Guild Wars 2

Has anyone found Dougal Keane yet?

Kaizer.7135:

DuranArgith.1354:

Kaizer.7135:

ensoriki.5789:

If I were to modify stealth.

Failed attacks cause you to leave stealth.

Hell no, this would kill Thieves for a lot of people I know since we play with a constant 250+ms ping. We can literally be right behind someone and have our backstabs miss.

Youre not the only people and profession that play with high ping you know.
Also, backstab does the bonus damage from the sides too.

But we are the only class that has our most powerful skill (backstab) come from stealth, revealed on miss means it’s a waste of an attack and we can’t use it again for another 4secs.

What if Thief get Revealed only if they land a hit?
So Thieves would lose Stealth if they whiff the attack, but not get Revealed. Meaning they could Stealth again. They get Revealed only if the hit lands. Backstab spam has no counter right now, you cannot even block/dodge it because the Thief can just spam Backstab until you run out of blocks/dodges.

KeyOrion.9506:

If you look at history, what was going to do more damage to you, a two handed sword with more weight to it, or a light cutlass or foil? The kitten things were known to cleave men in two, overhand style.

I cant find any part of history where I can compare a shortbow shooting ghostly rainbow ponies to a pistol shooting out confetti. I dont think we should look at history.

The reason why two-handed weapons only had one Sigil was because it had greater damage than one-handed + off-handed weapons combined.

Now that Arenanet is going to revamp two-handed weapons to have 2 Sigils, will the one-handed and off-handed weapons also get a base damage increase?

I am aware that Sigils are also being completely revamped, but what will be the advantage of actually having one-handed and off-handed weapons now?

It takes someone twice as long to craft two weapons for main-hand and off-hand than it takes to craft a two-handed weapon, and you are saying these combined will still have less base damage than two-handed weapons, while both type of weapons will have the advantage of 2 Sigils?

What this new Elite should do:

Casting Time: 1.5s
Recharge: 180s
Duration: 20s
Summon an Arcane Staff to defend you.
The Arcane Staff casts 1 tick of Empower every 3 seconds(giving 3 AoE stacks of Might that last 10s). This is affected by Boon Duration, Spirit Weapon traits, and triggers Altruistic Healing. It also heals for 375(1/4 of Empower’s heal) whenever it casts. This is affected by Healing Power.
When commanded, the Arcane Staff creates an AoE similar to Firestorm(Fiery Greatsword#5) but blue,
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Firestorm
with the same properties(Damage, Duration, Radius, Range), including hitting up to 10 foes per strike just like Fiery Greatsword’s Firestorm.

However, Staff of the Zealot can be traited to
reduce recharge with Spirit Weapon Mastery
increase damage of the AoE with Wrathful Spirits
not be destroyed when commanded with Eternal Spirit
cause burning on every hit of the AoE with A Fire Inside
last longer with Improved Spirit Weapon Duration

And we also get a new staff skin, Foefire’s Spire.

Amaterasu.6280:

To say that there is no counter play to stealth/ prevention is ridiculous.

Here is the basic scenario of a thief stealthing:

1) Black powder + heartseeker leap

2) Shadow refuge

You can prevent the first by stunning/dazing them before they leap, and you can prevent the latter by using a pull/knockback while they are sitting in it.

There are also plenty of things you can do while they are stealth to prevent a burst – AOE blinds, blocks, invulns, anticipation dodging + positioning.

I just hate when people say there is no counter to stealth…it’s a l2p issue. You cannot stealth forever, and most of it is only 3 seconds. Beating stealth is more of a mindset than a hit-this-button to beat it mechanic.

If you are talking about mesmers which have instant stealth, then yes it is a little more problematic, but if you are quick with targeting and knowing how to find the real mesmer…it’s not much of a problem.

I agree with you that there are many ways to “prevent” Stealth and that is a l2p for many players. However, the problem arises when the Thief is already in Stealth. Everything you said is to “prevent” them from getting there, nothing about if they are already there.

There are not many counters to an already Stealthed Thief, and they are coming in with Backstab. Even knowing this, you might want to defend in some ways.
By Blocking? They just Backstab again and again until you run out of Blocks. Backstab does not cost them Initiative and is highly spammable until it lands.
By Dodging? They do not come out of Stealth from a missed attack either. Moreover, it is very difficult to dodge something you cannot see unless you are lucky.
By dropping CC around you? Then the Thief just runs out of your range, wait for his Initiative to regen, and come back already Stealthed while your CC is on cooldown. Most AoE CC have 40+ recharge. Full Initiative takes about 12 seconds to recharge.

Hence “prevention” is not exactly a “counter” to Stealth, although it helps.
You can eat healthy to help “prevent” cancer, but if you already have cancer, you are not curing(countering) it just by starting to eat healthy. See the difference.
A counter is something that can get you out of the situation and make you break even, or reverse the situation in your favor.

There needs to be a hard counter to already Stealthed Thieves, not just a way to prevent them from entering Stealth. There are multiple suggestions for that:

1. Blocking removes Stealth but does not apply Revealed on the Thief. That way you can match a Thief’s skills 1 for 1(Thief can use a second skill to Stealth again but you can also use a second skill to Block again and so on). This is a situation where you break even. It does not prevent the Thief from Stealthing again, and the Thief can remain in Stealth provided they do not attempt an attack that will be blocked.

2. Dodging the Thief removes Stealth. Since you cannot see the Thief, you are gambling half of your dodge bar here. This will make Thieves more wary of when to press their attack(including making them waste Stealthed time to make sure they land the attack). Rewards good Thieves who land their attacks. Rewards good players who dodged correctly when they predict the invisible Thief will attack.

3. CC skills remove Stealth. Too often, Thieves use Stealth and starts running away to reset the fight. If the opponent predicts where the Thief is going(predicting correctly = good play), and drops Line of Warding or Static Field there to stun/knockdown the Thief successfully, that should reward the opponent by Revealing the Thief. I do not like this one as much though as skills like “Into the Void” pull everything in sight. Though I would say it is the Thief’s duty to dodge “Into the Void” correctly as well.

Any of these would be somewhat of a “counter” to Stealth.

Nabuko Darayon.9645:

So I recently decided to try out this new armor and I have to admit it’s an interesting one. The thing that bugs me is the difference between ~300 Toughness from Knight’s Vs. 224 Healing Power from Zealot’s.

Of course as a Guardian you have many heals that will sustain you so overall the “small” increase in your heals adds up, but I’m still not sure if it’s worth giving up on 300 Toughness for extra 70ish Power + 224 Healing.

What do you guys think?

I think this is interesting. There is a build calculator on some website that can calculate “Effective Health”. I would say to go to there and input both sets. Since we are only comparing Toughness vs Healing Power between the two sets, I would say whichever one has the higher Effective Health would be the better choice. I dont have the link for that build calculator though.

However this depends on build(Healing Power if useless in builds without skills and traits that contain heals), and it also depends on what you are up against. Conditions completely bypass Toughness, while Poison reduces Healing by 33%.

Paul.4081:

Pretend alt’s that get used only when the Anet tag is flying but they all main Warriors. If not, then what the hell?

Nope, only the devs in charge of balance main Warrior, so everything is balanced around Warrior having easy mode whenever new content is introduced. Therefore to make the Warrior capable of taking on the new content easily, they usually have to introduce more options and buffs for Warriors.

It does not matter what profession the other devs play as they are not in charge of balancing and probably dont even have a say.

Paul.4081:

…now theyre going to be reworking armors, runes, and sigils. This is something that should’ve happened before launch. Not after you have an account full of toons. I have 8 lvl 80s and theyll all need reworked after this.

Ding, ding, ding. We have a winner!

Horizontal Progression at its finest!

Since you recently fixed Azure Flame and Aether, I thought I would ask for these two as well for Ignus Faatus and Illusion.

Attached are screenshots of the bugs.

There are 3 bugs.
1. Ignus Fatuus is equipped too high on the back(Screenshot1), is held too far when wielded(Screenshot2), and is too high when previewing the weapon alone(Screenshot3).
Screenshots also show Ignus Fatuus positioning compared to its counter-part Al’iraska after which it is modelled.

2. Ignus Fatuus is using the Icon of Illusion.

3. Illusion is using the icon of Ignus Fatuus(Screenshot4).

This bug has been in the game since release. I am still waiting on a fix, then I will craft one. Please and thank you with a lot of sugar on top.

This thread is to provide Feedback to the Items team(or whoever is in charge of creating Items). This concerns Items that specifically provide Stats.

There seems to be a rather large disconnect between what features are implemented and what the Items team actually creates. There seems to be a lot of missing Items and a lot of Items whose acquisition is completely different from their counterparts.
Here are a few examples:

WvW Versatile Infusions
So far, the feature of Versatile(Omni) Infusions has been introduced, but only Fractal players have benefited from this. This is because all Versatile Infusions so far have +5 Agony Resistance. There are WvW Infusions that give +/- damage to/from Supervisors, but none of them are Versatile. Is there a reason why WvW Infusions cannot be Versatile?

Ascended Aquabreathers
When you implement a mechanic where the Aquabreather completely replaces your current Headpiece(including stats, runes and looks), and then you implement Ascended Armor, people also expect you to implement the Ascended version of an Aquabreather because it follows logical sense since it is also a piece of Armor. The current best Aquabreather is only Rare quality. If the feature of Aquabreathers was supposed to be scrapped instead, then just allow us to use our current Headpiece even while underwater instead. Right now this is being left in an incomplete state. Is there a reason why there is no Ascended(or even Exotic) Aquabreather yet?

Ascended Trinkets
We are missing a really large amount of stats options on Ascended Trinkets. Valkyrie, Dire and Carrion are the most prominently missing. This is a feature that is currently forcing some players to remain incomplete by using the Exotic version of the trinkets for the stats they want, or force them to waste laurels on a different Ascended trinket whose stats are not what they want, but are closest to it. This is actually something that we were told would be implemented over 8+ months ago. Is there a reason why there are still many Ascended Trinkets stat combinations missing?

Azurite Orbs
Jewelers have a way to Transmogrify 2 Crystals into 1 Orb. Except for Azurite Orb. There is currently no way to acquire more of this item. We can even acquire Azurite Crystals through Fractals now. Is there a reason why players should not be able to obtain Azurite Orbs anymore?

Celestial and Zealot’s Stats
They did a really great job implementing a Karma/Laurel recipe to ensure all stats are available for Ascended Weapons and Armors, then they decide to ruin it all and introduce exclusive Zealot’s stats, whose recipes can randomly be obtained from a temporary event(the Marionette). The gripe here is that the acquisition of said recipes is “random”(or have a really large price difference through the Trading Post) instead of NPC-bought. Celestial stats also get a special mention here for the painstaking method of obtaining it through daily Quartz fusion, and for the fact their their Exotics had the same Recipe-collecting problems. Personally I do not quite get why Item acquisition for a certain stat is made to be so different from the other stats. Is there a reason why certain stats are made so much harder to acquire?

There should be more communication between what features are implemented, what items are correspondingly created and what players want. I dont think it is any harder to create an Ascended Aquabreather than it is to create 30 different recipes and their crafted counterparts just for new exclusive Zealot’s stats.

Please give these missing Items some thought?

Sauzo.6821:

I sure hope that build you linked isn’t a PvE build Vella cause that’s pretty horrible. Valor tree is pretty worthless in PvE and AH is even more worthless. Not taking 15 in radiance to spam aoe blinds? And you need at least 10 in virtues for master of consecrations for longer WoR on shorter cooldown which is our bread and butter. 20 in virtues if you need condi cleanse with absolute resolution along with slotting renewed focus gives you the ability to strip 6 condi in a few secs. And why are you running larger symbols over shorter cooldowns on shouts since shouts will make the most use of AH along with prot from hammer obviously.

I personally don’t really use absolute resolution anymore since purging flames is usually enough for me. I run a 25/15/0/20/10 build with either zealous blade for times I run a greatsword or scepter power. This build is my PvE hammer build btw which also works well with GS/scepter.

To each their own I guess but I really wouldn’t advertise that build as a PvE hammer build. It’s not even a good anchor build really either even though anchor builds are pretty outdated now.

And to pretty much answer the OPs question, Warriors are more straightforward simple class to play while guard is more of a reactive play. I main a guard for fractals and dungeons and run my warrior when I want braindead open world stuff since LB is pretty OP on warrior :P Neither is really better than the other, just 2 different play styles.

Hmm…it says PvP on the top right when you click on the build…

amethyst.3264:

My “projectiles” get reflected and damaged myself while hitting thief using dagger storm. It happened to me several times. Did it happened to anyone? This is ridiculous because it is supposed to block projectiles and if they are really projectiles there should be a projectile finisher.

That’s the danger of using a Sword. There is something similar with Greatsword where you using Binding Blade on 5 targets and all 5 of them get reflected back at you because enemy Mesmer decided to Feedback, you end up taking over 10k damage(and possibly 1 hitting yourself).

Projectiles can only be reflected once, so your Zealot’s Defense projectile reflection part will never help against your own projectiles reflected back at you.

Sword is a very bad choice of weapon against someone who has reflect. Along with Zealot’s Defense, the 3rd hit of your auto-attack chain is also considered projectiles, and you hit yourself 3 times if it is reflected back at you.

Guardian Shortbow
There is still NO profession that can wield both Shortbow and Staff, while the two rainbow Legendaries are Dreamer(Shortbow) and Bifrost(Staff). This simply has to happen. Besides, Guardians already have a Bow Spirit Weapon, which is the only one the Guardian can never “wield” using their skin-counterparts(Foefire/Eidolon). In addition, Guardians really lack good Ranged options(the key word here is options). Guardians also have NO on-land Projectile Finishers.

As for the other professions:
Warrior: Dagger
Ranger: Hammer
Thief: Staff
Necro: Greatsword
Mesmer: Main Pistol/Off Shield
Elementalist: Pistol

Question: Does having 2 Guardians make you better/more experienced than someone who has 1 Guardian only? If yes, how?

Not targeting anyone in particular here, but I honestly think someone who has clocked 3000 hours into playing Guardian is more experienced at playing one than someone who has clocked in 150 hours on each of their 2 Guardians. This is just my opinion though. I just dont get how having 10 different lvl80 Guardians is a measure of you having more experience than others at playing Guardian.

insanemaniac.2456:

im afraid i dont exactly understand the request here…

you want an omni infusion that has +/-guard damage to act as cheap filler before you specialize to the 5 laurel infusions that also give 5 of a stat?

but you dont care if its expensive?

whats the point? 5 laurels isnt exactly cheap, but its also not anywhere near the price of 5 stat / 5 ar infusions.

Okay, let me make this clear:

For simplicity, we are going to assume Power and Toughness as examples.

There is currently Regular +5 stats Fractals and WvW Infusion that give

Fractal: +5 Power, +5 Agony Resistance
WvW: +5 Power, +1% Damage vs Supervisors
that can only be placed in your Offensive Infusion Slot
Fractal: +5 Toughness, +5 Agony Resistance
WvW: +5 Toughness, -1% Damage from Supervisors
that can only be placed in your Defensive Infusion Slot

Then there are Omni/Versatile Fractal Infusions that give

Fractal: +5 Power, +5 Agony Resistance
that can be placed in either an Offensive or Defensive Infusion Slot
Fractal: +5 Toughness, +5 Agony Resistance
that can be placed in either an Offensive or Defensive Infusion Slot

See the difference? They can be slotted into anything. I can put +5 Power into my Armor’s Defensive Infusion Slot. I can also put +5 Toughness in my Weapon’s Infusion Slot. But these are for Fractals since they give +5 Agony Resistance. We do not have WvW version of Omni/Versatile Infusions. Essentially, we want:

WvW: +5 Power, +1% Damage vs Supervisors
that can be placed in either an Offensive or Defensive Infusion Slot
WvW: +5 Toughness, -1% Damage from Supervisors
that can be placed in either an Offensive or Defensive Infusion Slot

to exist. Omni/Versatile Infusions currently cost 100 Passion Flowers and 250 Powerful Blood(or other T6 mats). The recipes to make those do not include anything that has to do with Fractals(No Mist Essence or Pristine Relics), but they provide +5 Agony Resistance. I dont care about Agony Resistance, I never do Fractals. Instead, I would like to have 6 +5 Power, +1% Damage vs Supervisors into my ARMOR’s Defensive Infusion Slots. They could keep the recipe almost the same(alter it a little because it is Mystic Forge and two recipes cannot have the same ingredients) and make those exist.

Guardian is the most balanced class among all classes.
Warrior is the most imbalanced class among all classes.

Guardians hardly ever get buffed, they remain mostly unchanged patch after patch.
Warriors only ever get buffed, they simply become more broken patch after patch.

Moshari.8570:

Turtle Dragon.9241:

Moshari.8570:

Have you actually looked at the vendors in WvW?

Not to sound condescending but these have been in existence for about 6 months. I have them on all of my WvW characters ascended equipment and they do exactly what you are asking…..so this is a weird post.

Do you know what a Versatile Infusion is?
Please look it up. Bye for now.

Do you??? http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Infusion

as you can see, there ARE WvW versatile infusions (as I have said)…doing exactly as you asked (replacing the +5 agony with a +X vs guards, etc).

So before you go telling me to “Please look it up. Bye for now.” I suggest you use Google and the wiki.

You clearly are not getting what a Versatile Infusion is.
Please look it up. I’ll even link it for you.
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Versatile_Mighty_Infusion

Moshari.8570:

Have you actually looked at the vendors in WvW?

Not to sound condescending but these have been in existence for about 6 months. I have them on all of my WvW characters ascended equipment and they do exactly what you are asking…..so this is a weird post.

Do you know what a Versatile Infusion is?
Should i say Omni Infusion instead?
Please look it up. Bye for now.

This is long overdue, but are we ever getting Versatile WvW Infusions?

The only Versatile Infusions right now are the Fractal-oriented gear.
Since this is a huge WvW update, I think it would be good to introduce them now?

I dont mind if they cost a ton of gold, but please let us have WvW-oriented Versatile Infusions.

I mean you could even make them cost the same mats(which have nothing to do with Fractals btw) as the current Versatile Infusion, but have +/- damage vs Guards & Supervisors instead of +5 Agony Resistance.

Please give us WvW players some love!

eleshazar.6902:

Rednik.3809:

Flash news: Warriors are already inferior to guardians in bunkering. And rifle build… lol.

I just want to touch on this quickly since I have both an 80 warrior and an 80 guardian.

A bunker guardian can bunk well, but will deal LITTLE TO NO DAMAGE. A warrior can bunk equally well AND WILL DEAL DECENT DAMAGE

That is the problem with saying guards can bunk just as well. Warriors sacrifice little to achieve a bunker.

Incorrect.

Warriors do not have sacrifice anything to achieve bunker. They equip Healing Signet, which is just 1 skill that is in your heal slot(therefore has no effect on DPS) and they can bunker just as fine as Guardians.

Guardian class is about sacrificing your Virtues to buff your allies.
Warrior class is not about sacrifice. It is about being better than any other class out there ever.

People still dont understand how balance works.

Suggestions for nerfing do not work unless they include “except Warrior” in it.
Suggestions for buffing must include “so does Warrior” or “Warrior does it better”.

Example:
Nerf perma Vigor for every class = bad suggestion
Nerf perma Vigor for every class except Warrior = great idea
Buff Guardian’s Rejuvenation = bad suggestion
Buff Guardian’s Rejuvenation and Warrior’s Healing Signet more = excellent idea

Once you understand how balance works, your suggestions and opinions will be taken a lot more into account.

For the game to progress, bad mechanics need to be removed.
The game keeps halting progress with mechanics that serve no purpose other than making players’ progress difficult. This must be changed. The following are mechanics that I believe serve no purpose other than stopping players from having fun.

Story Mode Requirement
This serves no purpose. I will never do story mode for any dungeon, and I know many players who wont. Not only that, you want me to do it on every character? Everybody around is already skipping this. “LFG Need Opener”. Someone else with Dungeon Master is going to open the dungeon for us anyway. People are just disbanding groups and kicking each other until they find someone who can open, they are not going to do story mode to unlock the dungeon unless you buff the reward for story mode. Cant this mechanic simply be removed and giving us access to explorable mode when we reach the required level?

Contested Waypoint and Locked Dungeons
I understand the concept of Contested Waypoints to stop players from mindlessly reviving and going back to the event. However, locked dungeons serves no purpose. Everyone will just ask someone in party to Guest to another server who has it open. If nobody can open, the group just breaks up and find others who can. This just isnt fun, we want to do the dungeon, we dont want to do the pre-event. While we are at it, why 2 Guests passes per day?

Soulbound Equipment
Why not make everything Account Bound instead? This makes the game really alt-unfriendly. If you get a dungeon-only sigil on the character that is running the dungeon, it is Soulbound on Acquire, meaning you cannot even use it on a different character. Account Bound equipment already exist in the game, such as Ancient Karka Shell. Another issue is deleted characters, if you placed a Soulbound Equipment in your Bank, none of your other characters can ever take it out. Arenanet already took the first step towards removing Soulbound Equipment with Infinite Gathering Tools, why not just do the rest?

Characterbound Dyes
Specially with the new gemstore dyes, this is a daunting task to get the right colors for your characters. I want to make a Warrior with the same colors as my Guardian, but getting the same dyes I currently have on my main would cost 300+ gold. This is just for dyes alone. Half a precusor worth of dyes. Just estimating this makes me immediately give up on making a Warrior, which means I will not be buying Gemstore Armor for my nevermade Warrior, along with so many more items(Transmutation Crystals, Makeover Kits) that I will never buy from the gemstore. This reduces your profit and my fun. How about we both benefit from this instead?

Unique
This mechanic alone has caused more grief to players than any other out there. I can have Ring of Red Death and Ring of Red Death(Infused) equipped at the same time anyway… This mechanic has caused more work for your support team to fix than any other. Is this mechanic’s sole purpose to provide work for your support team so you can claim to have good customer service? At least 1 person in map chat complains about having bought the wrong ring every week. What is the purpose of this mechanic really?

Please only discuss the purpose of each of the above mechanics, and the reason for them to exist.

What they should do is just mix utility skills of the same type, while re-categorizing certain skills to become the same type.

For example, Shouts.
A Warrior could go Warrior/Guardian and get Save Yourselves.
A Guardian could go Guardian/Warrior and get Fear Me.

Signets are already all across the board, except for Engineer.
Thief/Warrior could take Signet of Might.
So Ele/Guardian could take Signet of Judgment or go Ele/Mesmer could get Signet of Inspiration, but the Ele cannot get both Signet of Judgment and Signet of Inspiration on their bar at the same time.

This is Utility only of course, nobody else is getting Healing Signet.

Cantrips and Meditations work the same way, re-categorize Cantrip to Meditation(or Meditation to Cantrip, doesnt matter) so we can get mixes.

Any AoE such as Shadow Refuge, Hallowed Ground and Null Field could also fall in the same category(yes other classes can get Stealth, but not Sneak Attack. They will also never benefit from Stealth traits that only Thieves have).

Banners and Conjured Weapons(Warriors cannot get Fiery Greatsword, it is Elite, and Eles can never get Battle Standard. Utility only) could be mixed.

Then mix minions like Spirits, Spirit Weapons, Minions.

It does not make sense that Scarlet is a minion or a champion of an Elder Dragon because Sylvari are unaffected by Zhaitan, Zhaitan could not corrupt them.
Unless we consider all Sylvari to be minions of Mordremoth, then that would explain why, if the theory is correct that other Elder Dragons cannot capture one another’s pokemons minions.
Then the pale tree is a champion of Mordremoth. A champion does not necessarily mean it works for Mordremoth, it might even be against Mordremoth just like Glint helped in the fight against Kralkatorrik.

Artaz.3819:

Thedenofsin.7340:

Distaste.4801:

Thedenofsin.7340:

Deimos Tel Arin.7391:

Leuca.5732:

Deimos Tel Arin.7391:

as in, some profession will have an easier time against certain professions, and a harder time against certain professions.

But you think warriors should be good against all professions, and be the easiest to play.

errr no.
i think warriors are good against those who deal puny damage.

You are very, very wrong. Every single good player left (all 5 of them) playing this game will tell you that.

Warrior is completely broken in this game. The March balance patch is their last shot to show the community they know what they are doing. After that, it’s 4.4.14 and this place will be a complete ghost town.

If you think ESO is going to be any better you’re sorely mistaken. As much as I want a new game to play since ArenaNet seems oblivious to game balance at best, ESO is not going to be that game. Considering it will also have a subscription and cash shop subscriber attrition will hit that game like a ton of bricks, think SWTOR.

TESO will have a massive pull on the PVE community. massive

When that cash cow is gone, there won’t be anyone left.

^The real question is whether something shiny, interesting and unbalanced is better than something old, polished and unbalanced? Btw, it’s PvE AND WvW that will be different but really it is the niche combat hybrid between console games and PC games that ESO will live and flourish or die.

Choose between:
A losing lottery ticket whose draw already occurred last friday.
Buying a lottery ticket whose draw occurs next friday.

My chances of winning the lottery with a ticket that has already lost when they drew the prizes last friday is 0.
My chances of winning the lottery with a ticket that i just bought when they are going to draw the prizes next friday is 0.000000001%.

Most people will throw away the old lottery ticket. Many will buy the new lottery ticket because it might be fun gambling even with chances close to 0. If you want to keep your old lottery ticket in souvenir that you did not win, good for you.

Finding the right MMO is like playing the lottery.
You take a look at a preview to see if you will buy it, just like you take a look at how many millions you can win before buying a lottery ticket.
You then buy the game and find out if it’s the right game to play, the right place to be. If it is, you won. If not, move to the next one.
You really have to buy the game to find out because the preview does not always speak for what the game truly is. cough manifesto cough
This is like finding you won 50 millions dollars but they will only give you 1 dollar per day.

This is specially true when you see awful decisions being made for this game such as Ascended Gear and daily grind, overbuffed Warrior that just surpass everything else, Tequatl-style bosses that you have to line up for one hour beforehand, etc. This is definitely not the game that was advertised to me and that i bought in april 2012.

ESO might go the same way, but there is a chance they might do it right, even if small,
whereas the chances of making GW2 into what was advertised when i bought it back then are really 0.

Moreover, they already gave us what to expect in march. A nerf to vigor for every class, while Warrior’s vigor remains untouched. Balanced?

sierras.6297:

I don’t play warrior, and I have to say that the rage against the signet is overrated. It is far from necessary. Even with the adrenaline heal combined, it heals the same as a guardian built for bunker. Any class can counter it, and almost every build can too. Warriors may have it easier, but it isn’t a matter of easily being op, it is a matter of it being easier to learn and become decent. Any good player on any class can counter the average warrior easily. It is good warriors fighting decent players that cause the rage. That is why there is hate on necros, and thieves, and every class to some degree. It is just the prevalence of warriors that people find it a problem, but warrior has been the most prevalent class in the game since launch, so stop whining and grow up.

Please teach me how to bunker on a Guardian with just 1 skill.

Diary: August 25
A new Monster was discovered deep in the jungle.

Diary: August 30
We christened the newly discovered Monster, Wurm.

Diary: January 21
Wurm gave birth.
We named the newborn Wurmtwo.

Diary: January 22
Wurmtwo is far too powerful.
We have failed to curb its vicious tendencies…

Diary: January 26
The Monster Wurmtwo is far too powerful.
It’s no use…
We are unable to defeat it!

Thumbs up if you get the reference.

Most people do not understand how balance between classes is done.

The whole concept of balancing is done around two things:
1. So does Warrior.
2. Warrior does it better.

Guardians have natural health regen? So does Warrior, for triple the amount.
Necromancers have the highest HP? So does Warrior.
Thieves have highest mobility? So does Warrior.
Guardians have highest armor? So does Warrior.
Rangers have spirits? So does Warrior, with 4 indestructible ones.
Guardians can block? So does Warrior, for many more hits.
Mesmers can perma Vigor? So does Warrior, not better? Nerf Mesmer Perma Vigor.
Eles can have immunity to conditions? So does Warrior.
Guardians have an Elite Invulnerability? So does Warrior, but it’s not Elite.
Other classes have high DPS? So does Warrior.

Tyria was overly bright until recently.

Picture says a lot about it.

Can you see my character in the red square?

Recipe: Keeper’s Claymore
Recipe: Keeper’s Visor

Those are on TP so something must drop them even if a very low chance. Where do you get those from? Is it Marionette Chest? Wurm? Scarlet’s Lair Chest(s)? Scarlet’s Lockbox Chest?

I found Recipe: Keeper’s Zealot Inscription from Watchwork Chest in Scarlet’s Lair. I cant craft any of the weapons because the other recipes are like 50g each. I want to try to get these to drop.

Is Marionette I II III IV V chests per day/character?
Is Marionette Ground chest per day/character?

Amineo.8951:

It would’ve been nice if i knew it before making my ascended stuff, now thanks to ArenaNet, i have to farm again in order to get these stats that i want, for both my Guard and Elem, thanks a lot…

Horizontal progression at its finest.

jingleshanks.5209:

can i request that volcanus has a picture… not just a greatsword image, its kinda worrying that if im in a rush one day the fatal will happen and i salvage it. And that would be bad aye?!

Transmute it to an Ascended Greatsword. You cannot salvage Ascended items. Problem solved.

“The Marionette’s is more immediate, with everyone in Lornar’s Pass being instantly killed by the boss’s Aether-cannons.”

So you are telling me that if I dont want to participate in this event, I have to leave the map immediately to go level up elsewhere or you will instantly kill me?

What if I was afk in that map in a safe spot taking a small break from leveling up? You will still instantly kill me?

Why should I be killed and pay waypoint/repair cost if I did not even want to do this event?

From Interview:
“I think the biggest thing that gets me excited is when I go in game, and I see people talking about [the story] everywhere. When we get to the point where the core audience of the game is all talking about it in game, that’s when we’ve really succeeded.”

I would like to know which server Mr.Johanson plays on, because I like the story so far but I am also having a hard time finding people to discuss it with, let alone discussing it everywhere, or openly in map chat. I would like to guest to that server everyday if possible to see people’s theories about Scarlet.

My current favourite theory is that Sylvari are all minions of Mordremoth, given that they share the same dream(just like Destroyers are all of one mind, which was explained back in GW1) and cannot be corrupted by other Dragons because they arent allowed to steal each others’ minions. They could also simply all be minions of the Pale Tree just like the Stone Dwarves are minions of the Great Dwarf.

Vargamonth.2047:

jihm.2315:

Vargamonth.2047:

Altruistic Healing is in a selfish traitline because it’s a completely selfish trait. The guardian is the only one getting any benefit from it.
Not having AH doesn’t prevent the Guardian from providing great support and spreading boons here and there.

wrong keeping your self healthy is what makes you give more support

And who are you supporting then?
If your party wide healing is not enough to keep yourself alive, it won’t be either for the teamates supposed to deal damage.
If your healing is enugh for them to stay alive, then so it’s for you and there’s no need for AH.

I play Guardian as well, have done so since beta. Also Monk player since GW1.

This is an opinion, so dont take it too seriously/aggressively, but
In GW2 PvE, I honestly dont believe in defensive support.

To me, every class is self-sufficient, Arenanet has designed the classes to be so.

Defensive support is just extra baggage that gives you the ‘feeling that you are helping your team’, when this isnt even necessary in the first place.

I have to say this: If a party member tells you that they need your defensive support/heals, then they are probably not a very good player to party with in the first place. I actually consider it an insult if a player tells me they are bringing defensive support to keep me alive, no matter what class I am playing(be it Guardian or Thief) because they are insinuating that I am not good enough to take care of myself and that I need them to survive.

If you have offensive support that increases DPS such as TimeWarp/Banners/Frost Spirit/Fury, then by all means, bring them. Stability is borderline welcomed, because being knocked away for 3 seconds can reduce DPS by a lot. But if you are bringing defensive support to keep the party alive, please dont! unless it is part of your natural defense(such as activating Virtue of Courage) and you cannot replace it with something else.

No matter how much defensive support you bring, Leeroy will still die. The solution is not to bring even more support by going full Cleric with max boon duration, but to not bring Leeroy to the dungeon in the first place.

tl;dr
Defensive support keeps your party alive through boons.
AH keeps your party alive through the F(Revive) key.
Both work equally well if your party members cannot stay alive on their own.
Both are equally useless if they can.
The ultimate solution is to get better party members or make your current ones better.

(My Hall of Monuments smells of rich Elitism)

There is an extremely simple solution to the problem, but this will not get implemented because GW2 just wants to be as different as possible from GW1.

In GW1, even if you had a Longbow equipped, you could also have a Shield equipped, but your Shield would have a ‘no’ symbol on it, meaning it does not give stats or meet skill requirements while a Longbow is equipped.

Even if you swapped weaponsets(GW1 had 4 weapon sets!!) to your Scythe, your offhand weapon would not leave your equipped slot as long as you had saved that weaponset as Scythe/Shield as well.

In GW2, due to the extreme need of being as different as possible from its predecessor, you can only have your Greatsword equipped. You cannot have a Shield with a ‘no’ sign on it while having a Greatsword equipped at the same time. So if you have Sword/Shield and equip Greatsword, the Sword swaps with your Greatsword but the Shield just flies to the next open slot in your inventory(go look for it, good luck finding it).

The solution is simple, make offhands equippable with 2-handed, but do not give skills or stats. However, this solution is impossibly difficult to make into a feature in GW2.

The next best thing you might want to try is to have a 2-handed in one weaponset while having 1-handed/off handed in the other weaponset, and only swap like weapons when equipping(Greatsword for Hammer, Sword/Shield for Axe/Warhorn).

style.6173:

SoulArcanium.5047:

‘thief outnumbered 8 guys’

Stopped reading there. L2p issue

Lol. That comment made me laugh as well. If one player beat 8 others at once, those 8 must be horrible.

I agree, this is a L2P issue.

Try to play a Thief and see how they do it for yourself, you will learn a lot(and really a lot) about countering Thieves.

I dont see a Thief ever killing any group of at least 3 ‘good’ players. The important word here is ‘good’.
The reason is simple: F Revive.
You have to consider that one of your allies is likely to be downed against a good Thief. Then, two options open:
1. The Thief keeps hitting the downed player. In this case, you use F to Revive.
2. The Thief Stealths and tries to use Finish. Thieves do not carry Stability. If a Thief ever uses Stealth while your ally is downed, you can tell they are going to move to that downed ally for F Finish. If the Thief is not going there then you get a free Revive on that ally, making the Thief have to restart over. Where is the Stealthed Thief? Above your downed ally.
You have multiple options for every class to deal with this, from small traits to big CC.
Guardian: Resolute Healer alone can stop the Thief from F Finishing your ally simply by touching the downed ally. Shield of Absorption, Ring of Warding, Binding Blade…the list is long.
Ele: Updraft can kick the Thief away, by the time the Thief comes back, their Stealth is either over, or you have revived that downed ally. Earthquake also works. Any form of damaging AoE around that downed ally will probably make the Thief stop the F Finisher to run away and heal, or they will die too.
Thief: Merciful Ambush stops the enemy Thief from Stealth Finishing off someone. Your downed ally probably wont get Revealed by hitting that Thief since the Thief is Stealthed.
Mesmer: Illusionary Wave. This is really the easiest skill to use, ever. You also have Temporal Curtain, which pulls the Thief to a known location.
Warrior: Hundred Blades over the downed ally, it just works. A full-hit Hundred Blades is enough to kill the Thief from full HP. Warbanner is also good.
Ranger: Delete your character and make a different profession.

sephiroth.4217:

Ok so….. I have 1 question, 1 question I think some of us want to know and that is:

After spending 4-6 months saving laurels, spending time collecting mats and doing general things to save up for our ascended Berserker trinkets, weapons and armor is there any chance of re-selecting the stats to these items like you gave us with explorers gear a while back?

I don’t know if I’m the only one that feels like I made an impressive house of cards for someone to blow it over on me but I’m personally not keen to rebuild that house of cards unless the person who blew it over can compensate for it a little bit?

.
.
.
It might sound harsh, but games are a waste of time in life but playing a game that reminds you of this is kinda…. a wake up call I guess.

Ascended grind will never be over. Even if they dont introduce a new tier of gear for us to grind.
You just finished your Zerker Ascended gears and have nothing else to do? Nerf Zerker. Now everyone has to grind new Ascended gear.
Meta changes to Soldier Ascended? Nerf Soldier.
Now everyone has to grind new Ascended gear.
This is horizontal progression at its finest.

It could also be a mix of both. They change the meta 3 times, they then introduce a new tier of gear. Repeat.

oliverstoned.2695:

Turtle Dragon.9241:

Nerfing DPS is the first step they are taking towards adding the next tier of gear.

Huh? Obviously A-Net thinks Ascended is too powerful for their content so they nerf the damage to former exotics level. For me this is a sign that there never will be another gear tier. They don’t want you to faceroll the open world and dungeons. And they cannot nerf the damage everytime a new tier is introduced. Then you will need Ascended gear for a level 35 dungeon. How will that work?

They wont be nerfing the damage everytime a new tier of gear comes out because they only have to nerf it once by changing the damage formula(which is what they are doing with Ferocity) to be additive instead of multiplicative.

If critical damage has a multiplier of 2x, and considering base damage is increased by 1000 every tier of gear,
current tier: 1000 damage x 2 = 2000
next tier: 2000 damage x 2 = 4000
next tier: 3000 damage x 2 = 6000
my critical damage will reach 6x within the next 3 tiers.

If critical damage has an increment of 1000, and considering damage is increased by 1000 every tier of gear,
current tier: 1000 damage + 1000 = 2000
next tier: 2000 damage + 1000 = 3000
my critical damage will only reach 6x within the next 6 tiers.

Therefore, rebalancing has to occur half as frequently if we move to that additive model. With the correct formula, you can make it so that you never have to rebalance at all while introducing new tiers of gear constantly.

In other words,
Effective damage on crit = Power * Critical damage
is going to be replaced by
Effective damage on crit = Power + Ferocity

The problem comes from multipliers.

Assuming Critical damage simply added +1000 damage.
1000 + 1000 = 2000
2000 + 1000 = 3000
10000 + 1000 = 11000
You are dealing +1000 damage regardless of base damage.

Assuming Critical damage is multiplied by 2.
1000 × 2 = 2000 (compare to the above: same)
2000 × 2 = 4000 (compare to the above: 1 extra hit worth)
10000 × 2 = 20000 (compare to the above: 9 extra hits worth)
The numbers get bigger and bigger.

The higher your damage, the bigger the numbers go, the more broken it gets. Of course right now Berzerker is not as broken as people think, the numbers are still within acceptable.

However, they have to nerf it before the next few tiers of gear come out, because otherwise it would already be broken by the time we get to Pro gear and Leet gear(tiers above Ascended).

Which is why they are changing Critical Damage +x% to Ferocity, and the formula will be less about multiplying and more about adding.
(Soldier’s provide an additive model that keeps adding Power, while Berzerker’s provide a multiplicative model. When damage keeps increasing due to new tiers of gear, Berzerker’s damage will progress way too far ahead for Soldier’s formula to even compete)

Nerfing DPS is the first step they are taking towards adding the next tier of gear.

Bash.7291:

Yay, nothing new for us! /yawn

Anyways, there is ONE thing that I do see becoming a possibility for us, an semi-possible condition build. Now that sigils only share CDs with respect to name, it might actually be possible to base a build around them. Something like sigil of geomancy/sigil of doom + our innate burning. Also with the unknown Rune changes, it could mean even more possibilities. The issue with this though, is that no matter what, every other class is still going to have better access, since they can just do the same thing, plus have the extra conditions….

However, I think Might stacking is going to be the way now, Even more so for RHS builds as you will be able to stack sigil of battle, sigil of strength and EM for some pretty nice constant might stacks.

Dont forget Sigil of Torment!
Burning Guardian Tormenting the Geomancer of Doom!

@Orpheal

The amount of different types of sigils must stay so because they cannot remove current content, not at least without giving us compensation. Let’s say tomorrow they decided to remove all sigils from everyone’s weapons and inventories so people can buy new sigils because certain sigil types dont exist anymore. Everyone would be raging.

It is already borderline that they are changing the stats Runes, specially after people spent so much gold on their current Runesets. This is called Bait and Switch, the Runeset is advertised as something before you buy it, then changes to something else due to whatever crazy nerf patch decides to hit.

The minimum here is that people get to keep their current Runesets and Sigils, even though changed, while looking at new stuff. You cannot remove things from people’s inventories.

ArchonWing.9480:

Turtle Dragon.9241:

Fashion Mage.3712:

Not entirely sure of the specifics surrounding the healing breeze changes (like how much does it heal for now exactly?), but I think I enjoy these changes, especially those general changes. I’ve always thought healing breeze should’ve even been more supporty.

It heals for 50% of its value when used, then 10% of the value on each pulse for a total of 5 pulses over 5 seconds(1 pulse/s). The second part is what heals allies too, so you can expect allies to get healed for about 50% of the value stated on Healing Breeze(provided they stay in range of the cone for 5 whole seconds). They said about 4500 or so, and scales “really well” with Healing Power in the livestream.

ArchonWing.9480:

These changes sound like trash. I hope that’s just not it. Nerfing the vigor with nothing to compensate?

“Hey, x class is too reliant on y. Let’s nerf it w/o giving alternatives!”

Actually we are all getting compensated. We can now have 2 sigils in a 2-handed weapon and also have each sigil on their own internal cooldown. So if you use your 2nd sigil as Endurance(50% Endurance back on swap), it compensates.

That’s still a direct hit to people that use one hander/offhand.

Though I’m curious on the change to begin with. Are two handers that inferior to one hander/off handed that they need 2 upgrade slots?

2 sigils in a 2-handed is a minor point
The major point is “each sigil has their own cooldown”.

Some people were simply not using Sigil of Endurance because it would put Sigil of Battle on Cooldown and vice versa. Now we get can slot both in the SAME weapon set.
I dont see how 1-handed get nerfed. Maybe because it is not superior to 2-handed anymore? 2-handed supposedly has more weapon damage, but who knows, they could nerf that or buff 1-handed damage.

Ignavia.7420:

Turtle Dragon.9241:

Orpheal.8263:

There are so many possible new suffix’ there to be used.

Why not simple use both suffix fro mboth weapons and make a new suffix out of both in relationship of what the two used suffix were?

Example:

Apothecary’s Pearl Broadsword of Frailty
Apothecary’s Pearl Broadsword of Strength

= Apothecary’s Pearl Broadsword of Devastation

Devastation becoming a new Suffix for when combining Frailty with Strength
That way when you see the suffix Devastation on a Weapon, then you can clearly know direct, which kind of Sigils are on that weapon combined.

Involves way too much coding and way too many names.
If there are 60 sigils, and there is a combination for each 2 sigils:
I end up with 60! different names of sigils
which is 60 × 59 × 58 x 57 × ... × 2 x 1 names required.

I don’t quite get your math. If you have 60 possibilities for the first sigil and 60 possibilities for the second sigil, there are 60×60 = 3600 different options overall. Disregarding order there would be 1800. Nonetheless this is way to complicated.

Correct, my math is bad.

Noah.4756:

Obtena.7952:

Pretty meh IMO … Improving to heals to make them balanced with heals we use. Change to VP which won’t affect build decisions.

So you’re saying guardians with full DPS builds will still be able to ‘face-tank’ every encounter even without permanent vigor? Also note that enemies take longer to kill as well due to the nerf to critical damage.

Like I mentioned above, maybe not with “full DPS”. But if you take the new sigil mechanic, Sigil of Endurance(on one set or both) could get you close. However, I dont know if putting in Sigil of Endurance would be considered “full DPS”, as that sigil slot is easily worth +5% damage from a Sigil of Force.

They made it very very clear that they want people to use Sigil of Battle with Sigil of Endurance together because we now can. I think they said it at least 5 times.

Fashion Mage.3712:

Not entirely sure of the specifics surrounding the healing breeze changes (like how much does it heal for now exactly?), but I think I enjoy these changes, especially those general changes. I’ve always thought healing breeze should’ve even been more supporty.

It heals for 50% of its value when used, then 10% of the value on each pulse for a total of 5 pulses over 5 seconds(1 pulse/s). The second part is what heals allies too, so you can expect allies to get healed for about 50% of the value stated on Healing Breeze(provided they stay in range of the cone for 5 whole seconds). They said about 4500 or so, and scales “really well” with Healing Power in the livestream.

ArchonWing.9480:

These changes sound like trash. I hope that’s just not it. Nerfing the vigor with nothing to compensate?

“Hey, x class is too reliant on y. Let’s nerf it w/o giving alternatives!”

Actually we are all getting compensated. We can now have 2 sigils in a 2-handed weapon and also have each sigil on their own internal cooldown. So if you use your 2nd sigil as Endurance(50% Endurance back on swap), it compensates.

Orpheal.8263:

There are so many possible new suffix’ there to be used.

Why not simple use both suffix fro mboth weapons and make a new suffix out of both in relationship of what the two used suffix were?

Example:

Apothecary’s Pearl Broadsword of Frailty
Apothecary’s Pearl Broadsword of Strength

= Apothecary’s Pearl Broadsword of Devastation

Devastation becoming a new Suffix for when combining Frailty with Strength
That way when you see the suffix Devastation on a Weapon, then you can clearly know direct, which kind of Sigils are on that weapon combined.

Involves way too much coding and way too many names.
If there are 60 sigils, and there is a combination for each 2 sigils:
Frailty + Strength = Strength + Frailty
which is 60 + 59 + 58 + 57 + … + 2 + 1 names required.

Edit: math

Welcome to GW2.
Knew it was broken from the start.
Still decided to invest in it regardless.
It gets fixed.
Everyone screams nerf.

I am not pointing at you specifically, but everyone here acts like this.

Old Example: Pure of Voice for Guardian was removing 2 shouts when it said 1 in description. Everyone equipped Pure of Voice build. When they fixed it, everyone screamed nerf!

Upcoming Example: Spirit of Nature for Ranger currently healing for 480 per second instead of 320 per 3 seconds. Spirit of Nature is getting moved to 320 per second. Still considered a nerf!

Admittedly the 2 examples I gave would cost you at most 3s50 to change build, and changing your whole Ascended gears because of this nerf will cost you about 1000 times more(literally), but we should all have known that they would not leave 11% Critical Damage on Celestial Ascended Greatsword(where Zerker only has 10%) just like that, it was too good to be true.

Another costly Example: All those expensive Runes and Sigils you bought are about to get changed to have effects possibly completely different from what you bought them for, a.k.a Bait and Switch technique. It does not matter if your current Runes and Sigils stay the same, it suffices for 1 Runeset to be better than your current one to make you spend on that.

Regardless of something broken being fixed or not, this is the pattern:
They will nerf something and all of your money has been wasted because of the builds or stats become invalid. Then they buff something else so that you have to switch to the new meta and gear, which means you grind new gear all over again. No more need for vertical progression, this is totally horizontal. We probably wont get swappable Ascended gear.

To be safe, you need to take the following precautions:
1. Reroll Warrior, they will always get only minimal nerfs and be the best.
2. Grind your Legendaries, they can swap stats at will.