Guild Wars 2

I feel they just try to do this. Classes that counter each other more and more offensive direction. I hope ele gets some good things to compete, otherwise with cele removed it might get hard.

+1 This would fit and be active.

lighter.2708:

Shirlias.8104:

For MMO is diversity.

For PVP is balance.

Diversity is mostly opposite to Balance

The More diversity, the less Balance, and viceversa.

only within balance it exists diversity

+1 This is so true.

Well an example for the split.
You mix rabid and carrion.

You get: 1200 condi , 450 power, 450 precision, 450 toughness, 450 vitality.
This would be less then the 4 stat amus and your 5 stat amus. I can´t see a problem in it. You give 3 stat and those splited. People create their 3-6 Stat mix.

And this is also dependent on the devs. High diversity will always lack somewhere having lesser viable skills, but good devs investing a lot effort can get both. I say it would be possible to create 3-5 viable and diffrent meta specs for each class and variants maybe not consided top but having their benefits. In the end you should involve the comunity to learn weaknesses and get good ideas how to work on perfection.
When i see the changes is see some good thoughts behind, but it feels like to less effort invested and to much influence from marketing/finance to make balance and diversity possible.

good that its gone ;-). But diversity and customisation is a good thing.
When the amulets would get split, this won´t be OP. It would just give diversity. Eve nwhen you select two splits that end up in + to all stats it won´t match cele and usually it won´t make sense.
Also 5 stat amulets won´t be a problem unless you create another bunker amu like 5 stats with 900 toughness and healing + 560 vit + power + condi …

A flat chill imunity without HP border. Nothing more. Its very specific but i guess great.

Agree. Build diversity is important. I see its much harder to balance for e-sports but it´s doable. Bringing each class down to one viable e-sports build and focus on that is a very bad thing. Key for MMO´s is diversity and customisation.

Would take the following:

900 Condition, 900 Toughness, 560 Precision, 560 Healing, 560 Expertise

This one would please me. Wanderer swaping toughness and precision.

1050 Condition
1050 Toughness
560 Precision
560 Expertise

No. Make it diffrent.

Split the current amulets into Armor and Amulet.

Result = Much varity with easy change.

I also like more condi traits. Strength of stone seems to complicated. I would go like this.

lower the ICD of Burning precision to 3s.
One with fire: Give it 100% fire aura duration.
Power Overwhelming: A simple another 20% burn duration would also be a neat and easier buff.
Blinding ashes: Make ICD better again and give it 6sec. (we had 5 now

Serrated stones: Here should be the poision. Instead of +5% damage inflict 3s of posion when you bleed someone (ICD 5s). Keep the bleed duration.
The problem here is as tempest you usually need the protection on aura if you take earth.

Strength of Stone: Add: 50% chance on a critical hit to apply 5s weakness (ICD 10s)

Change the -10% damage absorb in baseline to a +10 or better +20% condi duration. so make it offensive.

Water is no full condi element. While of course buffing it for that is nice it feels to much and unfiting.

Other buffs:
Scepter: change the bleeding from the last earth autoattack to poision.
lower the cast time and direct damage of flame strike 25% so it aplys more burn.

Focus: lower CD of fire aura to 20s, lower CD of gust to 30s

Offhand dagger: replace chunning earth to be a instant 180 rad 200 knockback that inflicts 2 beelding stacks on 30s CD.

I also tried a bit with using arcane again instead of fire. Its a bit hard to decide what to use but fire feels still better.

So DS rework or cele removal is no issue for me and it´s good.
The booncorupt and aura shortening is what i realy dislike. It just hurts all eles and not the cele/DS meta and that is bad.
A non cele/DS ele already has a hard time agaisnt reapers. No need to push this further.
An the thing is. 1s off only realy concerns me for fire aura. The aura considerd weakest should be buffed not shafted. Shorten the other 3 and make +1 to fire aura ^^.

I did not run cele and i did test how much toughness feels good.
It is the 560 spot. without toughness i got troubles. Settlers was noticeable but lacked damage for me. 900 toughness did´t make noticeable diffrence. I run wanderes + soldier rune and this feels the right spot. Wanderer with toughness and precision swaped would be perfect for my playstyle.
The main defence is protection. If its riped once i usualy can reaply but constant destruction will kill me.

no cele amulet and if you rip protection ele is dead.

It might be strange to affect at range, but we don´t need an aura nerf now!

dodge on overload is it XD.

Diversity and counter builds makes my day. If i get forced to fixed builds i am out.
A major driver for an mmo is customisation and there not only visual.
Of course this makes balacing hard.
But despite its hard. I don´t understand that ANet struggles so much. This feels like a resource and marketing/finance v.s. working on real balance fight.
It will never work if you don´t dedicate (full time job for a few month) a small balance team (e.g. 3 good designers) to the job, and let them work without interference.

I hope for some good buffs on 26 compensating cele loss. Scepter, WH, a bit focus, fire traits, elite, conjures .. so much still not cared about.

Its stratecic play that wins…… I win against preamdes with random groups when they listen… But it usualy doesn´t work well without speech comunication, which is soloQ.

Reaper is already one of the strongest ele enemies. It will get worse with the added corrupt and no cele. Ele lives from his protection boon. If this is corrupted he falls.
I personaly mainly use might and protection. Weakness and vulnerability is not such a big deal for me but loosing the boons can be devasting.

I also belive reaper will be meta. And we will see two on some teams. But to much can become a boomerang. But the necros might devastate other classes and throw them out of meta like ele that gets shafted loosing celestial.

Mercenary will show us some powerful builds. I can imagine druids with it doing great damage while maintaing good sustain. Its the better version of carrion. I am concerned this one overshoots.

I would like Wanderers swaping Precision/Toughness.
This one would be great:

1050 condi damage
1050 toughness
560 Precision
560 Healing Power

+1 To Gokil.

Laraley wrote: It’s rather based on decisions than rotations

This is the reason i love tempest. I am a tactical player not fast klicking and rotating always the same. For some its boring but i can beat down oponents by only 2-3 swaps a fight …. Its all about positioning and watching what your oponent does.

Especially the reapers are the reason why i only run soldier rune in PvP ….

we also have 4 elements and arcane… If earth doesnt make it another one might help.

The new amulets are better …. I would have left soldiers. Sentinel and cele removal was good.

ele is always adaptable. It just happens that build diversity is constantly hindered and eles are usually forced into water. If they can make it into the new meta i don´t know. It´s to be feared that only fresh air can do it.

Yes they come out of a fight to target me when i am at 50%. After 5-10 seconds they usualy leave me unless they fully cought me out of earth with my CD´s in bad shape. But this situation is quite rare. Maybe i have to dodge for the next CD coming back …. As soone as i can swap back to earth he is usually stoped.
So i agree OF and no endurance + earth on CD usualy means i go down. But this is like the oposite of engaging full. Its a worst case scenario. Still when this happens i usualy have one dodge + somthing left like my fire 5 aura which can buy a few seconds for casting heal.

My build is in this thread ^^ . I don´t use burning fire i use burning precision for more ranged procs and the duration. I have cleansing flame on my toolbar and use focus.

I did write that. Geomancy is out. I am uneas if i shall use earth or doom instead of generosity. Earth will constantly inflict more bleeds. It has a 2s CD and i have over 50% crit rate.

Hmm i realy like my torment sigil :-). And i feel comftable with generosity which realy fits in but i am not 100% shure if i should change it to doom or even earth. Geomancy is short range and i fight with scepter. With my crit rate i will inflict more bleed with earth then geomancy. Its just more single target. For dagger main shure gemonancy is great!

He does not understand how we beat thiefs :-). I already killed a thief in 5 seconds. He was obvious a zerker and he tried to pull of his attack chain knowing i expected him coming …. 3s fight, then he cloked to save his butt but died a second later to the condi bomb i had applied … One cleanse in stealth when you have 6+ condis on you with one 5+ burn stacks must not save you ….
OK my build is a bit diffrent but you end with about this when you attack.

Within less then two seconds i apply:
5+ burn stacks, cripple, chill, 3+ bleed stacks, torment, weakness, blind + throw back one condi.

One of the main culprits is feel the burn. Traited (one with fire, elemental shielding, elemental bastion, tempestous aria) it INSTANTLY does:

Damge (might trigger procs), Fire aura (+heal), 4 Might, WEAKNESS, PROTECTION.

So if you hit me you get more burn and i might, while i swap to earth and you hit a rock. A thief must play smart or he is the one to be instagibbed ^^. Most don´t expect this from an ele and this makes the win. A power based thief has to disengage imidiately when i swap to earth. There is no way to win this for him.

Of course my build is not meta and it´s not perfect but thiefs are not to fear.
Reapers are a diffrent thing ;-).
And Dahir will do it a bit diffrent but i expect him slaying thiefs too. In WvW its even worse with wanderers in the build.

I even don´t run cele in PvP and i mostly use obsidian flesh for the stomp not to save me. XD.

Sadrien.3470:

Shirlias.8104:

Seigfried.5938:

Derm.4932:

thank god

i’d rather have a berserker meta. at least that takes some amount of skill. current meta turns skill clickers into pro

I’m sorry, but you’re dreaming if you think the next one will be a zerker meta. With all the condi and boon corrupt buffs, expect each team to be running multiple necros

Agree.

I fear there will be more than one necro per party… sigh…

2 Necros + 1 scrapper + 1 ele or bunker dh or druid + 1 thief

This is about what i think too. But i am not shure if ele can make it in after the changes. Druid might outperform this slot.

2 Reaper + 1 Scrapper + 1 Druid + 1 Daredevil.

rest might underperfoms this and burn in the top tier meta. Diversity still seems non existent diamonds and up. To break this you now need another class out of the above that hardcounter the reapers …. Who is it ?

ele is smashed by the reapers now.
Mesmer ? I guess no way. And the thief in the party will instagibb him.
Revenant? LoL necro will eat him.
Warrior? I guess best bet with burst and CC combination. But scrapper and Druid destroyes him.

The above team has high firepower, teamfighters in it and a thief to counter glass cannons and go for fast downs. The scrapper and druid can even bunker a bit.

Maybe more is possible but the fast imression brings it down to a very small setup.

-This is what i fear. Water comes back as mandatory for ele.

I am a fan of arcane brilliance (especially traited), but wash the pain away is the way to go now for me. I used glyph in the past but it doesn´t fit annymore.

we all hope that scepter a bit focus and wh gets love. Also after the changes i think RTL could get rid of the 40s CD again. Not to speak of our elite and other utility skills. HOT added shouts to cantrips but rest is still underperforming.

I stick to my ele and will try to make my build and myself better.
But i am tempted to roll a reaper.

ele is adaptable and i even didb´t use cele amulet and DS ^^. I agree the amulet is strong for ele.

Pepsi indeed did make a good post. I am just not 100% strict that way. It must be looked in depth for each passive. I am a fan of passives that make playing feel better for low skilled players but don´t push good ones. This helps to keep players and give them time to get better with less frustration. I personaly am more hardcoe. I won´t give up even after getign anihilated for days. I stand up and get better but nowerdays people tend to quit fast without success.
Also the key of a game for me is build diversity and build tactics/strategy which should have more impact then pure skill. The game would be dead for me if each class has one e-sports build all are about the same with slightly diffrent roles and it comes down to 80%+ player skill. I want strategy, team tactics and counterbuilds not pure reaction training. I have the most fun with games that include uncontroalable human interaction and where you have to adapt to the situation, crying in the microfone the changing strategy and a team that reacts fast to changign environement makes my day. A fight where you can only optimize your chances but not see evrything is a good one. Even the best can die from a stray bullet. But thats maybe just me. I am a strategist and tend to be a comander. Had been a good chess player in the past. I am not the best in pure klick reaction and have to focus on a class to hold the level needed.

Don´t nerf aura duration would be a begining…. Then buff scepter autoattacks and look at all our utilities and tune them… Give us a realy good elite.

It´s good for tactical depth being able to hold 1:2 for a while with the right build. Of course the bunker should loose. 1:3 sould lead to fast death or force imidiate disengage.

Powerful all around builds are one of the bad things. It kills diversity and focuses on skill. (Cele amulet wink wink ^^)

The key is to match players of the same level in pvp.
For WvW its diffrent. There it only gets troublesom if a guild with a high organisation level and skilled players rolls over much weaker players. Player numbers and skill levels should be about the same.
Also build diversity and embeded rock/paper/scissor systems help much here. When the casual beats the pro, because he just got the right counterbuild its good and leads to high motivation. The pro will still win much more and in teamplay when tactic is involved via speech com, the weaker team usualy looses but its not hopless and less trained players might win with brains and this makes the day ;-).

Its in the mechanic. The more high skill is rewarded, the larger the gap, and the more frustaration comes up. This leads to lower skilled players to leave. Generally players without enough wining experiences that can´t see they can catch up (casuals?) will leave. This will crawl botom up and reduce a game into a small elitists group.
So annyone asking for high skill caps (also good technical equipement and fast internet) should think of what this will cause. This is why passives are good and the UI must not be overloaded an kept well learnable for casual gamers.
When designign for e-sports you must also think of it! A big mistake is to let only the top players design the game, because this can lead to those high skill caps.

A good suggestion was to split all current amulets in weapon/armor/trinkets.
So you can pick diffrent ones for custom combinations. That would be enough.
Even a simple 50/50 (or 40/60) split armor/trinkes would be nice. And yes you can pick the same which will result in the current amulets. It would create a lot of options.

People maining a class for a long time usually know this already ….

I would like it, but it would allow for max bunker setups and its planed to get rid of them.
Its intended not to make it custom for more control.