Guild Wars 2

Sid.4609:

Anecdotal evidence doesn’t prove anything. Ever.

said the pope to Galileo Galilei and died believing that the earth is flat…

Empirical evidence and anecdotal evidence are not the same thing.

Aether McLoud.1975:

For the last year, with every single patch, Arenanet has systematically nerfed, destroyed, punished or otherwise obliterated every single thing that elementalists were good at or that made them fun to play. Also whenever some balance change arises they ALWAYS, ALWAYS take the easy way out of nerfing the thing into the ground instead of doing it the hard way and ACTUALLY BALANCE it.

If you’d actually bothered to read the patch notes you’d know staff elementalists got a buff.

Einlanzer.1627:

You realize the reduction to the aftercast and increase in arrow flight speed alone means Longbow is doing about 25% more DPS than it was before.

Which is immediately offset by the 50% damage reduction given to my pet.

redslion.9675:

It was 3% more damage.

Be thankful.XD

Let’s put it like this: now I have to wait one second less if my Earthshacker fails. Which, given how our class works, necessarily happens.

Oh, I completely misread that. lol

I’m runing a “adrenaline bank” build for my gs until such time as two-handed axes are added to the game, so it doesn’t affect me either way. But I was surprised to see the change.

Sid.4609:

darkace.8925:

Go to the warrior sub-forum and you’ll see Anet hates warriors. Go to the ranger sub-forum and you’ll see Anet hates rangers.

That’s simply not true. I never saw this amount of complaints in any other forum due to a balance update.

You haven’t been to the ranger sub-forum lately, have you? Go on, take a peek.

Sid.4609:

The lack of elementalists in PvP since then proves my point.

Anecdotal evidence doesn’t prove anything. Ever.

I have no idea how this nugget slipped passed me, but I just realized the last patch changed Discipline’s Burst Damage was chanced to Burst Recharge.

Why!? Is anyone actually spamming burst skills at such a fast rate that 7 cd instead of 10 is better than 30% more damage on bursts? It can’t be a pvp balance issue, because warrior’s aren’t any good in pve either way. I don’t get this change.

Stealth.9324:

We are actually on the very edge of fine now. With any further push, we will be pretty useless. Want Dam/Control: Warrior. Want Bunker/Support/Boon Share: Guardian. Want Assault Far Point Bunker: Engine. Want Trickster: Thief. Want Condition Pressure: Necromancer. Want an Extra Player: Ranger. I don’t say we are doing bad atm but any further nerf will make the class becomes a joke.

lol

Aether McLoud.1975:

Thives have awesome group support if specced for it

So can elementalists.

Aether McLoud.1975:

warriors actually can lay a lot of firefields with longbow

If by “a lot” you mean “one every 7 to 10 seconds” sure. Now let’s discuss the ice fields the warrior can lay. And then let’s discuss the warrior’s ability to say water fields. And then we should talk about the warrior’s ability to lay lightning fields.

If you’re implying for a second that warriors are better at laying combo fields than elementalists then it’s going to be real hard to take anything you say seriously.

Aether McLoud.1975:

and guardians do have a lot of conditions if specced for it (fyi ele condition builds are completely non-viable).

“If specced for it.” You keep saying that like elementalists can’t spec for condition damage, or crowd control, or group support, or anything else. And it doesn’t matter if elementalists condition damage build are completely non-viable, they’re still objectively better at them than guardians. That means the statement “worst at everything” a false statement.

Aether McLoud.1975:

Now go somewhere else

Ah, the classic “you disagreed with me, so you should leave” reply. I suppose next you’re going to call me a troll? Before you do, I’d love to hear you explain why you think I’m “crusading” against a profession I play and enjoy.

“worst at everything”

Man the hyperboles are flying left and right on this sub-forum today. Or are you implying warriors are better at laying down combo fields? And are thieves better at group support? And I suppose guardians are better at condition builds?

McWolfy.5924:

this idea wont solve any problem. pets cant hit moving targets, just runing up and down… and they die within 2 seconds in most situations.

It is bad that the professions defining mechanic is a hindrance as often as it is a benefit. The fact that pets are still a point of contention almost a year after release leads me to believe it’s never going to be fixed to a level beyond “acceptable”.

EchenSketch.9142:

Really? I’m sure Necros are laughing their butts off at their new minion master condi build. Any class that wants to melee them gets condition spammed, any class that tries to outrange them gets, guess what? condi spammed.

Browse back past the first few pages. Sure, they’re happy now; but they felt neglected, abused, and at times outright hated before the last patch. And they’ll feel the same way if any of their new skills or traits get nerfed.

EchenSketch.9142:

People like you ruin the balance of the game, insisting it’s fine when it really isn’t.

People like me? What kind of person am I? And you’re putting words in my mouth. I didn’t say everything was fine. The game will NEVER be in a state where everything is fine. Perfect balance in an mmo is an unattainable goal.

EchenSketch.9142:

Things are bad when Ele’s are being kicked from WvW guilds because they have no role. Things are bad when Warriors beg patch after patch after patch for viable builds and are still not competitive in tPvP.

And things are bad when rangers can’t get a spot in CoF speed runs. And things are bad when two necromancers can’t run a dungeon together because of condition stack limitations. And things are bad when thieves get hit with reveal. And things are bad when guardians have no +Movement Speed passives. And things are bad when rangers’ pets can’t survive aoe spam because they can’t dodge enemy attacks. You starting to get the picture? I’m not saying everything is fine; I’m saying every profession feels they need some love.

PS – Anyone who says elementalists don’t have a role in WvW doesn’t know what they’re talking about. And if anyone is getting kicked from WvW guilds, that says a lot more about the people running the guild than it does the profession the kicked person is playing.

Stealth.9324:

And to darkface.8925:

-Any Eles Build, if you want do contribute anything to the team, you need AT LEAST 10pts in Arcane and 10pts in Water. It is not my opinion nor anyone’s opinion. It is a FACT.

“Contribute anything to the team” is a non sequitur. We’re not discussing “contributions to the team,” we’re discussing whether or not 15 second CDs for attunements makes the elementalist unplayable. It doesn’t, obviously. It may not be optimal for your build to forgo Arcane. It may not even be optimal for any build to forgo Arcane. But to claim the profession cannot be played without pointing into Arcane is hyperbole, pure and simple.

Stealth.9324:

-And yet, no other Professional Skill has their weapon Set Skill CD sit on 40s, 50s.

I must be misunderstanding what you’re saying here, but because it looks like you’re saying elemental attunements are on a 40 second cooldown.

Stealth.9324:

- The different is all other prof just need to wait for their CD while our Skill CD also be affected by our Attunment CD. One skill in one Specific Attunment is off but the Attunment CD is not off, you are blocked on using that one skill. Simply put, we have a DEFAULT CD at 9s (if traited with Arcane) or 15s (with no Arcane).

There is no difference (except for engineers and kits)…none at all.

If you’re in Water Attunement and you want to use Meteor Shower, you’re going to have to wait for both Meteor Shower and Fire Attunement to come off CD. That’s no different than a warrior using a longbow wanting to use Hundred Blades; he’s going to have to wait for both Hundred Blades and his weapon swap to come off CD. It’s the same thing.

Because you’re on the elementalis sub-forum. Go to the warrior sub-forum and you’ll see Anet hates warriors. Go to the ranger sub-forum and you’ll see Anet hates rangers. Rinse and repeat for each of this game’s professions and you’ll realize things aren’t as bad as you’re thinking they are.

Aether McLoud.1975:

15 seconds attunement cooldown is not playable. That’s a fact.

Actually, it’s an opinion. And that’s a fact.

Aether McLoud.1975:

No other profession has to spend trait points to be able to USE THEIR WEAPON SKILLS…

And no other profession has 20 weapon skills. Technically, engineers can if they want. But the elementalist is the only profession with a default 20 weapon skills.

Aether McLoud.1975:

…because if eles don’t they are stuck using autoattacks for 5-10 seconds.

How is that any different than any other profession that spams their weapon skills (or Initiative, in the case of thieves) while their weapon swap is on cooldown?

For a condition heavy necromancer, would the Flesh Golem make for a good enough tank without the Flesh of the Master trait? Or without the health boost does it wind up spending more time on CD than it does tanking? Thanks.

darkace.8925:

Serraphin Storm.2369:

It is known that melee does greater damage in general than range acroos all classes.

I’m well aware of this fact. I even understand the principle behind that design philosophy, even if I don’t totally agree with it.

Let me clarify this statement a bit. I agree with the concept given the design philosophy Anet has chosen, were any profession can do just about anything as well as any other profession. But I don’t think they should have homogenized the professions quite as much as they did, in my opinion. That’s off-topic, but I did want to clarify what I meant by that remark.

Serraphin Storm.2369:

It is known that melee does greater damage in general than range acroos all classes.

I’m well aware of this fact. I even understand the principle behind that design philosophy, even if I don’t totally agree with it. But the problem is in the find details. Even if we fully embrace the idea that melee attacks do greater damage than ranged attacks, the disparity is too big.

There’s no justification for a masterwork knight’s greatsword with no traits and no sigil doing significantly more damage than an exotic berserker’s longbow with full traits and a sigil. None.

marnick.4305:

By not grinding I got lucky a few times, each giving me about 40g. Another few times and I’ll have my precursor. Nothing to worry about. Money comes easy if you don’t grind … especially if you don’t grind.

I originally had the notion that I’d get the stuff I need for a Legendary over the natural course of playing the game the way I enjoyed, but I’m at the stage where that is no longer possible. There’s no way to get Badges of Honor through the “natural course of play” for those who don’t particularly enjoy WvW. And it’’s not so much a case that I hate WvW, I just enjoy PvE so much more.

Astral Projections.7320:

Take a look at the Fixer Upper (mace) then, looks like a wrench. :-)

It still irks me that engineers can’t use maces (and thus can’t equip that weapon).

Raven.9603:

You are arguing semantics instead of addressing his problem.

Not speccing into arcane at all is non-viable because a base 15-second attunement cd isnt playable. Arcane also has blasting staff, which is required for staff elementalists to be playable, and evasive arcana, which is required for D/D elementalists to be playable (because of lack of defensive mechanisms in fire or air).

It is playable. You might not find it optimal, but that doesn’t mean it’s not viable. Blasting Staff is certainly a boon for the staff elementalist, but giving up the traits to get it isn’t any different than any other profession or any other build having to put X points into Y trait line to get Z trait to make their particular build of choice better.

I have no earthly idea why the mods felt the need to change the name of my thread from “Southsun: The Failed Experiment” to “Southsun is a Failed Experiment IMO”. anyone who read my post would clearly understand the contents were my opinion, and that’s the kind of change (I’d say censorship) that only serves to make people running this forum (and by extension, the people making the game) very thin-skinned.

lorazcyk.8927:

one question is all I need to ask:

was it fun?

It was; it isn’t. The goal with zone overhaul should be the make the zone indefinitely appealing, not appealing for a limited time only.

I do, but I find the others’ armor rarely worth looking at. There’s FAR too much CoF armor, Abyss Dye, and Celestial Dye being used in this game. But I do stop to look at, and at times ever screen-shot, guild looking setups when I see them.

Conncept.7638:

Centaurs, I admit it’s probably not going to happen, but it would be awesome to be the first game with centaurs. And from a mechanical perspective most of the gripes people have are invalid.

• Too large for JPs – Most centaurs are not actually the size of a real horse, and the average actually takes up the same amount of floor space as a full size norn or charr, some even less
• Horses can’t swim – This is just blatantly false, horses can swim better than people. I honestly don’t know how so many could not know this.
• Horses can’t jump vertically – Also false, they do not naturally but they are anatomically capable and can be trained.

A HUGE problem against centaur is their hitbox size. For balancing purposes, all races have the same sized hitbox. Centaur as a playable race means the hitbox on all races would be not only taller, but also significantly longer. This creates a problem for combat, obviously, but also for standing on/falling off ledges.

loseridoit.2756:

darkace.8925:

loseridoit.2756:

hiwever, evades is the speciality of the rangers

I’ll put my thief’s ability to evade up against any that of any ranger.

i am not familar with a theif evades

i know they have evades traits but the only evade i know is daggar 3 and heal

the rest are teleports and leaps

Feline Grace – Dodging returns some of the endurance used (15% return).
Vigorous Recovery – Gain vigor when using a healing skill (8 second duration).
Bountiful Theft – Stealing grants you and all nearby allies vigor for 15 seconds…

And just for fun…

Uncatchable – Leave behind caltrops when you dodge (four seconds of cripple, but small radius).

Then you add in the evasion provided by Death Blossom spam, each use costing 4 of the 12 (or 15 if traited) Initiative, and you’ve got the ability to dodge virtually nonstop.

Aether McLoud.1975:

So eles should be the only profession that need to spend grandmaster traits to be able to use their class mechanic? That’s ridiculous and the whole root of ele’s problems.

You’re perfectly capable of using your mechanic without spending any traits at all. The traits just let you use them more often. And this isn’t something that’s exclusive to elementalists; warriors, thieves, necromancers, and I’m sure everyone else has traits that allow them to utilize their class mechanics more often.

loseridoit.2756:

hiwever, evades is the speciality of the rangers

I’ll put my thief’s ability to evade up against any that of any ranger.

Daecollo.9578:

Hes right, having more HP means crap in big team fights, it is who can avoid/out sustain those huge AOEs…

More health can be beneficial to builds utilizing the “X while under 50% health” effects from traits and/or food, but I tend to agree with that health isn’t too important in large scale battles. Small skirmishes and one-on-ones, however, are another story.

Plague.5329:

Using the cash shop only encourages them to implement it even more. This behavior needs to be punished, not rewarded.

You are aware that “that behavior” is what allows us to play the game without having to play a subscription fee, right? You are aware that “that behavior” is what funds all the free content we’ve been given, right?

What is “BotFW”? I’m guessing “Battle of the ? ?”?

tl;dr – How do I deal with grind? I don’t.

I’ve often told those complaining about the grind that it’s voluntary. I tell them if they’re not having fun doing X, then stop doing X. If they enjoyed doing Y on their way to level 80, and now they’re not having any fun because they’re spending all their time working towards X then they should go back to doing Y. Video games are supposed to be fun; and if X isn’t fun, stop doing X.

It’s time to practice what I’ve preached. I’ve been working towards an undetermined Legendary weapon (either Kudzu for my ranger or Flameseeker Prophecies for my guardian) for a few weeks now. I’ve parked characters at ori nodes, I’ve done the world boss hop, and I’ve grinded some of the T6 mats for the various Gifts.

I’ve calculated how long it’s going to take me to get the Badges from WvW, something I don’t particularly care for. And I’ve been squirreling away all my gold for the Icy Runestones, Gift recipes, etc. And all of this is for naught if I never get lucky enough to land a precursor.

This morning I logged on to do my ori sweeps, one character at a time. It was then I realized how little fun I’ve had since I started working towards the Legendary. All these characters I’ve left parked at ori nodes are going to waste. I didn’t create, level, and gear these characters to be used as laborers mining ore and chopping lumber. I created these characters to play with them.

I realized the grind to get a Legendary wasn’t going to be enjoyable. I knew this goping in, but I thought the nice weapon skins would make it worthwhile. I can suffer through a bit of grind to get something I want. But with the logistics involved in getting all the stuff I need for a Legendary, that’s a lot of time I’d have to spend doing stuff I don’t enjoy.

And so, just like that, I scrapped my goal of getting a Legendary weapon. I’m a journey kind of guy, not a destination guy. When it comes to video games I don’t care how nice the destination is if the journey bores me. I get enough grind out of real life, I don’t need it in my games too.

While I love the way Kudzu and Flameseeker Prophecies look, at the end of the day they are just cosmetic skins. And I’d rather spend all the weeks and months it would take to get them actually enjoying the game. So I dealt the grind by choosing not to participate. Luckily the content I enjoy isn’t gated behind gear grinds. This leaves me free to enjoy the stuff I enjoy and avoid the stuff I don’t.

PS – I understand my philosophy is not shared by all, and I understand there are those of you who are driven to achieve whatever in-game goals you’ve set yourself. For those of you who choose to press through the grind, godspeed. Just remember, you can opt out of the grind anytime you wish.

PPS – I now find myself sitting on a pile of gold, a heap of orichalcum, and a cache of T6 mats. I think it’s time to splurge; I’ve earned it.

I’ve mastered Cooking on each of my characters. It’s the only craft I’ve bothered clearing the discovery window by learning all possible recipes. Since I have plenty of food to burn through (from leveling) I haven’t crafted anything with Cooking in a while. But I’d like to.

There are also attribute boosts not currently available I’d love to get my hands on. Some Condition Duration/Power food would be fantastic for my engineer. Some Condition Duration/Precision food would be fantastic for my elementalist.

So I’m proposing the addition of a main ingredient, a staple that’s used in recipes ranging from level 0 to level 400 (much like red meat and poultry). I’d suggest fish, as that’s an obvious choice, but I suspect we won’t get that until such time as Fishing is added to the game (if ever).

So instead I’ll propose white meat. Slabs of this meat could drop from pigs, boars, behemoths, marmox, pinipal, quaggan (just kidding), and whatever else you feel appropriate. This ingredient could then in turn be used to make everything from simple grilled chops to soups and stews to sausages and ribs.

My cooks are bored and my characters want some Condition Duration/Power and Condition Duration/Precision food. So please consider adding new ingredients and recipes for the Cooking craft. Thanks.

Morrigan.2809:

Most of my characters except for my main have cooking and the other professions are spread out over them, I find it useful to have.

I did the exact same thing. Each of my character’s has Cooking and one other profession. I’ve only got five characters at the moment, so I’m still missing Artificier and Jeweler; but I’ll get around to those when Tengu and ??? are added to the game.

I haven’t yet created a Necromancer (waiting on a suitable expansion race), but I’ve theory crafted plenty. As a PvEer I’ve always intended to run a Power/Condition Damage hybrid with 30/20/x/x/x or 30/30/x/x/x. With the addition of the Dhuumfire grandmaster trait in the Spite trait line I see there’s now a choice to be made between Dhuumfire and Close to Death. What do you guys think?

Does anyone actually use this stuff? I’ve always been of the belief that it’s better to take skills/traits/food/whatever that help you avoid being downed, rather than stuff that helps you while downed. So I’m wondering who uses this food and why.

Ehecatl.9172:

I ran this build for a while last night through several zerg vs zerg fights. When I went down I rallied near instantly from someone dying from Meteor Shower or an ally after my AoE tagged them.

It really just takes some more awareness of your positioning to avoid going down entirely though.

Though my runes were different. Infiltrators because I’m really, really poor. I’ll be replacing that soon.

Out of curiosity, what runes are you wanting to run? I’m using Runes of the Elementalist to keep burning up (+10% damage to burning targets) and to prolong the CC inflicted by my chills. And I’m praying we one day get condition duration/precision food to further this end.

Every one of my characters – sans my Engineer, obviously – utilizes a Signet to help further specialize the style of play I’ve chosen for each. Do you guys think we’ll ever see engineer signets?

Would you even care if we got engineer signets? Between our run-of-the-mill utility skills and our kits functioning as weapon swaps there’s already a lot of skills competing for a few precious slots on our skill bars.

If you’re ever unclear when it’s active you can put it on the Ascalon Catacombs weapons (transmutating them to whatever stats you want). The sigil will always be active while the weapon glows and inactive when it doesn’t.

I’ve found two sets of medium armor goggles, but both are single-piece (more monocles than goggles). Does anyone know if there’s a piece that has both lenses? Thanks.

Jordo.5913:

hopefully they can add some more old school GW1 Sets

i want my old Rangers Druid set

Charr Hide Armor would have some interesting implications if added to the game.

Nothing personal, but I don’t like either of your ideas. I’m sorry you’re not having as much fun as you’d like, but I’d be disappointed if either of your ideas were implemented.

The Hall of Monuments is currently dilapidated. I know it’s supposed to look like no one has been there for 250 years, but if I’m going to claim the place as my own I would like the option to spruce the place up a bit. Perhaps it could even be used as a Guild Hall at some point down the line.

Deimos Tel Arin.7391:

it is random.
i got 1 black lion key from a WvW map completion recently.

however, if you want non gem store, black lion keys, it is faster if you farm with with a free character slot.

human commoner warrior.
you can get one black lion key within 50 minutes or faster depending on your skill and luck. could be faster if you get a few people doing it together.

It’s not that I’m wanting Black Lion Keys, it’s that I’m not wanting Transmutation Stones. I’m approaching my second full stack of the things, and since all my characters have long been level 80 they’re completely worthless to me. I’ve been hanging on to them in the hopes that Anet will add a Transmutation Stone → Transmutation Crystal MF recipe, but I’m not holding my breath for that one.

The last week I’ve been on a marathon to finish off a bunch of zones for world completion on a couple of my characters. I cleared 11 zones and got nothing but Transmutation Stones. Is this simply a case of rng kicking me in shins (certainly possible)? Or have the keys been removed from the list of possible awards for map completion?

Ursan.7846:

Can potentially be salvaged into charged core/lodestone.

I see. Thanks.

I thought I’d check the Trading Post price before salvaging this, and saw it’s going for 33 silver. Anyone mind telling me why the price is so high on this thing?

Weirwynn.2390:

Now, a second traditional weapon set that we can only swap out of combat, that I’d like to see (and for my Elementalist too).

I could certainly get behind that.

Leo G.4501:

Daecollo.9578:

Going to play my guardian, tired of arguing and proving others wrong, Leo-GG/QQ you win.

I just wish I could class change and get my 5 ascended pieces I wasted on my warrior.

It’s a bittersweet victory.

The thing I dislike is, with the whole Lemongrass ordeal, you crusaded how OP it was and how it trumps Pizza with no basis of information.

Someone else had to come out and test it, wasted their time just to bring TRUE information to everyone.

You didn’t apologize for spreading false information. You didn’t thank the person who spent their time testing. You didn’t even admit your claims weren’t correct. You still do not outwardly state when your basis of comparison for class balance is based on assumption or second-hand information.

So the only thing to ever be expected is for Daecollo to stop talking? Frankly, no one wins here because no one’s competing. It’s just people bad mouthing crap with no basis of information to prop up their claims….

…then all the hyperbole marches through and it all goes to kitten. Hardly productive.

/slow clap

I’ve thought about this before, and I initially would have liked the option to have rifle/flamethrower plus three utility slots of my choosing. But the problem lies in the toolbet. I don’t think they’d give us a fifth toolbet skill, so that creates a bit of a problem.