Guild Wars 2

This puzzle is badly designed
(No, this is not another “couldn’t do it” complaint. This is a genuine design evaluation.)

The problem is the reward/effort curve is broken for 50% of the people who attempt the puzzle.

The two experiences:
Players who are above average at timed jumping puzzles (the upper 50%)
These players regularly break clear of the starting pack (repeated early encouragement), get further each round (shorter waiting times and more time spent practising the puzzle) and require fewer attempts to complete the puzzle.
Result: completed quickly, satisfied.
Common feedback: “Too easy.” “It was over too quickly.”

Players who are below average at timed jumping puzzles (the lower 50%)
These players fail early and often (repeated early discourager), spend most of their time waiting (a lot more than the ‘above-average’ player), and require many more attempts to complete the puzzle.
Result = take a long time to complete the puzzle, many don’t complete, frustration.
Common feedback = “Hate it.” “Frustrating.” “Took far too long.”

For players below the skill threshold for these puzzles the reward/effort curve (as currently designed) turns negative very fast.
That in itself might not be an issue if it weren’t for these compounding problems:
1) People won’t know if they are below that threshold until they attempt the puzzle.
2) People that are below the skill threshold experience repeated early failure and long wait times, and require a lot of retries before they experience (progress) success in their attempts.

Solution: Tweak the design so that below average players are 1) not so harshly punished at the start, 2) get to experience some success early in the puzzle, and 3) get a better practice to wait ratio.

Anymras.5729:

Also: Only particularly versatile if using a particular set of utility skills (kits), as opposed to the Elementalist, which will always have their attunements available, regardless of their utilities.

Engineers get more options overall as we have access to 6 kits (c.f the Ele’s 4 attunements) plus weapon plus F1-4 toolbelt skills.

The main problem is the start of these puzzles – fix that and much of the dissatisfaction will go away.
The start of these puzzles is a) harsh, very harsh, on learners and b) disadvantages people playing small characters.

1. The massive failure rate in the first few seconds of the puzzle and resulting long wait times are enormous disincentives for people who have yet to master these sorts of puzzles.

Why have such a vicious timer on the early jumps when we start as a crowd?
All that does is massively increase the failure rate at the start. Instead of encouraging people to learn how to master these, the harshness of the starter timer punishes learners with persistent early failure, minimal opportunity to develop their skills and excessive wait times. Small wonder some people give up in raw frustration.

To be challenging a jumping puzzle does not have to have to be so vicious at the start.
Better to reward people with some early progress before pushing them back into the wait queue. Just the increase in playing vs wait time that would give will be enormous for learners, and that’s without adding the benefits of increased practice and satisfaction from experiencing early progress.

2. These puzzles are severely unbalanced when it comes to the small races (Asura and some Sylvari).

I play an Asura, and it sucks for these puzzles. I do just fine with jumping puzzles out in Tyria – not as well as some, better than others, overall fine. But put me in a timed jumping puzzle with larger races and I’m at a huge disadvantage.

Sure it’s only the start that’s a problem before the crowd thins out. But try doing 3, 4 sometimes up to 6 jumps and changes in direction in a row blind and see how well you do. And when I do miss a jump the penalty is a long wait that breaks my rhythm.

It’s one thing to fail because I made an error. It another thing to fail because I just can’t see my own character.

If these puzzles are meant to be PvE then fix the balanced for all races.
If they are means to be PvP competitive (even in part) then fix the balance for small races.

The solution, tweak the start of these puzzles to be bit more rewarding for learners and small characters.
Make the puzzles just as long, make them just as hard. But make them a bit more forgiving at the start. The result will be far higher overall satisfaction with these puzzles.

(I’ve posted this in the Engineer forum as there is no general GW2 Professions forum and I play an Engineer. Mods, please move this as required.)
[edit]For clarification, this is about a very useful guide to all professions, not specifically the Engineer. I just posted it here because I play an engineer and don’t believe in spamming multiple forums. (The mods can post this up on the other profession forums if they want.)[/edit]

Lurking down the bottom of the Update Notes for 14 December is a short summary of the design philosophies for the different GW2 professions. There it is, the ideal guide to selecting profession based on preferred play style, and its hiding away at the bottom of an ageing update note!

Please drag this gem into the light of day and add it (or equivalent) to the main Guild Wars 2/The Game/Professions guide so people can see it when working out the profession for their new character.

Class balance philosophies
…
Warrior
We want the Warrior to be capable of good melee damage in a sturdy body. They can still do some decent damage at range, but they aren’t as good at it as the Ranger (with their pet). They have a hard time taking enemy boons down, and instead, have to just go through them with raw force. They may have a hard time with enemy conditions, and may need to ask for ally help in order to keep themselves free of hampering conditions.

Guardian
The Guardian is a heavy armor class who relies on boons to make up for their low levels of innate health. They focus on area control and punishing enemies for the position on the battlefield. We want them to feel very powerful when their boons are active, but if those boons are removed, they will start to feel pressure. They can remove conditions more easily than the Warrior, but share the Warrior’s need to be in melee range to dole out maximum damage.

Ranger
The ranger class combines its own innate abilities with the skills of their pets. We’ve balanced the class around the idea that you always have a pet with you to aid in any fight. The fact that the ranger can have multiple pets allows them to combine their pets in ways that most impact the current fight. We want the Ranger to have some of the evasion enjoyed by the Thief, as well as the mobility other classes employ. The class is able to deal physical or condition damage, and it can do this in melee or at range.

Engineer
The Engineer is a highly versatile class. While it doesn’t have the long range capabilities of the Ranger, or the melee capabilities of the Warrior or Guardian, they are comfortable at medium ranges in most fights. They have a lot of control, and use their boons to keep themselves (and allies) alive in a fight. They can use different kits based on the situation, but this extreme versatility comes at a cost in damage on their main hand weapons.

Thief
Thieves are the masters of mobility, stealth and high single target damage. They can be very fragile if you counter their stealth with area of effects or large stacks of conditions, but they trade this fragility in order to have some of the highest burst damage in the game. They are able to help allies through traps, venoms and the mobility to flank most encounters.

Mesmer
Mesmers rely on illusions in order to accomplish their goals. They need illusions to accomplish some of their highest damage and control, and without the illusions, they become fairly fragile. They can deal with enemy boons better than most classes, but enemy conditions can often be a problem. They share some of the stealth and mobility that the Thief enjoys, but suffer from a low health pool if you get past all their tricks.

Ele
We see the elementalist as the king of versatility. The skill ceiling for the Ele is exceptional, as the ability to leverage all four attunements at the right time is crucial for understanding the elemetnalist. The Ele boasts some of the best team support and control abilities in the game, as well as some great area of effect damage.

Necro
The necro boasts the highest natural health of all the caster classes, and also has death shroud to extend that life total even higher. While they don’t have some of the escape or damage reduction capabilities that other classes boast, they do have a lot of ways to win attrition fights. They have access to poison on multiple weapons, they are able to combine condition damage with raw damage, and they have multiple disables to interrupt enemy skills. Necomancers also have multiple movement disabling abilities, while allows them to chase down enemies who are low on health.

patasde.6087:

What you think is now good PVE build for engi? Im thinking about quiting GW i dont want play another class….. so i want give engi another chance?

It all depends what you want: Accessible Fun? Or raw power?

JonathanSharp.7094

[From the Class Balance Philosophies attached to the Dec 14 Update notes]

Engineer
The Engineer is a highly versatile class. While it doesn’t have the long range capabilities of the Ranger, or the melee capabilities of the Warrior or Guardian, they are comfortable at medium ranges in most fights. They have a lot of control, and use their boons to keep themselves (and allies) alive in a fight. They can use different kits based on the situation, but this extreme versatility comes at a cost in damage on their main hand weapons.

Engineers are a fun class to play and and even an average engineer build does fine in PvE (not superbly, but fine). If it’s fun you want, then go with an Eng build you’d like to play; get to know its strengths and weaknesses, tweak it a bit till you’ve got something that really works for you, then run with that.
(FYI, I’ve been having a lot of fun with a dual pistol Eng. Started off cond based with multiple turrets. Over time its changed to crit based (about the same soloing, far better in large events) with elixirs (for increased boons and survivability) and generally just a single turret in PvE (elixir S in WvW for emergency survival and finishing). I’m thinking it might be time to start mastering the Elixir gun. Other classes are more powerful against single mobs, but I do fine against multiple mobs and, now that I’ve got my survivability up, I’m res’ing others and getting them back in the fight far more than they have to do for me (which more than makes up for any shortfall in my own damage output).)

Unlike other classes, the Engineer’s power comes not from specific builds, but from mastering its versatility, and then building to suit the skill/kit combination(s) you master.

If you’re after being a real powerhouse, then you’ll need to master pretty much all the skills and kits in the engineer class and swap furiously in and out of combat to be at your best in every situation. The result is very effective (by all reports), certainly the most versatile, but has a high skill/learning threshold – which prob explains why so few people get there and why so many complain that Engineers are underpowered.

Killer Rhino.6794:

Am I the only who feels getting my rifle’s sigil’s “on kill” effect when killing something with my flamethrower is odd? Perhaps wrong, even. What does burning stuff have to do with what I want my rifle to do?

I remember someone yelling in a game years ago “That doesn’t make sense. Get real!”
Someone else replied “Real? This is a game – it’s all made up.”

The need to balance the game means sometimes doing things things that wouldn’t be logical in RL.

In GW2, equipment is used to increase the overall power of the character. Sigils applied to weapons are a primary way of increasing the power of our 1-5 attack skills. The sigil mechanism works great for all classes except Engineer, because Engineers use kits as a type of weapon swap, but can’t attach sigils to kits.

In the long run, the solution may be for AN to give us a way to attach sigils to our eng kits. This would be higher cost but potentially more versatile (e.g. gain access to “on swap” benefits) and would be comparable to other classes maintaining multiple weapons for swapping.
Until then, sigil benefits continuing to accrue/run while we’re using kits seems like a good compromise (even if it is a bit illogical IRL).

Is it just me, or does it look like there’s a bus going under a bridge in the lower part of the Lion’s Arch opening image ?

Great, back with the crowds again :-(
Not that I don’t like crowds, just not when I’m trying a timed jumping puzzle as an Asura

And then my PC hung on me – go figure!
But at least the crowd free version was much faster.

Finally got the invite from the overflow to the ‘real’ puzzle.
No crowds – yeah!

Wow, even got a toilet break in between attempts!

Why all the waiting?
At least with the jumping puzzles in the world, the puzzles are always right there ready to go when you are.

I really hate being a short character in a crowd.
It’s bad enough that Asura have a worse angle for judging platforms, without disappearing from sight in the middle of it all.

Waiting is not what we’re here for.

Ayrilana.1396:

Here’s a tip that can apply to a lot of jumping puzzles to make them easier:

Click and hold down the right mouse button as you run the puzzle

Thanks, been doing that for a while – and, yes, it really helps.

galeigh.5721:

The wait time in this JP is not as bad as the one in Clocktower. not only is it shorter, but you can have a snowball fight while you wait.

That’s true. Not sure the Clock Tower is a shining example to compare with though.

I’m enjoying this much more now I’m posting between attempts.

Got past the candy poles that time.

And there’s still lots of time to post… and post … and post..
(and I’m a slow typer)

Aaagh, got Norned and misjudged a jump-off.

and again…

(yo know, I really should do longer posts to indicate just how much down time there is in this puzzle).

Route change again, died on the angle this time

…

Waiting, waiting, waiting…

Got a head start this time that made it much easier.
And yeah, galeigh, I rushed the candy pole and fell.

Another one…

Got further that time. But died to the timer as the platform melted.

The next one was a change again. So fell off before the timer killed me.

Still, I get to post yet again.

Gone back to try again.
One consolation (yeah, right!) I get time to post on these forums between attempts.

Definitely handicapped being an Asura, both in terms of perspective on platforms and being unable to see my own character among larger ones. (Didn’t even get past the second jump that time as I couldn’t see my self in the crowd.) Getting a different path each time doesn’t help either.

If it wasn’t for the achievement…

Oh well, will try again in a minute.

Not again!
(I had such high hopes that ArenaNet had listened to the feedback from the Halloween jumping puzzle fiasco.)

I like jumping puzzles. I like the ones in GuildWars2 . I really do. I like them all, except the timed jumping puzzles in special events!

ArenaNet, why do you make the jumping puzzles for special events so different from the jumping puzzles in the rest of the game?
(And, no, this is not a suggestion to change the other jumping puzzles to include more timed elements – heaven forbid!)

The jumping puzzles for Special Events could be such wonderful explorations, available to all. Instead of using a mix of static and dynamic elements to make a truly interesting and challenging puzzle, they use a cheap gimmick to make them ‘harder’.

If you want to encourage people to do these ‘puzzles’ (that really is a misleading word for them), let them make some progress before dropping them out on something as arbitrary as a timer. As it stands, the people who most need to spend time learning how to do these sorts of puzzles get the least time in the zone doing so (99% of their time is spent waiting for the next round). At least with the timed elements in Southsun Cove, the player can retry those elements immediately without dead waiting time in between.

Maybe it’s because I have an Asura character, and the angle on some of the ‘platforms’ is much harder to gauge from that angle. But if that’s the case, ArenaNet, why are you giving us puzzles that handicap particular races?

One idea would be to have slower starter puzzles that people can use to develop their skills before tackling the full speed version.

If you’re having a hard time with the difficult songs, stick around until the playlist repeats. You’ll still be rewarded for completing the easier songs.

Great idea (for the Bell Choir). Maybe you can do something similar for the jumping ‘puzzle’ next time.

Rainfall.4017:

The entire of GW2 should not be designed around a minority of players who have trouble. Pretty silly thing to say.

Yes, but is really a minority of people? IIRC, there was a whole thread for people who completed the Halloween jumping puzzle and it only had a few posts on it, while there were far more posts frustrated about it (including from people who completed it).

Looks like ArenaNet have tweaked something, the download is cracking along now.

Yes, we’re hammering the patch server.
[corrected]~10MB so far, 5.209K files to go, and almost solid Connection error(s) retrying.

ArenaNet really need to:
A) find a way to separate the download from the content activation. Something like the code for dynamic events (which activates objects as well as mobs) and unlocking mini-dungeons (which unlocks fixed content).
B) schedule the download release for the period of lowest activity say midnight PST so that the downloads get spread out as people log on and don’t kill game access.

Keen.9530:

By stating on their official website that Wintersday begins on 14th December (even without giving a specified time) ANet should have had the foresight to expect that their playerbase WILL log on and expect the event to begin.

Too true.
Better to say that the main event starts at the specified day/time and that some content (e.g. Lion’s Arch stuff) may be released a little ahead of that time.

ReginaBuenaobra.6953:

Meanwhile, please enjoy this picture of a hedgehog standing in front of a tiny, hedghog-sized bed, on which a plush hedgehog is sitting.

Too cute!

Noooo, don’t post these things!
(Everyone else will try and get onto Tarnished Coast and it’s hard enough already for friends to join us.)

But seriously, that’s awesome, sorry I didn’t join in.

Including GMT/UTC is a must for all international games.
It is trivial to add and saves a whole lot of effort and frustration for customers not in the two main zones.

If ArenaNet really are interested in growing their customer base outside America and Europe, then they need to start including GMT/UTC times for events.

Ah, the joys of ignorance! Thanks, that’s much easier (and cheaper).
(Guess the manuals will get used on an alt.)

The Inquest do research, generally research that other Asura won’t. Their research expands the body of Asura knowledge and that additional knowledge is valuable to the Asura.

The Inquest and their methods may not be liked, but the knowledge they bring still buys them a seat on the council.

Bought a Grandmaster Training Manual yesterday from a merchant in WvW to adjust the trait points on my L80 Engineer. When I double click on it there’s a dull slightly mechanical sound and nothing happens.

I tried buying an Adept’s training manual as one of the changes was to reassign one of my 10pt trait lines, but that has the same problem.

I’ve tried a range of things, including logging out and back but the problem persists. (FYI, while levelling the manuals all worked perfectly, it’s only now that I want to reassign trait points that it’s bugged.)

Now I have 2g10s of bugged training manuals and no way to reassign my trait points.

How do I get this fixed?

I’ve seen this several times over the last few days (but forgot to note the first time it occurred).

I cant see your build but can say that a pistol based build is very viable end game. I’ve been running dual pistols, but am thinking of switching to shield in the off hand for the better control abilities (and is generally considered superior to p/p anyway).

Key to a pistol based build: take 30 in Firearms and get Coated Bullets which makes pistol shots pierce – the increase in damage output in all but 1v1 combats is huge. Take care when kiting in PvE as shots got to their full range and can pull in extra agro if you’re not careful. (Also take Hair Trigger for the faster fire rate and Rifled Barrels for the increased range.)

Incendary Powder from the Explosives line used to be a must (30% chance of 2s burning on crit), but it has been cut back a little now they’ve put a 3s cool down on it (I used to cause continuous burning on foes until they nerfed that). Still useful depending on your build (I’m dropping it in favour of better elixir support, but that’s just my build).

I used to use a crit and condition based build for my pistols, but have found that condition based builds don’t really cut it at higher levels (too many condition removers and too many allies with +0 cond damage generating conditions that push my +XYZ cond damage off the stack). Still keep the Crit % and damage though – that’s worthwhile.

My recipe for fixing Engineer’s turrets:
(This attempts to address the deficiencies in the current turrets though tweaks, rather than simply throwing more power at them. Core assumptions: a) attack turrets are meant to be high damage but fragile, b) defensive turrets, including the Thumper, are meant to last longer while protecting defenders and hindering enemies.)

1. Reduce the redeploy time on turrets to compensate for their fragility at higher levels (this will see them deployed more often at higher levels without unbalancing their power at lower levels).
- Reduce redeploy times to: Net turret 20s, Flame turret 30s , Rocket and Thumper turrets 40s (for Rifle turret see 4. below).
- increase the redeploy time saving for picking up a turret to 40% (make it worth the character going back to get the turret and in the process increase their commitment to their turrets).

2. Increase the damage reduction bonus for the ‘metal plating’ trait to 40%. (Currently this trait rarely increases the life of a turret at higher levels by enough for the turret to execute another tick.)

3. Tweak the Thumper turret to make it more relevant at higher levels:
- Increase its HP (it’s meant to be tough, make it last a bit longer)
- slow its pulse rate to 4s but make each pulse Interrupt (trading lower damage for increased value of Interrupt at higher levels)
- reduce the cooldown on Thump to 20s (recovering most of the lost damage and increasing knockdowns for higher levels and boss fights)
The result is it becomes less of an area killer (which it failed to do anyway) but more of an enemy hinderer especially at higher levels.

4. Do a makeover on the Rifle turret:
- Double its damage and increase its redeployment time to 40s (or higher) making it a true long range turret, but slow its rate of fire to 3s and keep it fragile to keep it balanced.
- Replace it’s ‘overcharge’ with the following selectable programmes: default/#1= shoot nearest enemy, #2= track and shoot current target while in range, #3= track shoot my target while in range. The turret automatically reverts to #1 if a target it is tracking dies or moves out of range.

Asura College of Dynamics – Turret Design and Utility Report

Overall conclusion
Healing, Net and Rocket turrets – design is consistent with application, although their fragility and long redeploy times, especially for the rocket turret, limiting their use at higher levels to all but a small range of PvE situations.
Rifle turret – some design charateristics are inconsistent with use. Redesign needed.
Thumper turret – design is consistent but its absence at higher levels indicates need to tune the design.
The Supply Crate elite skill is the only turret skill that sees regular use at higher levels.
Some turret bugs (e.g. targeting already destroyed objects and targetting enemies hidden behind walls) and long cooldown before redeployment reduce their use significantly.

Turret utility:
PvE:
Healing turret – useful for fixed location fights where combat and enemy AoE can be kept away from the turret.
Net turret – useful for short term slow down on some bosses and for added survival when leveling Engs at very low levels. Forget otherwise.
Rifle turret – damage and rate of fire is low, made of tissue paper. Only useful if placed permanently out of reach/range of mobs.
Rocket turret (with knockdown) – great when placed out of reach of mobs before a fight, also useful against bosses without decent ranged attacks. Occasionally useful against mobs with no AoE attack if placed after mob has agro’d on other friendlies (and the friendlies know to stay away from the turret).
Supply Crate turrets – Engineer’s only credible Elite skill. Always place after mobs have agro’d on other friendlies and away from potential AoEs (including melee AoEs).
Thumper turret (with knockdown)- useful in choke points at low levels. Forget otherwise.

WvWvW:
Healing turret – If you are close enough to benefit from it, then it will most likely fall to AoE before it can generate a second healing burst. Place immediately behind friendly line if you outnumber the enemy to reduce casualties, otherwise forget it.
Net turret – Forget it.
Rifle turret – Will hurt one target a little then vanish. Can be used as an intruder alarm when guarding a supply depot, otherwise forget it.
Rocket turret – May knock down one target before being destroyed. Can be used for ambush due to knockdown, or as an intruder alarm when guarding supply depots, otherwise forget it.
Supply Crate turrets – Engineer’s only halfway decent Elite skill. Best dropped close behind combat to support friendlies that need to fall back, otherwise the turrets disappear rapidly.
Thumper turret – forget it.
Massed rifle and rocket turrets could be great for ambushes, but this would require multiple engineers to coordinate and there just aren’t enough of us.

PvP:
(Can’t say as I don’t play that. Maybe someone else can fill this in . . .)

Rifle Turret design assessment = Fail
With it’s tissue paper build and low recharge time the riffle turret is designed to be dropped several times a minute. This makes sense for a short range turret that is designed to be dropped into melee (like the flame, net and thumper turrets), but not for a fragile but long range turret like the rifle turret. If it is meant to be a long range turret, then up its damage and redeployment time. If it’s meant to be dropped into melee then make it a machine pistol with higher rate of fire but shorter range.

Thumper turret design assessment = Revise
While designed consistent with its purpose, the almost complete absence of Thumper turrets at higher levels indicates that this turret is either critically underpowered or its design needs tweaking in some way. Although supposedly the toughest turret, as an agro drawer its life at higher levels is too short and has too little impact to justify its long cooldown cost. Either make it more easily deployable (which runs counter its design concept as a heavy point defender) or tweak the design so that it does its job even at high levels.

(Source: after starting with a turret based engineer, I’ve found I’ve ended up slowly but surely cutting back on turrets to the point that the only ones I now use are the Supply Crate in PvE and WvW (and if I could take the Asura Radiation Field as an elite skill I’d take that instead in WvW) and the Rocket Turret in PvE only. If turrets were any good we’d see more of them around. Shame really, as I’m still very keen on running an effective turret based engineer.)

I’ve been playing an Engineer for a while now and can confirm Engineers are seriously underpowered when it comes to ‘static’ builds (i.e. builds that don’t involve constant switching between kits). I simply can’t find a static build that keeps up with any other class. The best static build I’ve found so far is a critical/pistol based build with piercing and that requires closely grouped enemies before it starts producing respectable damage and even then damage is distributed across many enemies. (Not that I haven’t had fun with it, it’s just underpowered compared with other classes.)

Where Engineers seem to come into their own is the kit switching. The only trouble is that kit switching makes the engineer interface, which is second only to Elementalist in complexity (the number of different key and key use combinations), even more complex. Yes Engineers can be phenomenal, but only for those that have the aptitude and/or dedication to master a very complex interface.

The result is that Engineers are kittened in the hands of the average player.

The Engineer class should come with the following warning:

Engineer: Fun class, potentially very powerful if you have the aptitude and dedication to master it, but underpowered in the hands of average players. Not recommended for noobs.

The Eng’s downed skills suck for WvW (can’t say for PvP as I don’t play there myself). The problem is the kittened #2 ability.

Yes, the Eng’s #1 downed ability does more damage than other classes, but that’s only useful in PvE. Against players who heal themselves or simply move out of range it is effectively useless.

The #2 ability is as much a liability as as benefit. It is a single instantaneous interrupt affecting a single target with a constrained range. At the same time it pulls the enemy to melee range saving them time getting to the kill – go figure! Using it effectively in WvW almost always requires changing targets from the one the #1 skill is trying to take down to rally, acquiring the right target and timing it right (c.f. the stealth downed abilities that are target and timing independent) – and if it works the enemy is now right on top of you.

The #3 ability is more powerful, but the knock down is brief and recharge very slow. Without an effective #2 Eng’s rarely get to us this, and when they do I’ve never seen it it do more in WvW than interrupt/push back an enemy for a second.

Without a credible #2 ability, downed=dead for Engineers in WvW.

Coated bullets work great in PvE and WvWvW.

In PvE they double damage output (or better) when facing multiple enemies. (When facing a large boss that spawns minions, target the minions and shoot through them to hit the boss – great for clearing out the minions while still maintaining damage output against the boss.)

In WvWvW:
1- you can keep hitting a single target even when they run back into the zerg and every enemy in front and behind them up to the range limit takes damage as well (great for dropping characters who try run for cover in/behind the crowd when their health gets low).
2- when used in choke points they work like a never-ending AoE.

Ryuujin.8236:

Rather Asura don’t have to fit into any extant phylogeny found here on Earth. I dub this new order sapiens culus

Ah, a taxonomy debate! How marvelous!

No, you’re clearly wrong there.
There’s not doubt about it; Asura are undoubtedly sapiens excelcius! (And don’t forget the exclamation mark, an essential component of the classification)

If you follow canon, Asura don’t have last names.

(And if Gizmo is free, grab it before someone else does – that’s a great Asura name!)

Of course Asurans make great warriors.
Asuran’s outstanding expertise (aka ‘attitude’) means that they’re great at everything. Why would Warrior be any exception?

Scienta.2163:

I play an Asuran engineer and I love the play style and feel its very unique. It has a lot of good things going for it like special kits for engineer specific weapons and such. My only gripe with the class ,which can be fixed in the future, is that all of the tech you use is not the sophisticated Asuran tech we all know and love, its dirty Charr steampunk tech instead.

Got to agree with this. For the techiest Asuran to look like they’re still in the 19th century is just plain wrong.

Simple solution: ArenaNet, we need Asura tech skins for the engineer gear!

Good? What is this limiting concept?
And how will it help our experiments?

Humans messed up the world, Asurans are making it better … in oh so many (and wonderfully unpredictable) ways.

A Human looks at an Asura and all they see is short.
An Asura looks at a Human and they see pure potential. – Sure, that potential may be primarily as a test subject, but the potential there really is enormous.

Humanities greatest achievement – those ruins in Orr.
The Asura’s greatest achievement – Where do we start? Why, just last week I . . .

For Humans curiosity is all about digging through ancient ruins hoping to learn from past achievements.
For Asura, curiosity is in everything , every moment of their lives. You only have to watch an Asura move to see that even something as small as every individual step is an experiment.

Want to be just another anonymous ape descendant in the crowd? Then by all means be Human.
Want to triumph over, not just the adversities of Tyria, but the very essence of reality and do it with attitude? Then join the true giants of Tyria: the Asura!
(And if you don’t see Asura for the giants they are, then you probably will feel more at home with a dimensionally limited race like the Humans).

Isembard K, another Asura Engineer on Tarnished Coast (and that seems to be the most mentioned server here!). Pse send me an invite :-)

p.s. I love the XLCR handle.
p.p.s. I’d been thinking of an Asura guild called Ah Science! the Unpredictable Research Association (ASURA)

KratosAngel.7289:

5 players with full power rock but 5 players with full condition damage sucks …

It doesn’t even have to be players with full condition stacks!
There’s so much condition generation out out there anyway that any decent sized group generates enough conditions in the normal course of play to nerf condition focussed characters. I’ve a condition based L80 Eng, but the nerfing in groups means that l’m looking at having to completely re-equip, re-build and re-master the character so that it can truly pull it’s weight. I’m sure that’s not what AreaNet intended.

Solution #1: Give priority to the condition stacks that do the most damage.

+condition damage is designed to really hurt. But does +999 condtion damage make the slightest difference when characters with +0 condition damage are pushing the 25 stack limit?
Does +999 cond damage even get onto the stack if there are 25 stacks of +0 cond damage there already? Does +999 cond damage get pushed off the stack whenever some new +0 cond damage arrives?
Prioritizing the highest damage stacks (higher +cond damage wins every time) would resolve this problem and make condition focussed builds useful again in groups.

Solution #2: Cap the number of stacks removed by condition clearing effects.

This will balance condition clearing against condition generation and resolve the automatic condition immunity of large group. (Need to keep track of more than 25 stacks in case the extra stacks apply after clearing.)

Don’t get me wrong, there’s always a place for expensive high level items that look great.

LordThroat.7890:

So you have a problem with these items merely because the devs used the word ‘legendary’ in their rarity level?

Not quite. The problem is that these items could so easily represent more than a looong grind, but right now they don’t.

LordThroat.7890:

The farming and grinding can be as ‘legendary’ as you want to make it.

Yeah. And when it is truly legendary, wouldn’t it be great if the item really reflected that. (I pay far more attention to people’s titles than the kit they’re carrying, because the titles always mean something.)

Once you hit 80 further progress devolves into grinding. One way round that is to have achievements that are truly aspirational for lvl 80 characters and visible rewards that reflect this. Supposedly that is what legendary times are meant to do. Unfortunately, as currently implemented they are little more than indicators of grinding and luck (“see my mighty sword of TP trading”). (Again, don’t get me wrong, I’ve got a lot of respect for those who do the grind to get legendary items.)

It really wouldn’t take much to make legendary items truly legendary. Add a few legendary achievements (or use some of the epic ones that are there already), make them prereqisites for binding the relevant legendary item, and bingo! an instantly richer post-80 character path (without having to invent higher levels) and legendary items that mean something more than a loooong grind.

It’s not a big step, but given the choice between a legendary item that reflects only a long grind and one that reflects some serious lvl 80 achievements, well I know which I’d rather have.
-What about you? What would you rather have?

Right now legendary items aren’t legendary.

Expensive high-level toys? Sure. Legendary? Sorry, but no! Why? Because the path to Legendary items is bottlenecked at a random number generator (RNG) and/or the Trading Post (TP). Getting legendary items is based on luck, $$ and/or gold grinding (to purchase the precursor items from someone else who won the Random Number Generator game) not heroic feats (unless you call pouring item after item down the throat of a one-armed bandit in the hope of getting that lucky drop ‘heroic’).

From the Oxford English Dictionary:
Legendary: 1. of or connected with legends. 2. described or based on a legend. 3. remarkable enough to be the subject of legends.

Winning the RNG game is “lucky” not “Legendary”. Grinding is “grinding” not “Legendary”. Paying $ is “wealth” not “Legendary”. Where’s the “Legend” in those? Right now getting a Legendary item isn’t epic, it’s the result of grinding, cash and Lady Luck.

What if, instead of being bottlenecked at the RNG (and its cash base alternative, the TP), the path to legendary items was through truly heroic feats?
- What if the bottleneck items were obtainable through heroic quests? (Want to keep this legendary? Make each quest one time only per character, and only for classes that use that item).
What if you couldn’t equip a legendary item until you had the necessary epic achievements? (Want a legendary sword? You’d better show that you’re a truly legendary sword fighter. Want some legendary armor? You’d better have survived enough champion battles and higher? etc.)

The achievements system is right there, all it needs is to be hooked up. Let any master crafter create the item, but you can’t equip it until your character has the necessary achievements. That would also allow ArenaNet to create specific quests and achievements that would mean that it truly means something to wield these items.

Do that and Legendary items will deserve their Legendary title. Until then, legendary items will remain merely expensive end-game gloss.