restat them.
• Still have a staff as switch weapon, but unhappy with it, so I didn’t put it.
• I’m using rune of the undead because : more sustain + more condi + cheap. I also considered nightmare, torment, perplexity and balthazar (tried that one, worked meh).

I usually go with Jalis’ trait line in WvW, but I pick Ventari’s trait line in PvE (2-2-2), which is ok too. I don’t feel like Brill’s fits well, even if the perma protection is interesting after all. The toughness bonus wouldn’t be of much use (only with embrace the darkness and protective solace, which are very situational) and soothing bastion is meh.

Running alongside the tablet is a big plus for quasi-perma swiftness (unless terrain tricks me, and the tablet vanishes because I go too far). Some things from the few times I used it :

• The best build ever to kill dollies !
• Works wonders taking objectives, even if the annoying pew-pew perma blind are always the last standing.
• I’ve been able to whistand each and every enounter with 1 to 3 thieves that weren’t all stunlock based. Even when dazed, the tablet still can be used, so it helps a lot.
• The damage drop from having the tablet up is really high. Axe+mace are lacking a lot.
• Ranged enemies are a plague. Protective solace helps a lot to recover, but as long as you can’t close the gap, you’re doomed.
• Melee are a plague only if they have a high resistance accessibility. Unfortunately, almost every melee foes are berserkers with a tremendous resistance accessibility.
• Oddly enough, I’ve been able to cope with either full condi damage, or full power damage. Mixed damage gave me a far harder time.

So, in a nutshell, my build is fun, but not really effective. Yet, I’m still not accustommed to it at all, therefore it’d probably work better with some training. You can engage a foe with Mallyx and try to kill him, and maybe succeed, or you can turtle with tablet up. Issue is : when you pick tablet, you don’t have a sufficient damage output, so the enemy may take the ascend. The plus : you can still run away with the tablet, hoping for that stupid pew pew thief to get bored and abandon the chase.

That’s the generic issue with all LS3 maps, and Doric is even worse than others. If you have achievements done and enough tokens, you have no use at all going back there. Doric fails especially because the three previous maps were enough to get a full ascended trinkets set, and bloodsone fen ones are better because you can restat them for a little fee.

Now, the few reasons I can see to go back to Doric are :

• Seraph craft needs Jade Shards, so if you want to use those…
• Maybe this map has “more” events : popping more frequently, and close to each others. So you can easily get rewards.

Draconis will probably even worse once everyone will have the ascended backpack…

Obtena.7952:

I just don’t get that mentality; a condi-damage can’t equate to a certain amount of a person’s HP … but if that’s a burst from a power build, no one has any problem with that.

That may be one of the biggest unclear thing about the whole DPS scene. I’d add : “there’s not enough clears to cleanse the condi application”. That’s true. There also isn’t “enough clears to cleans the CC application from power builds”. Yet, the stunlock issue doesn’t pop every week as condi does.

ShiningSquirrel.3751:

How about if you keep killing the same mob without killing anything else, have diminished returns kick in? If your really not AFK you are not going to be sitting in one spot killing the same mob over and over again and if your just watching and not playing, why would you care? Sure, they could just keep moving to another spot and start on another mob, but at least they would have to be doing something.

A close idea would be : any mob can only drop something if it exists long enough. As AFK Farmers kill popping mobs almost instantly, they wouldn’t get any reward, whereas if mobs need to live, say, 30s to drop loot, people just passing by would still get something.

It’d hurt a bit more than just AFK farmers though.