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HoT Music Appreciation thread!

in Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns

Posted by: Xenon.4537

Xenon.4537

I am going to send Lena this link. I know she’ll appreciate all the approbation! Thanks for posting.

Thank you Gaile! You are also amazing too, as well! I still remember a few years back when you personally helped me with a GW1 account issue and you were super nice and quick. <3

I also wanted to add about the Labyrinthine Cliffs song. I love it so much because it perfectly captures the feelings of sadness from the loss of Glint, as well as the fond memories of her and how she helped humanity in her life. And thinking of Glint brings up the events with Destiny’s Edge fighting alongside Glint against Kralkatorik and losing Snaff (I actually teared up at that part in the book xD). It’s very melancholy at the beginning and end which evokes the sense of Zephyrites drifting not only through the air, but through purpose and emotion. The middle of the song makes me think of how wonderful it must be as a Zephyrite to use the sun and wind magic to fly around and be free. I just love Lena’s style of mixing sad and mysterious sounds with exciting and uplifting melodies. I think she nailed it with Tarir as well. ^^

HoT Music Appreciation thread!

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Posted by: Xenon.4537

Xenon.4537

I just wanted to express my feels for the amazing music I’ve heard so far. My favorite is the theme “Tarir, The Forgotten City” composed by Lena Chappelle. When the music swells around 1:23 it fills me with joy every time. <3

I recently learned Lena also composed the “Labyrinthine Cliffs” and “Sanctum Sprint” songs, which are two of my super favorites since the new composers took over for Jeremy Soule. Lena you are amazing! <3 <3 <3

I haven’t had much time to play the expansion due to university where I literally spend 80-100 hours a week on 3D modeling and animation. But I’ve been listening to the sound track while working and I love it. Thank you Anet music/sound team! <3

Am I Reading this correctly?

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Posted by: Xenon.4537

Xenon.4537

Here’s the thread if anyone’s curious. It’s actually kinda funny reading back on that stuff. The summary basically sounds like an exact description of HoT. And people say Anet doesn’t listen to it’s fans…

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/cdi/CDI-Character-Progression-Horizontal

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/cdi/CDI-Character-Progression-Vertical

Am I Reading this correctly?

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Posted by: Xenon.4537

Xenon.4537

Story time:

About 2 years ago (maybe less) Anet hosted a thread on these forums for the community to collaborate directly with developers to improve “long term character progression” in the game. The consensus of that discussion was to come up with the elite specialization system (and masteries). Key words here: “long term”. They basically wanted to give you something to work on after you hit 80 that would take some time and make your character feel like it is still getting stronger.

Fast forward to today:

We have HoT with elite specs and masteries. They take a long time to complete, and some people are unhappy about it. Can’t please everyone I suppose. Is it grind? Technically yes, but what did you expect? It’s an MMO, and the whole point of elite specs originally was to have some kind of progression after level 80 that would take longer than 1 afternoon. Worst case Anet just needs to tone it down a little bit.

It'll be easier next time...

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Xenon.4537

True, but keep in mind that later on there will be less players around. Doing the champions for HP and the area events will be next to impossible at this rate

This has me concerned. In my limited time playing so far I have run into maybe a grand total of 6 other players in the beginning of verdant brink, and 4 of them were AFK when I saw them. The other two didn’t stop to party up or help me out. They just jumped away on a glider or mushroom I couldn’t yet use.

Specifically there’s a hero challenge down at the bottom of “creeping crevasse” that I tried to do for about an hour before giving up. I simply couldn’t solo it. Full zerk and still not enough DPS to kill it. Maybe I’m rusty? Idk. It seemed pretty clear they meant it to be a group challenge because it’s a champ with a break bar and a bunch of adds, but no one was down there and I couldn’t see a reason to go down there besides the hero challenge. If people complete it already, they never go back and the area becomes dead.

Reasonable Suggestions for fixing HoT

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Posted by: Xenon.4537

Xenon.4537

I’ve only had time to play maybe 5 or 6 hours so far, but I agree with #1. I felt like I hit a brick wall when I came out of that first story instance in verdant brink. There was no clear story marker to proceed, the game suggested exploring the itzel village and doing events, but there was nothing going on at the itzel village. I couldn’t really go anywhere without a glider and there were literally no players doing events in that area. Half the activities require a glider or mushroom training. It feels weird not having the gliders explicitly referenced in the story before being required to go out and get one. It’s like “Oh here’s a story” and then “…oh and some glider stuff.. if you want…” except that you can’t really continue the story without it.

I feel like masteries could use some work making them more logical and tie into the story more directly (although I may be wrong… I haven’t made it to the next story instance yet…) I ran into a mastery point in a cave with poison clouds around it. The poison effect said “train itzel lore to survive”. Great. So I need mastery points to get this mastery point? That’s some bad circular logic.

As far as elite specs go though… I dunno. I logged on to my alt who had map completion from vanilla and instantly unlocked half the elite spec. When they originally held the CDI thread for long term character progression, (elite) specializations were the resulting idea. Seems to me that it’s meant to be a long term goal, not something you quickly unlock in an afternoon. Personally I’ll feel more attached to my character, and more satisfied once I finish the elite spec all because of how much effort it requires. If it was quick and easy what reason would I have to care about my character? Why am I invested in this game? Like I said I haven’t had time to play enough to really feel the grind, so whatevs. I just don’t want to be handed everything quickly. I want to feel like I’m progressing my character’s strength leading to the final story arc, and then even further if I get into raiding.

Arcane Thievery ...confirm?

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Xenon.4537

I miss the good old days when AT traded ALL your conditions for ALL their boons… And it still barely worked…

Conditions vs. Environment

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Xenon.4537

So what is the verdict on PvE condi? I’ve tried some builds with full ascended sinister. The damage is technically there, but it is very impractical because clones get randomly cleaved too much. In my experience I can either choose to auto attack for bleeds, or shatter for confusion/torment. The tradeoff doesn’t seem worth it, but the clones just won’t stay alive… I tried condi chronomancer in the BWE and it seemed pretty strong, but only because IR and F5 made it possible to stack tons of torment. But they are nerfing that so who knows.

I can’t afford a set of perplexity runes at the moment, and I haven’t tried undead or tormenting runes. So I’ve been running krait, though I’m skeptical that perplexity or tormenting are viable in pve… I wonder is rabid + undead better than sinister + krait?

The Robert Gee Appreciation Thread

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Posted by: Xenon.4537

Xenon.4537

Unicorns 4 Life
—Robert

Mesmer shortbow confirmed next elite spec!

Simple solutions for energy complains

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Posted by: Xenon.4537

Xenon.4537

I dont had many troubles building up energy

How did you build up energy? Is there some skill or trait that helps? Because as far as I can tell, you simply auto attack and wait for energy… It’s not a very complex system is it?

Simple solutions for energy complains

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Posted by: Xenon.4537

Xenon.4537

I like the fact that energy management is something you need to put your brain on instead of just mashing buttons.

How does energy in it’s current form require a brain to use?

Revenant Elite Specialization Unveiled

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Xenon.4537

So to solve the stacking problems in PvE… Anet designs a spec entirely around stacking for these upkeep auras. Flawless logic.

Wizard Hat Dyeable?

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Posted by: Xenon.4537

Xenon.4537

Did you break all your armor trying to find the right color to match the hat? All that rinsing and scrubbing…

[Suggestion] Mimics

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Posted by: Xenon.4537

Xenon.4537

I just wanted to say I love you Anet. Thank you for listening.

I really hope there’s a legendary mimic that eats people. >:D

25% movement speed skill

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Posted by: Xenon.4537

Xenon.4537

Already confirmed impossible odds will be changed with cooldown on legends in and out of combat.

I think I saw something from Roy though about 25% speed boost saying right now it’s not impossible. We will find out Friday

Really? they are nerfing the impossible odds thing out of combat? Seems like typical ham-fisted “balance” team… Why couldn’t they just change it to swiftness instead of super speed? Leave the kitten skill alone so revenants don’t have a migraine getting around… sigh.

Rev Feedback: builds I tested...

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Posted by: Xenon.4537

Xenon.4537

I tried out a power DPS build and a condi DPS build. Both ran almost identical traits and weapons. Both had almost identical gameplay.


Power DPS for PvE – Devastation/Corruption/Invocation

  • sword/sword, hammer, berserker’s gear
  • Assassin’s Presence, Ferocious Strikes, Swift Termination
  • [Optional], Bolstered Anguish, Maniacal Presence
  • Fierce Infusion, Incensed Response, Roiling Mists

Combat was basically camp in Shiro until 100%, activate Impossible Odds, auto attack until 0 energy, repeat. You only swap to Mallyx if you need to heal.


Condi DPS for PvE – Devastation/Corruption/Invocation

  • mace/sword, sword/axe, rabid gear (no sinister available)
  • Rapid Lacerations, Nefarious Momentum, Assassin’s Annihilation
  • Venom Enhancement, Spontaneous Destruction, Pulsating Pestilence
  • Fierce Infusion, Incensed Response, Roiling Mists

Combat was basically start in Shiro, activate Impossible Odds, use 2 -> 3 -> 1, swap, activate Embrace Darkness, 2 -> 3 -> 1, swap, repeat sequence.

You never bother to go over 50%. It takes roughly as much time for IO/EtD to drain you to 0% as it does for legend swap to come off cooldown. Mobs rarely have boons to make Banish Enchantment worth it. Unyeilding Anguish is detrimental in PvE because it randomly displaces mobs making it much harder for you and your allies to attack them. May as well stick to the 3 mace skills to stack condi and blast might as fast as you can.


Rapid Lacerations seems to stack with Impossible Odds giving you a silly attack speed of +70% which lets you proc more conditions. The DPS in both builds was “okay” though not as impressive as other classes. Maybe I’m playing it wrong… Or maybe Brazil is right and it needs more damage modifiers. Or… maybe… Energy needs to be looked at…

Overall I found both builds pretty boring to play. I never needed to actually switch weapons. Ever. Offhand sword was pretty useless in pve. I only took it for the benefit of traits. You need it for the condi build to trigger Rapid Lacerations. None of the other legends or trait lines seemed to offer anything useful to PvE. I made these builds purely with focus on getting the necessary high DPS for pve. Even with every damage-boosting trait I could find, I felt weaker than other classes, and I lacked a lot of damage mitigating skills other classes have in their full zerker specs.


But enough about me. What did you all find? Did you have better luck than me figuring out a fun build that did better dps? I never tried revenant pvp so maybe someone can shed light on that experience.

(edited by Xenon.4537)

Why not replace Distortion with CSplit?

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Posted by: Xenon.4537

Xenon.4537

Either that or just remove the F5 (i actually prefer this). It’s very hard to balance and very much op in its current form. Move speed and clone/phantasm respawn is (for me) already a very good reason to go Chrono. The added F5 makes it strictly better than base Mesmer.

It would be criminal of them to remove CSplit. This skill is the single biggest game-changer they have ever added to the game. It created a whole combo system that never existed and makes the class 9001% more fun to play. Anet wanted elite specs to change the way you play the class. Well, this skill does exactly that in a huge fundamental way. It even harkens back to the GW1 mesmer.

I’m more in favor of CSplit replacing distortion if necessary for balance. A smart mesmer using CSplit could double up on other defensive skills. Distortion is hardly necessary.

Bounce-based Phantasms MUST GO!

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Xenon.4537

I guess I’m a really bad mesmer for not knowing how my phantasms actually work. I thought that tool tips said “this phantasm grants [effect] to your allies” meant that it would give that out in an aoe of 5 targets. That’s how to should be anyway… Seems really broken and useless if it relies on a bounce that most likely never hits anyone…

There's something wrong with alacrity

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Xenon.4537

Are you sure you didn’t have the 33% alacrity duration trait or something? Or maybe the game places alacrity on you a fraction of a second after mind wrack goes on cooldown? It doesn’t sound like there’s different math going on. It sounds like a slight delay due to programming limitations.

The game ‘ticks’ interval recharges on a global-like basis, not a per-case basis. You can test it with Pledge and Prestige. You should have 6 intervals (6s of stealth) with PU, but you sometimes only get 5 intervals. Just count how many times the cooldown “ticks” down (not literally ticks, but you’ll see when it jumps/skips). Ignore the fact that the cooldown is ticking too fast for Pledge’s 1.5% CDR. Just keep dropping it every so often and you’ll see.

I’m not 100% sure what you mean by this. Are you saying that the game keeps a steady clock and counts down boons and cooldowns based on this global clock? If so that still doesn’t account for the possibility that the game might take 0.03 of a second to get from “you cast mind wrack” to “apply traited effects added to this skill”. No matter what a computer system takes time to calculate, even if it is an incredibly small amount of time and a simple calculation. Anet might be able to tighten it up if they are aware of it though.

The reason I suggested this possibility is because engineers used to have a trait in explosives that gave 3 stacks of might when you use a healing skill, but it would apply that might about 1 second after you finish casting. It seemed odd when used with HGH because the 2 stacks of HGH would immediately apply, and then a second later (after the elixir bottle hit the ground) the other 3 stacks would show up.

Basically this amounts to an inconsistency in their coding which results in some off-timing of certain things. I can’t remember the name of that engineering trait. Apparently it doesn’t exist anymore, but I remember it was a master trait in the explosives line of the old trait system.

[constructive feedback] Is chrono OP?

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Posted by: Xenon.4537

Xenon.4537

Actually you can kill chronomancer more easy than a Pu mesmer.

they just gave us more utility,

stop crying, thief still kill us

Yeah I was getting destroyed by thieves in pvp today. I hope Anet waits until all the elite specs are out and we’ve had time to play them for a few weeks before making any major changes. Let the community adjust first.

There's something wrong with alacrity

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Posted by: Xenon.4537

Xenon.4537

Are you sure you didn’t have the 33% alacrity duration trait or something? Or maybe the game places alacrity on you a fraction of a second after mind wrack goes on cooldown? It doesn’t sound like there’s different math going on. It sounds like a slight delay due to programming limitations.

[constructive feedback] Is chrono OP?

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Xenon.4537

I really love what the chronomancer has done for the class. I think the mechanics are far superior in execution than any other elite spec so far. F5 adds so much complexity to combat by affording a unique comboing system. Alacrity is a sweet buff that trains you to develop a certain rhythm to keep those faster cooldowns flowing.

I’ve tried the reaper as well. While it is flashy and seems strong, the new mechanics for reaper don’t even come close to how thoughtful the design of the chronomancer is. I just think that the chronomancer is the one they actually managed to achieve their goal with; make you play the class differently. I love it.

Chrono in pve

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Xenon.4537

I tried dom/duel/chr and took as many alacrity sources as possible. I actually really enjoyed it once I figured out how to use F5 to produce something like 10-15 seconds of alacrity uptime.

[constructive feedback] Is chrono OP?

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Posted by: Xenon.4537

Xenon.4537

I’ve had a ton of fun so far with chronomancer. I made a build focused on keeping up alacrity and the effects were awesome. F5 is very tricky to use to your advantage. You have to plan ahead and know which skills to use first to trigger it, and then which skills to use while its active so that they are available again after it finishes. The short time limit (6 seconds max) coupled with the threat of the rift being cleaved down early, makes it pretty balanced IMO. I don’t feel like chronomancer is overpowered at all. I get wrecked all the time in pvp with it despite the new abilities. I can beat some people, but it’s roughly 50/50.

I love alacrity right now, but I’m 99% convinced Anet is going to swoop in and nerf it… They will say “we feel uncomfortable with these cooldowns” and reduce it to like 33% speed. And then they will say “it needs more counterplay” and turn it into a regular boon so it can be stolen/stripped. Then they will say “hmmm elementalist and engineer need some more boons… lets give them alacrity!” and then mesmer will go cry in a corner once again…

meet .......!!!

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Xenon.4537

They aren’t releasing new info this week because the beta is this weekend. and they are doing Gamescom at which they will hopefully have some big news to announce.

I would be very dissapointed when they do have something big to announce. the only thing big can be a release date. They always said when they are ready.

I always hate it when company use a convention to make a big announcement. It means they are only after the publicity.

If they take the player as serious as they say they do, they make an announcement when they know it. So within 48 hours from the boardmeeting where the last lights turned green!

Nonsense.

First of all, they still have 5 elite specializations to show and “challenging group content” on top of the release date.

Second, you can’t expect any company to pass up the benefit of hype and publicity. That is just insane. Arenanet have over 300 employees who need to put food on the table and keep a roof over their head. Contrary to popular belief, game developers work for a living and need money to keep going. It logically follows that they will use any advantage they can to keep a positive profit margin. This includes waiting until the right moment to make announcements so that their fans are hyped and more willing to support things like Gamescom which benefit many developers, not just Anet.

And I just love this part…

So within 48 hours from the boardmeeting where the last lights turned green!

Do you have any idea what goes on in a studio?

meet .......!!!

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Xenon.4537

They aren’t releasing new info this week because the beta is this weekend. and they are doing Gamescom at which they will hopefully have some big news to announce.

It’s easier for them to manage community reactions and feedback when they don’t overload us with announcements. That’s why they do it at a slow trickle. Also Anet has a crazy archaic secrecy policy about everything. They are a company that’s been around for nearly 2 decades. Companies being super open and transparent with their games is a brand new trend that mostly indie devs adopted in the last 5 years.

Can we get an option to hide...

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Xenon.4537

I never understood why some people are so intent on playing MMOs in bubble.

What bubble? Just because I want to hide some things that I don’t care about? A lot of people have their character quality set to low or even lowest, which makes you see a generic armor set, are those people also playing on a bubble?

I think he was referring to people who want to play an MMO but go to great lengths to minimize human interaction to the point of single-player mode. Those people really do exist in great numbers and it is quite confusing…

A couple weeks ago there was a thread asking to be able to visually block people. That means chat, character avatar, mini pet, skill effects, EVERYTHING. Basically make it like they don’t even exist. There’s also frequently threads talking about the viability of soloing dungeons or other content, and threads asking to add NPC henchmen to the game to form parties instead of with real human players.

I get that your request doesn’t fit this extreme, but it seems along those lines in some way.

Help with Info: Want to Comeback to GW2

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Xenon.4537

I’m confused by the OP as well. Having 3 level 80 character’s, but being upset at the “area specific” dailies? A level 80 character should have no trouble going to any area of the game… But to each their own.

The whole reason they made the dailies area specific is to increase player traffic to other areas of the game. Otherwise everyone just goes to Queensdale for everything, and the rest of the game seems dead. It was a vital change to the health of the game and community.

A cool documentary on game development

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Xenon.4537

I was watching this documentary on the development of The Last of Us and it got me wondering what the process is like at Arenanet developing an MMO?

Does Anet have a motion capture stage like that, or are all the animations done by hand? I’m curious because WoodenPotatoes once mentioned he “liked the mocap” in one of the Heart of Thorns trailers, but I wasn’t convinced it was mocap. Admittedly I’m still just a student, but I know enough that the shot in question didn’t need mocap, and it contained a dragon which would be very hard to put in a mocap suit. Also I just wanted to share this documentary with everyone.

Mocap stage or not, this is what it’s like behind the scenes in a major game studio. I often feel like the average player’s impression of the devs is that of a bunch of interns and dudebros who hang out all day messing around on their computers. However, they don’t just throw things together quickly or press a magic “code it” button. Watch the video, and imagine the Anet team in their place. Then realize that The Last of Us was a single game that was made and released. Naughty Dog are done, and they moved on to new projects. Anet has been doing the same thing continuously for GW2 for 5+ years, and the process is STILL ongoing with Heart of Thorns. Something to think about.

Please Address the Female Human Animation

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Xenon.4537

@JustTrogdor.7892

Ahh sorry I kinda jumped to page 3 and only saw your post.

@DarkWasp.7291

I was only trying to point out that different devs have different jobs. Animators are artists who could be responsible for designing characters, modeling them, rigging them, and animating them. That includes any biped, quadruped, spider, snake, elder dragon, space alien, or skritt. Nothing moves on it’s own. Animators bring everything to life. They might also be involved in special effects like air ships flying around shooting things, buildings exploding, doors exploding, skritt exploding, or anything like that.

All the stuff animators do has to be coordinated with game designers (the guys who actually plan and program dynamic events, boss fights, etc). So an animator can’t just go back and edit an animation without making sure it’s not going to negatively affect other parts of the game made by non-animators.

Now really… human idle animations probably have a very low impact on other game systems. They shouldn’t be much of a problem to edit. However we have no idea how Anet sets up their asset pipeline, and all of that stuff has to be strictly controlled. Otherwise bugs and insanity run rampant. If an animator went in and changed something on a whim, he/she could get fired. It’s up to management to decide if they want to assign an animator to fix it, and I’m betting management is having them focus on HoT animations exclusively right now.

Please Address the Female Human Animation

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Posted by: Xenon.4537

Xenon.4537

I would prefer to see the return of human female idle animation and the human female run animation as opposed to seeing more living story.

Not me. Idle character animations to me are rather trivial. I’d rather see more living story content soon after HoT. I don’t sit around staring at my character on idle for hours or even minutes, but I do enjoy playing many hours of actual game content. If they work in the change without sacrificing progress toward more significant game updates then I have no problem with that.

Content does not equal animation. Granted, animation makes content a heck of a lot more enjoyable, but once the animators are done doing their job on content-related projects, they should be able to find time to adjust some idle animations.

However, anet’s track record for getting around to fixing things like this is really bad. An animator with free time can’t just go into the assets and make changes on a whim. He/she has to have permission, and it can’t interfere with other ongoing projects.

Sad loss of Heroes & Henchmen

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Xenon.4537

There is NOTHING sad about the loss of heroes and henchmen.

Given how ridiculously easy it is to get a casual group for any dungeon/fractal in the LFG tool (and I main a ranger), I can only think back to GW1 and how the introduction of heroes was the end of me being able to find a group. Everyone just ran with heroes. That was the end of GW1 being an MMO.

In short, stop being anti-social, make a group, and play with people. Don’t try and make this a single player game.

This x 9001

I played GW1 before they added heroes. There were henchman but they were really terrible at the time. To complete harder missions you needed players. Sadly there was a lot of waiting to find a monk, but it was at least social.

Once they added heroes, the game became 100% single player. Every guild I joined, every map chat I spoke in, everyone told me “just hero it”. No one wanted to bother playing together. Especially once the SABway/Discordway necro comp became popular. GW1 is literally a single player game with a chat system because of heroes/henchmen.

Trying to micromanage ground target aoe and dodges … good luck with that.

Or we can have AI for that.

Like the wonderful AI we already have? Lol.

Black Lion Keys. Are they worth it?

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Xenon.4537

Are they worth spending real money on? Short answer: no.

Long answer:

NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

am I the only one?

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Xenon.4537

Hearts were kinda cool when the game launched. I certainly loved them FAR more than traditional MMO questing. Hearts cut out all the run/fetch crap I hated in WoW. In GW2 you don’t have to waste time finding an NPC, taking the quest, and then running all the way back to turn the quest in. Hearts are just streamlined.

That said, I feel like Anet is finally starting to get the dynamic event system where they originally imagined it. Silverwastes is basically what Orr was supposed to be. If they make the same level of improvement again, then HoT will be a lot more fun than hearts in my opinion.

Stop the anti minion/pet rhetoric!

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Xenon.4537

On the Triple Trouble wurm in particular, it can be disastrous if there are stray pets out in the open during phase change. It is essential to pull the wurm to a wall, but you can’t do that if the wurm decides to charge at a pet in the middle of nowhere.

Energy 2.0

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Posted by: Xenon.4537

Xenon.4537

I totally disagree. Unlike initiative on a thief, Revenant weapon and utilities cost energy and they have skills that drain energy unlike Thief initiative points. They nothing alike. Simple as that.

Unlike Thief, Revenant can instantly regenerate 50% of the energy. Plus the energy regeneration is way faster.

I agree they are not alike.
What I said is just that starting at 100 energy could make you burst from the beginning, and it’s not what they want revenant to do, as they said.

Plus yeah, as ron said, you could use elite skill AND spam weaponskills, while elite is something you’re supposed to use later in a fight, or just prior to legendswap.

I still think elites need CDs and be buffed accordingly (typically in cast times),

But if they don’t increase the swap amount, they need to greatly increase energy generation without increasing costs, because like I said. Even now without doing anything at all, it takes the full time for your legend swap to cool down to reach 100 energy. You rarely ever go over 60 energy at this point because you constantly need to be doing something, and you will eventually just swap to be effective. The used energy to gained energy ratio is poor. But personally, I still feel like 100 energy to start is better because then you’re rewarded less for spamming high cost spells as you gain the energy back too slow. And with starting at 100, there is room for higher costs on certain skills they don’t want, such as a 60 cost which effectively prevents it from
Being spammed. I just feel like overall, it’s a better way to handle it.

I’m not sure why everyone started on thief initiative… That’s a lot of semantics I’d rather not get into with this thread.

As for your point ronpierce, I don’t think simply putting you to 100% is a good idea. All it would do is give you a bigger starting pool at the beginning of the fight rather than later. The gameplay is still the same:

  • Enter fight
  • blow big skills
  • swap for more energy
  • blow more big skills
  • wait for energy while auto attacking

The only thought placed in your skill decision from moment to moment is whether or not the enemy is ripe for a particular skill. In PvE this makes gameplay very face-roll because monsters are ripe for DPS 90% of the time. You might as well spam all your energy down to 0, and then spend half the fight auto attacking because everything costs energy and there’s no way to gain it back besides waiting.

I don’t think the combat in GW2 is too fast paced for energy-gain skills. It’s very simple, when you start to run low, you use one of those skills to attempt to regain energy faster than the passive rate. Each skill has different ways of getting you that energy which require more than just passive waiting.

For example it would make sense to use my proposed Renewing Surge, followed by Grasping Shadow + Forced Engagement. You could then follow up with Jade Winds and Beyond the Veil.

Or you could start the fight with an energy burst by doing Beyond the Veil + Impossible Odds + Phase Traversal. Against a large number of enemies it would be a net gain of 10 energy, offset by the -5 pips from Impossible Odds. So the whole combo would probably cost no energy and gain none if you land every hit, but you get the damage from it. The counterplay is that you would lose a lot of energy if any of them used a block or blind. Risk/reward.

Obviously energy costs would have to be balanced around these skills, I haven’t forgotten that.

Revenant Specs

in Revenant

Posted by: Xenon.4537

Xenon.4537

Every build will be Devastation + Invocation + Who cares. Just look where all the damage % modifiers are. Look where the Fury traits are. Look where the stunbreaks are. Etc, etc.

The only exception is for those rare situations where you want to tank or something…

Agreed, well for PvE at least. Corruption looks to be the contender for DPS (ironically works better in a Power build than condi build). Retribution would be used for tanking-esque, and Salvation offers recovery support.

How is Corruption better than Devastation for power builds? Last time I checked there was just the sure fire crit trait there.

I consider Devastation and Invocation to be mandatory in a Power build. Corruption would be the third Spec of the remaining three.

And as I learned today, Mallyx gives you (supposedly) 30% more damage due to stat increase while using Embrace the Darkness. You could probably just run the Mallyx legend with a different traitline in that case.

Energy 2.0

in Revenant

Posted by: Xenon.4537

Xenon.4537

Energy Gain

  • Offering of Spirit - This would be a utility skill modified for reviving allies. In GW2 you would sacrifice up to 50 energy when casting this. For 10 seconds you would revive allies 1% faster per point of energy spent. I would also add a trait (separate from this skill) that gives you 20 energy upon reviving an ally.
  • Marksman’s Wager - This one I would rename Beyond the Veil. In GW2 it would be an upkeep skill giving the revenant +5 energy on strike, but -10 on missing, and the upkeep cost would be -5 pips. So with a lot of frequent hits, you could gain back some energy slightly faster and mitigate the cost of cheaper skills. The risk of missing would make this an interesting choice.
  • Renewing Surge - This skill would be a utility or weapon skill. It would place a pulsing 360 aoe on ground target and last for 8 seconds. It would pulse 1 stack of Torment per second. When it ends you would gain 1 energy per strike by the skill during it’s duration. That means with an aoe cap of 5, and assuming it hits 5 on each pulse, your max energy gain would be 40.

Cost Modifying

  • Soul Twisting - I always loved the icon and theme of this skill. For the revenant it would be an elite skill. It would make your next 5 skills cost 30 less energy (minimum 0) and recharge 20% faster.
  • Air of Enchantment - This skill I would rename Mist Enchanting and it would be a trait. The trait would give you 5 energy whenever you apply a boon to an ally. It would have an internal cooldown.
  • Energizing Wind - This skill would be a utility. It would summon an immobile spirit. While in range of the spirit allies gain vigor periodically, and revenant skills cost 10 less energy. The spirit would last 30 seconds or until destroyed.

As you can see, the trend here is to make energy more of an active give/take system. You sacrifice some energy in the short term to gain more in the long term. Or you gain energy by playing intelligently. I was hoping for this when I first heard about Revenant energy, but what we got seems to be far too passive for my taste.

There are way too many interesting GW1 skills to list here. The ones I picked were just from a quick search. There are a lot more that could be adapted for the Revenant, some might even work better than the ones I picked. Here’s to hoping Roy reads this.

(edited by Xenon.4537)

Energy 2.0

in Revenant

Posted by: Xenon.4537

Xenon.4537

I posted this idea in some other threads, but I feel like it’s worth fleshing out on it’s own.

As we all know, Revenant uses Energy. I’m going to bring up GW1 energy a lot, but I do realize and acknowledge that it’s not necessarily the same “kind” of energy. Never the less, it does function in a very similar fashion.

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Energy

It was basically “mana” for every class to cast spells with. The whole concept of upkeep skills for Revenant comes directly from the same type of skill in GW1. I want to draw your attention to other types of energy-related skills in GW1. I also want to give you my ideas for altering those old skills to match the mechanics of the Revenant, and the gameplay of GW2. The goal here is to suggest a more interesting and engaging playstyle for the Revenant using the energy system. This could potentially raise the skill cap of the class and make Energy less monotonous.

I’ll try not to list too many skills… You can view the wiki page for more.


Increase Maximum Energy

  • Mighty Was Vorizun - In GW2, this skill would be renamed something like Ventari’s gift. The functionality would be similar though. It would actually be made into a trait for the Ventari Legend. While the tablet is active, you gain +20 maximum energy (120 total). When the tablet is destroyed, you go back to normal and refill +20 energy (so 100 energy max, but you regenerate 20 instantly from whatever level you had, up to the cap).

Energy Regeneration

  • Energetic Was Lee Sa - This would be a utility skill. It would basically work like a conjured weapon. You would summon the weapon in your hand, but no additional weapon would be placed on the ground. While holding this weapon you would gain +5 energy regeneration, but -30 to maximum energy. The +5 would counter, but not fully negate an upkeep skill. Or you could cast a lot more abilities while holding the weapon, then upon dropping it be granted the missing 30 points for a final spike. Again I would rename this to something that suites the Revenant. Perhaps Conjure Mist Weapon.
  • Ether Prodigy - This skill I would rename to Mist Channeling, but the functionality would remain almost the same. You would sacrifice all your boons and gain 10 seconds of +5 energy regen. When it ends you lose 30 points of health per point of energy you have left. That would make 3000 self damage if it ends when you are at max energy; not enough to kill you, but enough to justify the skill. That part would scale with your level, just to be safe.

continued…

Rev Weapon Swap Proposition

in Revenant

Posted by: Xenon.4537

Xenon.4537

You get 30% damage bonus under Mallyx Elite with power builds

I didn’t think of that. Point well taken.

And well, condis on a power build are not great, but it’s extra damage.

Indeed. See, my angle on this is that condi builds really suffer on revenant because there’s only 1 weapon set that actually comes with condi, and only 1 legend that works with them. Power builds are probably going to be just fine, but who’s surprised? They should just rename this game Power Wars 2.

I daresay I’m not the only one sick of running full zerk in pve. I’m wondering why it’s suddenly okay on the revenant forums.

Plus Staff+Jalis and Hammer+Ventari are actually better combos then the canonical ones.
Also read Roy’s comment here: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/revenant/Misconception-Legends-Weapons/first#post5325696

I can understand staff on Jalis because the skills tend to improve tanking… but hammer on Ventari? Why? Ventari is all about the heals and cleanse. Hammer gives you some range so I suppose that allows you to do backline support? Is that the idea? Seriously I’m just curious because Roy never explained. People just asserted that those combos were somehow better.

Again I would just like to have more DPS options for pve, otherwise it’s going to be boring to me. That 30% damage boost from Mallyx only makes it worse. That means my PvE build is set in stone:

[Shiro + Mallyx + Invocation]

Shiro has the raw DPS skills, as do swords. Devistation has half the raw % damage modifiers. The other half are in Invocation. Mallyx provides another 30% damage plus some minor condi utility. The only way this will change is if Glint provides something to offset the loss of Mallyx or Shiro. And either way there’s little reason to run without dual swords and hammer or staff.

This is getting a bit off topic, so I’ll try to reign it in. Weapon swapping adds some much needed flexibility and additional skills. I just wish they would have found a more creative solution. As it stands, they didn’t solve build diversity with this change. It was a bit of a missed opportunity in my opinion.

Misconception: Legends & Weapons?

in Revenant

Posted by: Xenon.4537

Xenon.4537

By no means are weapons tied to a specific legend. Revenant weapons are usually themed in feel and playstyle with a legend to create a comprehensive package if you want to play a certain way, such as sword, shiro, and the devastation line for physical damage. But that doesn’t mean that they aren’t meant to be mixed and matched as well to create unique and interesting builds. There are a lot of really cool builds you can make by trying out different combinations.

Could you provide examples? Because let’s say I wanted to do a condi build… Mace/Axe + Mallyx. Um… What else? None of the other legends really benefit condi, and the weapons are even less useful to such a build. Is Revenant simply not meant to be a condi class? If so why did you even bother to develop Mallyx as such?

Anet, please ignore the anti-weapon swappers

in Revenant

Posted by: Xenon.4537

Xenon.4537

lol, what makes their views any less validated than those that support weapon swap?

Good point, which is why I made the last statement that we should just all relax about this topic without any meaningful data.

Indeed. Perhaps you should change the thread title? Asking Anet to flat out ignore one person over another is deplorable, not to mention contradictory to your later-stated view on the matter.

What I’m worried about is that the naysayers will become the vocal minority and Anet will take it away without even testing it.

Well now… isn’t that interesting?

Who knows they could be right

Indeed they could! Which is why everyone should have the freedom to speak their opinion here and let Anet decide.

(which I highly doubt because their reasoning is ridiculous)

Your opinion.

and they will remove it after proper feedback.

Honestly I highly doubt Anet will backpedal at this point. It’s just too late to second guess this decision. And this is coming from someone who doesn’t like the weapon swap. That doesn’t mean we should just silence anyone who criticizes it. Constructive criticism is essential to improving art and design.

“Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.”
- Mark Twain

Curious about my reputation with Anet

in Account & Technical Support

Posted by: Xenon.4537

Xenon.4537

I’m wondering if there’s a way to see how many infractions my account has. And I’d like to know if they diminish over time for “good behavior” or anything like that. I’ve broken the code of conduct a few times, but I really feel like the moderators are a bit too trigger-happy with the infractions in some cases. I try to follow the rules all the time, but I’m only a flawed emotional human being like everyone else. I’m also one of those people who tends to bring up uncomfortable truths or topics, because I don’t believe in “blissful ignorance”. This has gotten me into trouble around here.

Basically I want to know if am I permanently on Anet’s “S”-list? Is there no hope?

Also I’d like to know if such things would theoretically have any bearing on ever being hired to do work for Arenanet. I assume it does.

Remove weapon swap

in Revenant

Posted by: Xenon.4537

Xenon.4537

You sure missed the party that people gave when weaponswap was announced (even 3 threads with thanks in this forum, not to mention twitch, facebook and so on).

Irrelevant. Just because people throw parties doesn’t make them right. [edited] Argumentum ad populum is a logical fallacy and does not contribute to discussion.

[edited]

Idea:

Each Legend could have an upkeep skill which changes #1-5 into a new set of skills relevant to that Legend. Those skills would use no energy, but cooldowns instead, due to the upkeep. Embrace the Darkness is a perfect candidate for such an ability. Same goes for Impossible Odds, Rite of the Great Dwarf, and Protective Solice (with some modification).

This would give the Revenant access to 27 skills at a time:

  • 2 stances
  • 5 base weapon skills
  • 2 heals
  • 6 utilities
  • 2 elites
  • 10 skills granted by the 2 upkeeps

Weapon choice would be up to the player, while legend choice would determine you upkeep, and thus your relevant “swap-to” skills. This isn’t a kit or a conjure. It’s still an upkeep skill. You get to use it as long as you have energy.

Edit: removed some junk because I don’t feel like getting infracted again today…

(edited by Xenon.4537)

[Poll] Energy OR Cooldowns, not both

in Revenant

Posted by: Xenon.4537

Xenon.4537

Honestly i think they should have weapon skills have cooldown and let the utilities be all about energy. So you know when i use the right side of my bar i have to pay attention to energy, and when i use the leftside i have cooldowns. I think otherwise if they are gonna make us swap both sides of our bar it’s gonna be confusing imho.

+1

I really hope they consider this. As it stands combat is just a spamfest until your energy is gone, then you just auto attack. Weapon skills need to not cost energy in order to keep the flow of combat fun and engaging.

Additionally I want to see Energy itself improved as a mechanic. There ought to be ways to sacrifice some energy in the short term to gain more in the long term. Or to temporarily boost max energy, or gain it by reviving or blocking or something. Basically there ought to be more thought put into managing energy. Right now it’s basically just a passive resource block to limit your skill spamming. There’s no active input.

Rev Weapon Swap Proposition

in Revenant

Posted by: Xenon.4537

Xenon.4537

2) you think that there is only 1 weapon suited for 1 legend.

Both those assumtions are wrong.

So which weapons would you use per legend?

S/S + Hammer is also very good with a Shiro/Mallyx setup, and both legends are good with both weapon setups. Why should I change to hammer whan I equip Mallyx for EtD?

Ahhhh I think I see what you’re getting at. You could use Mallyx in a power build for his condition manipulation… But I wonder what purpose it would serve. Why bother copying your conditions when you have no condi damage? Why not cleanse instead? Conversely I wonder just how useful Ventari or Jalis are on a condi build… Personally when I tried it, it was crap.

Forcing to swap weapons on weaponswap (sic – you mean legend?) is a bad idea.

Totally agree.

This thread has no purpose except bothering people who are happy with the current decision.

You seem to be under the impression that these forums are meant to be some kind of comfort zone for specific cliques of people. Unfortunately the reality is that Anet set up this space for ALL players of ALL opinions to post their opinions and discuss the game in a polite and constructive manor. Which is, I believe, what the OP has been trying to do.

Revenant Specs

in Revenant

Posted by: Xenon.4537

Xenon.4537

Every build will be Devastation + Invocation + Who cares. Just look where all the damage % modifiers are. Look where the Fury traits are. Look where the stunbreaks are. Etc, etc.

The only exception is for those rare situations where you want to tank or something…

Agreed, well for PvE at least. Corruption looks to be the contender for DPS (ironically works better in a Power build than condi build). Retribution would be used for tanking-esque, and Salvation offers recovery support.

PvE: Shiro + Invocation + Choice of [Mallyx/Glint] – spam 1-0 until energy gone, then wait for energy, repeat.

PvP: Jalis + Ventari + Invocation – stand on point, heal self all day, laugh at people.

SMS... Thingamjiggy...?

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Xenon.4537

Xenon.4537

What is the minimal amount of information you will need to get back access to your account in case of a lost/changed phone number?

With the google authenticator app there is no use of your phone number. You only need to remember your google account and email password.

SMS... Thingamjiggy...?

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Xenon.4537

Xenon.4537

I’ve been using the google authenticator app since the game launched in 2012 and I’ve never had a problem with it. You put your normal password in, then you put the authenticator code in from the app.

This makes your account more secure because a “hacker” would need both your normal password, and your randomly generated code. Or they would need your normal password and the password of the email account.

For example I use 1 email account name as my GW2 account. The password to log in to GW2 is different from the password to access the email itself. So I essentially have 2 different passwords plus a randomly generated code protecting my GW2 account.

Suggestion Unicorn Mini, Butterfly Wings

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Xenon.4537

Xenon.4537

Lol… /15rainbows

Edit: LOL I looked up “rainbow unicorn kitty” to see where that image came from and I found this:

Attachments:

(edited by Xenon.4537)