Showing Posts For draxynnic.3719:

What is even point of BIG SHADE ?

in Necromancer

Posted by: draxynnic.3719

draxynnic.3719

If they allowed multiple shades to pulse on a single target, they’d have to balance on the assumption that people would be trying to stack the shades so as to get multiple triggers on their primary target, so they’d have to make the individual triggers sufficiently weak that getting three or four triggers on a single target on one skill use does not become OP.

Which would essentially make them so weak that you have to stack them to be worthwhile. They have to forbid it or it will become mandatory.

Not allowing shades to stack their effect on a single target means that they can make each strike powerful on its own, rather than balancing on the assumption that important targets will be being hit two, three, or even four times.

To those who think Scarlet hate means she’s succeeded as a villain:
People don’t hate Scarlet like Game of Thrones fans hate Joffrey.
They hate her the way Star Wars fans hate Jar Jar Binks.

Fashionwars Why is every necro dark and edgy?

in Necromancer

Posted by: draxynnic.3719

draxynnic.3719

Dark? Edgy? Please. I am a scientist, and have no need for your superstitious bookah nonsense about certain colours and macabre objects being required to perform the art of necromancy! Just because I study dead things does not mean that I need to dress like one!

oh the irony that you choose the Red + Green and looks like a rotting flesh :P

Heh. OOC, I was going for colours that were associated with the colours of necromantic magic without going for the stereotypical black and/or white. Hence red and green.

The main idea, though, is that asura generally regard necromancy as being just another branch of magic, no different to mesmers and elementalists. Hence, apart from the colours, it’s an armour set that wouldn’t be out of place on a mesmer or elementalist. The colours are essentially the nod to the fact that this particular character is a necromancer… and hey, I already had enough characters in blues and golds.

To those who think Scarlet hate means she’s succeeded as a villain:
People don’t hate Scarlet like Game of Thrones fans hate Joffrey.
They hate her the way Star Wars fans hate Jar Jar Binks.

What is even point of BIG SHADE ?

in Necromancer

Posted by: draxynnic.3719

draxynnic.3719

the 1/2 CD isn’t really the bad thing for me, the 15s recharge for the ammo is.

Some people said each ammo count recharges individually, but that’s just not the case for me, making the upkeep of two shades fairly clunky. I managed over 5 minutes, but it was fairly involved, and seems fairly unrealistic in a real fight when you also need to move and stuff.

That too. I thought the same but its 1 ammo recharge at a time. So the only way to have perma “3” shades up is by using the savant trait.

Yeah, equivalent mechanics recharge individually in other games (such as Diablo 3), but it’s very clear that they recharge consecutively in GW2. You can test this with existing skills using the ammo mechanic such as guardian spirit weapons and mesmer mantras.

Which can make it quite difficult to even maintain three shades in an extended encounter, let alone make sure that they’re all somewhere useful. In a mobile encounter, it might make it hard to ensure that even ONE is in a useful position!

The big shade, however, can be redeployed almost at will.

To those who think Scarlet hate means she’s succeeded as a villain:
People don’t hate Scarlet like Game of Thrones fans hate Joffrey.
They hate her the way Star Wars fans hate Jar Jar Binks.

Fashionwars Why is every necro dark and edgy?

in Necromancer

Posted by: draxynnic.3719

draxynnic.3719

Dark? Edgy? Please. I am a scientist, and have no need for your superstitious bookah nonsense about certain colours and macabre objects being required to perform the art of necromancy! Just because I study dead things does not mean that I need to dress like one!

Attachments:

To those who think Scarlet hate means she’s succeeded as a villain:
People don’t hate Scarlet like Game of Thrones fans hate Joffrey.
They hate her the way Star Wars fans hate Jar Jar Binks.

What is even point of BIG SHADE ?

in Necromancer

Posted by: draxynnic.3719

draxynnic.3719

From my experimentation, the primary advantages seem to be sustainability and mobility. It’s all but guaranteed that whenever you need to move or refresh the shade, you’ll be able to do so, so you can ensure that you always have the big shade exactly where you need it to be, when you need it to be there, at maximum strength.

The larger number of potential targets, and the fact that you get a similar area overall to clumping three regular shades together, are an added bonus.

The tradeoff is that you don’t get the benefit of a different grandmaster (obviously) and that you lose the ability to have multiple zones of influence by placing multiple shades.

In your standard point fight PvP, the big shade is probably not that useful. You pretty much want one shade to be on the point you’re fighting on, while the others can be spread out in other useful places, and that will generally work. In PvE scenarios where you’re often constantly moving (pushing forward, generally), though, I can see the big shade being more useful than little shades that you keep leaving behind. The Dragon’s Stand meta would probably be one example.

To those who think Scarlet hate means she’s succeeded as a villain:
People don’t hate Scarlet like Game of Thrones fans hate Joffrey.
They hate her the way Star Wars fans hate Jar Jar Binks.

Why 300 range on guard Staff 1 now?

in WvW

Posted by: draxynnic.3719

draxynnic.3719

Because ‘you can hit through walls and gates’.

Why is this an issue now? After 5 years. All aoes can hit through gaates anyway, why is it an issue for guardians?

Exactly what I was wondering, condi engineers with flame throwers are much more effective and can hit through gates too, does this mean the flame thrower is going to be a melee weapon too?

except guardy’s staff is not melee wepon due to still having over a twice as much range as actuall melees [300 vs 130]

and guardian with this nerfed staff can still quite effortlessly outtag any melee class.

300 is essentially ‘melee with reach’ range. Elementalist dagger has 300 on its shortest-ranged autoattack, and people don’t pretend that’s a ranged weapon. Sure, it means that if you’re good at kiting you can theoretically sit just outside of melee range and hit them while they can’t hit you back – however, most ‘melee’ characters will either be able to hit you anyway or quickly close the distance at that range (often both).

For most intents and purposes, 300 is melee. Melee with a polearm* rather than melee with a sword, perhaps, but melee nonetheless.

  • Yes, I know GW2 doesn’t have polearms, but the analogy gets the point across.
To those who think Scarlet hate means she’s succeeded as a villain:
People don’t hate Scarlet like Game of Thrones fans hate Joffrey.
They hate her the way Star Wars fans hate Jar Jar Binks.

Please undo the Guardian Staff Nerf

in Guardian

Posted by: draxynnic.3719

draxynnic.3719

As always, the balance team is the game’s own worst enemy (GW1 Smiter’s Boon, anyone?). I’m holding off on my PoF purchase until we get at least some kind of reaction from a dev.

There’s no comparison.

The original boonsmiting was well reasoned (the skill created degenerate teams where one build could do everything) and, more importantly, only applied to the game mode where the problem existed. This boonsmiting has no explanation given (even the schadenfreude posters are basically guessing) and affects game modes where staff was clearly already struggling.

To those who think Scarlet hate means she’s succeeded as a villain:
People don’t hate Scarlet like Game of Thrones fans hate Joffrey.
They hate her the way Star Wars fans hate Jar Jar Binks.

PoF predictions...

in Lore

Posted by: draxynnic.3719

draxynnic.3719

It’s… ambiguous. The nature of the artifact in the Temple of Abaddon was never identified – it could just have been a powerful non-divine artifact that was stored there because Abaddon liked magic.

Similarly, the magic of the temples and statues in Orr, which Zhaitan corrupted, may have been mortal magic that the people of Orr created as part of their devotion to the gods, not divine magic per se. We don’t know. It’s possible that an Elder Dragon could bear and consume a god. It’s also possible that the reverse is true, but the gods knew the consequences of destroying dragons. We don’t know.

Certainly, I don’t think that the Priestess of Lyssa claiming that Zhaitan ate Lyssa is a credible source. Followers of Lyssa practice deception by nature, and we see a few examples of the Risen employing psychological tricks of one form or another. So I’m certainly not going to take the goading of a Risen Priestess of Lyssa as gospel.

To those who think Scarlet hate means she’s succeeded as a villain:
People don’t hate Scarlet like Game of Thrones fans hate Joffrey.
They hate her the way Star Wars fans hate Jar Jar Binks.

The Return of Koss?

in Lore

Posted by: draxynnic.3719

draxynnic.3719

Koss Kossson!

Not sure Melonni would put up with that, though.

To those who think Scarlet hate means she’s succeeded as a villain:
People don’t hate Scarlet like Game of Thrones fans hate Joffrey.
They hate her the way Star Wars fans hate Jar Jar Binks.

Please undo the Guardian Staff Nerf

in Guardian

Posted by: draxynnic.3719

draxynnic.3719

I refer you to my post on the other thread on the subject here.

The problem is opportunity cost. You only have two weaponsets. Staff gives good support, but it was used because it gave good support while still being a decent ranged option.

So how are you supposed to use it now?

If you keep using it with a melee set, then your only realistic ranged option that isn’t on a lengthy recharge is Orb of Light – and that only if you don’t detonate it. So the effect of the buff on detonating Orb of Light is largely wasted in that case because you can’t afford to use it.

If you combine it with a ranged set, then you’re effectively using staff as a melee set. The problem with that is that the damage of Wave of Wrath just doesn’t justify having to be that close to five targets, and all the other skills are balanced around being used at longer range (particularly Empower and Line of Warding with their slow cast times). You’d be better off using a genuine melee weapon, and probably offer more effective support if that melee weapon is a hammer or mace/X combination.

If they’d increased the damage of Wave of Wrath, then maybe your argument would work on the basis that their intent is for staff to be effectively another melee weapon. But it’s still a tickle. And even putting the question of the staff itself aside – this nerf means that scepter becomes the only real ranged weapon that core guardian (and therefore any elite spec that doesn’t bring its own ranged weapon) has. Only having one ranged weapon is a very uncomfortable position for any profession to be in, since it makes the profession very susceptible to nerfs on that weapon. Just look at what’s happened to revenants, particularly in sPvP.

To those who think Scarlet hate means she’s succeeded as a villain:
People don’t hate Scarlet like Game of Thrones fans hate Joffrey.
They hate her the way Star Wars fans hate Jar Jar Binks.

what class to tag now that guard is dead?

in WvW

Posted by: draxynnic.3719

draxynnic.3719

I also heard that the sky is falling…

Many many Guardians would use a staff just to AA spam in WvW to get as many bags as possible. They would build super tanky, so they can stand in the front line and spam their staff’s AA. ANet seen this and cut the range down. It’s no ones fault except for those who abused this for profit.

Guardian is still a great class, you just need to put effort into getting bags now.

While it’s a nice thought, I doubt very very seriously that anet made a change to a weapon skill based on how it was being used in wvw . . .

Staff has been dead in sPvP since bunker guard got nerfed around the time HoT released, and has been a novelty weapon in PvE for even longer. Whatever their justification is, unless you subscribe to the conspiracy theory that they were worried that Permeating Wrath staff might compete with axe as a condi weapon, it HAS to be WvW, since that’s the only place where it was seeing serious use.

Nerfing staff for PvE or sPvP reasons would be beating a horse that’s already died, been sent to the knackers, turned into glue, and the glue used to make a paper mache model of the horse to commemorate its life.

To those who think Scarlet hate means she’s succeeded as a villain:
People don’t hate Scarlet like Game of Thrones fans hate Joffrey.
They hate her the way Star Wars fans hate Jar Jar Binks.

God for a Human Elementalist

in Lore

Posted by: draxynnic.3719

draxynnic.3719

As people have said, while necromancer, mesmer, and to a lesser extent guardian have clear choices, for an elementalist it’s pretty much a question of which god you think best fits your character’s personality – and it sounds like the answer here is Kormir.

While she’s not linked a single element like the other gods, this arguably makes her a stronger choice for characters seeking to use all elements equally. Furthermore, she has clear signs of being linked to paragon (fire and lightning, although paragons seem to be in the domain of Preservation rather than Destruction) and dervish (earth, wind, and holy fire), so there are elemental links there. So I’d say that following Kormir for an elementalist without a particular elemental preference is perfectly valid.

As people have said, too, having a patron does not mean that you can’t revere all of them. It just means that there’s one that you’re closest to. It’s like having a favourite lecturer at university – it doesn’t mean that you suddenly think that you have nothing at all to learn from the others.

To those who think Scarlet hate means she’s succeeded as a villain:
People don’t hate Scarlet like Game of Thrones fans hate Joffrey.
They hate her the way Star Wars fans hate Jar Jar Binks.

Please undo the Guardian Staff Nerf

in Guardian

Posted by: draxynnic.3719

draxynnic.3719

The ironic thing about the ‘they nerfed staff to make room for axe’ comment…

If true, they’ve actually shot themselves in the foot. I’m less interested in axe now than I was before.

Why? Because it’s going to have the same problem that condi revenant has had since release: No effective ranged weapon, or, for that matter, no alternative condi-based set to swap to (okay, maybe sword/X counts due to also generating a lot of passive procs). Staff with Permeating Wrath could have worked, but now it’s only ‘ranged’ in the most technical sense.

It’s going to be in the same situation that condi rev has been since release (and which renegede seems intended to fix): not having an effective condi-based weapon outside of melee range. In fact, it’ll be worse off, since rev has a short-recharge 480-range fire field it can use for some standoff capability. Condi firebrand won’t even have that.

Until this nerf, I was planning out getting a condi set for axe/torch and to give Permeating Wrath a try for myself. Now? I don’t think I’ll bother. I’ll just keep using power… and depending on how much of the firebrand’s other mechanics are linked to condi damage, that might mean that the firebrand as a whole becomes a fizzle where I’m concerned. (Although, from what I’ve seen thus far, it looks like power Firebrand will be viable.)

To those who think Scarlet hate means she’s succeeded as a villain:
People don’t hate Scarlet like Game of Thrones fans hate Joffrey.
They hate her the way Star Wars fans hate Jar Jar Binks.

Why 300 range on guard Staff 1 now?

in WvW

Posted by: draxynnic.3719

draxynnic.3719

It made the basic attack of the weapon practically useless.
Who will use the staff at mellee range,and why wouldn’t they be using a proper mellee weapon instead?
I’m not surprised really,imo the choices this balance team makes defy logic.
They could at least make it 425 range like the far..sorry I meant flamethrower.
It can shoot through gates and walls too.

That’s been pretty much my thought. If this change was justified at all – and I haven’t seen anything that convinces me that it was, the ‘shoot through walls’ aspect would be better fixed by making it so the attack couldn’t shoot through walls - then reducing it to the 400 or so range of other attacks with a similar theme like Flame Jet, Drake’s Breath, and so on would at least make sense. Ideally with some buff to compensate (and no, a slight increase and firing angle doesn’t count).

300 range is ridiculous.

To those who think Scarlet hate means she’s succeeded as a villain:
People don’t hate Scarlet like Game of Thrones fans hate Joffrey.
They hate her the way Star Wars fans hate Jar Jar Binks.

So Balthazar wants to be.... (PoF spoiler)

in Living World

Posted by: draxynnic.3719

draxynnic.3719

Ah, so England, Scotland and Ireland are not and never were nations then, because they’re ‘lands’? Deutschland either?

technically speaking there is no nation [and never were] called “England, scotland, Ireland, deutschland”

Now, that’s splitting a really fine hair.

The formal name of England, from 1066 to the personal union in 1707, was the Kingdom of England. Scotland was “Kinrick o Scotland” in one of the Scottish languages. The formal name of Germany is “Bundesrepublik Deutschland

Yes, the term England comes from “land of the Engs”, but it is still the name of a nation. In fact, saying ‘land of the Engs’ is essentially saying ‘the land occupied by the nation of the Engs’. Similar observations apply to all of the other ‘lands’.

The fact that Elona is poetically described as “The Land of the Golden Sun” does not limit Elona to being a specific geographical region any more than someone poetically describing Russia as the Land of Spring Mud would mean that Russia now refers to a fixed geographical region rather than the area within the borders of the Russian Federation – even if not all of the regions within the Russian Federation are subject to the rasputitsa (most technically won’t be these days with paved roads, but the point still stands).

To those who think Scarlet hate means she’s succeeded as a villain:
People don’t hate Scarlet like Game of Thrones fans hate Joffrey.
They hate her the way Star Wars fans hate Jar Jar Binks.

Please undo the Guardian Staff Nerf

in Guardian

Posted by: draxynnic.3719

draxynnic.3719

Another issue with looking at the players in a squad, incidentally, is that some professions are good at zerging, some are good at roaming.

I mostly play thief in WvW, for instance, partly because with my servers and timezone I can rarely rely on there being a zerg when I want one, and partly because I simply generally enjoy roaming more than zerg play. Thief is good at this thanks to mobility, but tends to melt in zerg versus zerg. Guardians, on the other hand, are solid zerg troops but suffer when roaming due to their low mobility and lack of escape options. So you’re naturally going to see more guardians in squads simply because people playing guardian in WvW are more likely to be in a zerg, without necessarily meaning that they’re dominating WvW on the whole.

TL:DR If your sample is coming out of the profession mix you see in squads, your sample is inherently biased. It’s like trying to estimate how many people in a suburb are regular readers by randomly surveying people… in a library.

To those who think Scarlet hate means she’s succeeded as a villain:
People don’t hate Scarlet like Game of Thrones fans hate Joffrey.
They hate her the way Star Wars fans hate Jar Jar Binks.

(edited by draxynnic.3719)

Why 300 range on guard Staff 1 now?

in WvW

Posted by: draxynnic.3719

draxynnic.3719

If the reason was attacking through doors, then maybe they should fix that over boonsmiting the weapon in every game mode?

Meanwhile everyone completely ignores that every other skill on the stuff got a buff…

The symbol didn’t, but that’s a nitpick.

You only get two weapon slots, which means that each weapon has to pull its weight. Staff pulled its weight because of the combination of support and being a decent ranged pressure weapon in WvW circumstances. You had the wave at medium range, and could poke with undetonated Orbs of Light and Symbol of Swiftness at 1200 range if need be. So you had two legs justifying its use – support, and ranged attack capability.

Now, the support has been buffed, but only slightly. The healing from Empower is more responsive now rather than all coming at the end, which is good, but it’s still a fairly weak heal – those initial pulses might save somebody, but it’s unlikely, and the overall heal hasn’t changed (it wasn’t unsplit). Line of Warding was always niche to pull off – a reduction recharge is nice, but nothing to scream home about. Same for the recharge reduction on detonating Orb of Light, really.

So you’ve had some fairly minor boosts to support. Meanwhile, the ranged attack capability is all but gone. 300 range is equivalent to an Elementalist’s lightning whip, and that covers a larger area, does more damage, and I’d argue that a dagger auramancer offers as much or more support than a staff guardian. You’ve still got Orb of Light and the symbol for ‘poking’, but if that’s what you’re relying on to have any offensive capability outside of range 300, you’re probably not using either for its support effects. The decreased recharge on Orb of Light doesn’t matter if you can’t afford to detonate it because it’s effectively your autoattack now.

So, to refer to that analogy of the staff having two legs justifying its use in one of your two valuable weaponsets: the changes have propped up one leg a little. While cutting off the other at the knee with an axe.

And for those people disliking projectile hate: I daresay that this will increase the amount of projectile hate into WvW. Because, on the one hand, one of the professions that previously had a ranged attack that avoided projectile hate is now gone. And on the other, once staff gets dropped like a hot potato, shield offhands might start to look rather tempting…

To those who think Scarlet hate means she’s succeeded as a villain:
People don’t hate Scarlet like Game of Thrones fans hate Joffrey.
They hate her the way Star Wars fans hate Jar Jar Binks.

Capping pre-patch lose out on 190 tickets?

in WvW

Posted by: draxynnic.3719

draxynnic.3719

They should have really added this next reset.

Or compensated by looking at the progression people had made when the patch happened and awarding the difference.

I’m not hugely upset because in the long run it’s going to be faster, but it certainly could have been handled better.

To those who think Scarlet hate means she’s succeeded as a villain:
People don’t hate Scarlet like Game of Thrones fans hate Joffrey.
They hate her the way Star Wars fans hate Jar Jar Binks.

Participation still capped at 10 mins

in WvW

Posted by: draxynnic.3719

draxynnic.3719

Ahhh, that does make for an interesting change. Makes it so you’re less likely to completely lose low levels of participation because you’re getting denied hard by opposing servers.

To those who think Scarlet hate means she’s succeeded as a villain:
People don’t hate Scarlet like Game of Thrones fans hate Joffrey.
They hate her the way Star Wars fans hate Jar Jar Binks.

S3E6 violation of Charr lore "spoiler"

in Lore

Posted by: draxynnic.3719

draxynnic.3719

@TheGreyhawk: Yeah, the variables are why I listed my assumptions. I do recall mention that the Jubilee marked ten years of her actual rule and not the regency, but I may be mistaken on that. Certainly, though, she was the ruler by the time of Edge of Destiny. So her minimum age is the age at which she was able to assume the authority of the crown, plus the time between now and Edge of Destiny. And I’d have to say that in Edge of Destiny, she felt young, but not teenager young. So I think it’s reasonable to estimate her current age at 30, give or take a couple of years. I think the highest age that can be reasonably justified is 35, which assumes that she’s not allowed to take the throne until 21 (a monarchical system seems unlikely to require someone to be much older than that to take power).

The youngest… you might be able to argue that Jennah could have been a very mature 16-year-old in Edge of Destiny, I guess, which would make her 26 now.

@Ehecatl: I’m inclined to agree that having the PC continue to have a set of companions through the personal story (and beyond) possibly could have worked better.

For charr, this would be the warband.

For asura, their krewe.

For norn, a hunting party.

For sylvari, a group of Valiants who share the PC’s Wyld Hunt (or have a compatible one).

For humans, this simply be an adventuring party, or could be something that varies according to background. A noble, for instance, might have household troops, while a commoner might have reformed gang members.

You could even have had options in the home instance to customise your unit.

To those who think Scarlet hate means she’s succeeded as a villain:
People don’t hate Scarlet like Game of Thrones fans hate Joffrey.
They hate her the way Star Wars fans hate Jar Jar Binks.

PoF predictions...

in Lore

Posted by: draxynnic.3719

draxynnic.3719

Considering that Balthazar uses charr mercenaries, I doubt he’d have any problem accepting a norn that showed up and offered help. At worst, he might be suspicious of getting another ‘bothersome shadow’.

There is the Snaff’s Machine. If Balthazar some how known about it and planned to use it on Kralkatorrik then he might stood a chance.

Possibly, but unlikely. To oversimplify, Snaff’s device worked because Snaff was able to embody happiness and contentment. That… doesn’t sound like an approach Balthazar could manage right now.

Which raises an interesting, albeit wild, speculation…

The new Dragonbrand on the map shows Kralkatorrik parking himself next to the Garden of Seborhin without corrupting it. What if this was deliberate on Kralky’s part – he went there looking for some peace and serenity? :P

On the general concept of the power of the gods related to the dragons: We never really got a solid indication on how they compared in power except that they were on a similar level and that (until now) the gods hadn’t tried to take them on directly.

The only indication we might possibly have is the corrupted Priestess of Lyssa’s claim that Zhaitan ate Lyssa, but I have to say I don’t consider her a credible source.

To those who think Scarlet hate means she’s succeeded as a villain:
People don’t hate Scarlet like Game of Thrones fans hate Joffrey.
They hate her the way Star Wars fans hate Jar Jar Binks.

Spirit Weapon evaluation thread

in Guardian

Posted by: draxynnic.3719

draxynnic.3719

The cast times do appear to be an issue. For me it was most obvious with the shield, but I can see the arguments with the other skills as well.

It’s a general nitpick with the ammo system, but it would be nice to see each count recharge independently, rather than consecutively as they do now. As it currently stands, it feels like you’ve still effectively got a skill which recharges on the count recharge, albeit with a shot or two in reserve (but if you use that reserve, it’ll take close to a minute before you get that reserve back). I think I’d prefer a longer count refresh time to have the counts recharge independently.
(So, for instance, using SotA as an example – currently, if you use your last charge, it will take about a minute to get them all back – the time it takes for your first count to finish recharging, and then 50 seconds after that as each additional count recharges. If the counts recharged individually rather than consecutively, though, the count recharge might need to be increased to 30 or 35 seconds, but 35 seconds later you would have all of your counts back.)

Maybe the current functionality is exactly what they intended and balanced it around, but I have to say I was thinking in terms of “You get [count number] uses in [count recharge] seconds”, not “You get 1 use every [count recharge] seconds, but you can bank up [count number -1] additional uses if you don’t use it at all for a while.”

Lets not pretend like anyone actually liked or used the old SWs

Let’s not go down that road again. The skills were ignored for four years, there are a number of buffs they could have tried instead of reworking them. But it’s done now.

I liked the idea, but they had got to be a bit like the original tomes – cool idea, but never balanced to something that was seriously used. I think I’d have preferred to see them balanced with their original theme, but… shrug I’m more likely to seriously use them as they are now than as they were.

Except for Shield of the Avenger. It was a niche skill that had its uses before. Now? 2s of projectile block every 25s (see above comments regarding operation of ammo counts) with a cast time long enough that it can’t really be used reactively doesn’t seem all that useful to me. I think if traited, it gives 10% uptime, rising to 40% uptime for a short period if you’re willing to expend your reserve counts? That’s nice, but WoR gives 33% uptime baseline and 50% traited, can maintain that uptime throughout the length fo a long encounter, can be placed more tactically rather than always being on the guardian, and is a reflect rather than a simple destroy. There’s no competition, and they don’t seem to synergise well with one another either.

If it could be used reactively, it could compete for shorter encounters and/or for situations where there are specific projectiles you want to block. If it had a longer shield duration, it might also compete, especially for shorter encounters where for whatever reason you don’t want to trait Master of Consecrations. Currently, though? I don’t see any prospect of using it, unless perhaps the damaging component proves to be just a little higher than the other available options after slotting SoJ and the most relevant signet for the build and I’m looking to do pure AoE DPS, but I really don’t see that being the case. (Dragonhunter has Procession of Blades, I’m pretty sure Firebrand has better AoE damage utilities as well, and even in core guardian, there’d be stiff competition from Smite Condition (if there are conditions to smite), Purging Flames, or simply taking a second signet on a hybrid build.)

To those who think Scarlet hate means she’s succeeded as a villain:
People don’t hate Scarlet like Game of Thrones fans hate Joffrey.
They hate her the way Star Wars fans hate Jar Jar Binks.

(edited by draxynnic.3719)

[Patch Feedback] Shield of the Avenger

in Guardian

Posted by: draxynnic.3719

draxynnic.3719

Good luck with that. I don’t think 40 seconds (even more considering charge cooldown) of nearly 100% uptime projectile blocking in an AoE is very likely to happen.

I mainly just want the cast time reduced a bit so you can use it on reaction better.

That’s pretty much what I’m thinking. 3/4s is a long time when you have projectiles incoming, and the shield only lasting for 2s means it certainly does seem to be intended as a reactive skill rather than WoR or even SoA which do last long enough to create an effective (albeit temporary) ‘safe zone’.

Sure, but with a 3/4 cast time, you can’t react to anything.

If it’s to last 2-3 seconds, it should at least be instant cast.

That’s pretty much exactly what I was saying, but in different words?

It might not need to be instant, and ArenaNet probably don’t want it to be activated while other skills are activating, but 3/4s is clearly too long.

To those who think Scarlet hate means she’s succeeded as a villain:
People don’t hate Scarlet like Game of Thrones fans hate Joffrey.
They hate her the way Star Wars fans hate Jar Jar Binks.

Please undo the Guardian Staff Nerf

in Guardian

Posted by: draxynnic.3719

draxynnic.3719

So, from a WvW perspective… was there anything about staff in WvW that actually warranted this change? Because it’s been virtually unseen in PvE or sPvP for a while now. I’d genuinely like to know if there was an actual call that this was OP by anyone, anywhere, that justifies this, or whether it was purely a dartboard nerf..

Yes. It’s surprising to me that so many guard mains haven’t been aware of this issue, actually
It was a very strong weapon in WvW since it was also capable of hitting through gates and walls, which is undoubtedly the precedent for this nerf
I personally dont think it’s justified or that the problem was that bad in the first place, it doesnt hit for a lot of damage anyway and it has never been a real issue, I dont think this nerf is justified.

Have experienced this myself. Didn’t think it was a major issue, since other professions have means of attacking through doors – I largely just thought that it was deliberate that trying to repair a door under attack involved risks, and I hadn’t seen anyone complaining about it (granted, I may have not looked at the WvW forum at a time when the conversation was happening).

That said, if ArenaNet felt that this was the issue, then wouldn’t it be more appropriate to add a check for obstructed than to effectively boonsmite the weapon in every game mode?

The main thing that offends me here is that ArenaNet has given no explanation as to why they’ve made such a substantial change.

(On that note, if ‘lootstick’ behaviour was really the problem, narrowing the cone would have been a better option than halving its range and making it slightly wider. Any of these changes should have come with some buff to it, though.)

To those who think Scarlet hate means she’s succeeded as a villain:
People don’t hate Scarlet like Game of Thrones fans hate Joffrey.
They hate her the way Star Wars fans hate Jar Jar Binks.

(edited by draxynnic.3719)

Wow that conjure change...

in Elementalist

Posted by: draxynnic.3719

draxynnic.3719

I interpreted ‘guaranteed hits’ as meaning that a certain proportion of the strikes will actually land on a target rather than striking randomly within the area – they can still be blocked, evaded, and so on as normal.

I haven’t tested it, though, but that’s the way I read it.

To those who think Scarlet hate means she’s succeeded as a villain:
People don’t hate Scarlet like Game of Thrones fans hate Joffrey.
They hate her the way Star Wars fans hate Jar Jar Binks.

8/8/2017 Mesmer Balance

in Mesmer

Posted by: draxynnic.3719

draxynnic.3719

Damage builds will never be viable as long as Phantasms can’t change targets; hilarious that they gave them a GM ramp-up trait when they will never exist long enough to ramp up, and don’t even maintain the bonus through Chronophantasma recycling.

Chronomancer alacrity-bot is and always will be our only use, even after Mirage comes out I suspect. Better luck in another two years.

Axe skill 3 redirects your phantasms onto the target, if I read it correctly.

To those who think Scarlet hate means she’s succeeded as a villain:
People don’t hate Scarlet like Game of Thrones fans hate Joffrey.
They hate her the way Star Wars fans hate Jar Jar Binks.

[Patch Feedback] Shield of the Avenger

in Guardian

Posted by: draxynnic.3719

draxynnic.3719

Good luck with that. I don’t think 40 seconds (even more considering charge cooldown) of nearly 100% uptime projectile blocking in an AoE is very likely to happen.

I mainly just want the cast time reduced a bit so you can use it on reaction better.

That’s pretty much what I’m thinking. 3/4s is a long time when you have projectiles incoming, and the shield only lasting for 2s means it certainly does seem to be intended as a reactive skill rather than WoR or even SoA which do last long enough to create an effective (albeit temporary) ‘safe zone’.

To those who think Scarlet hate means she’s succeeded as a villain:
People don’t hate Scarlet like Game of Thrones fans hate Joffrey.
They hate her the way Star Wars fans hate Jar Jar Binks.

Please undo the Guardian Staff Nerf

in Guardian

Posted by: draxynnic.3719

draxynnic.3719

LOL at all the Guards in here lamenting the demise of their “loot stick”. :-D

By your post history, you’re a WvW player and apart from the WvW forum, you appear to be most interested in thief and revenant…

So, from a WvW perspective… was there anything about staff in WvW that actually warranted this change? Because it’s been virtually unseen in PvE or sPvP for a while now. I’d genuinely like to know if there was an actual call that this was OP by anyone, anywhere, that justifies this, or whether it was purely a dartboard nerf.

Because this change has pretty much guaranteed it will never be used in any other mode, and even for WvW, mightstacking can be done by other means.

Now, if the damage had been raised to something like Lightning Whip levels, I could kind of understand it. But at the moment, it feels like ‘demise’ is an appropriate term. They’ve basically boonsmited it, but in all game modes, and as far as I could see, with no indication that it was causing a problem beforehand.

To those who think Scarlet hate means she’s succeeded as a villain:
People don’t hate Scarlet like Game of Thrones fans hate Joffrey.
They hate her the way Star Wars fans hate Jar Jar Binks.

So Balthazar wants to be.... (PoF spoiler)

in Living World

Posted by: draxynnic.3719

draxynnic.3719

Ah, so England, Scotland and Ireland are not and never were nations then, because they’re ‘lands’? Deutschland either?

‘Land’ is not a strictly defined term, at least not in the sense you’re trying to claim. When talking about a nation, the ‘land’ of that nation expands and contracts as the nation does.

No one in core tyria went hellbent to stop palawa joko when he was conquering elona and the kryta was at the time quite heavilly flooded with elonian refugees at a time. No, central tyria would not come to elonian help if balthazar would not be endangering it directly – they didn’t do it earlier they would not do it now.

Actually, while we don’t hear about it in-game, the order of Whispers is up to its neck in the resistance movement against Palawa Joko in Elona.

The big reason is that other than the Order of Whispers, only Kryta had any reason at all to care about what happened to Elona, and the Krytans were in no position to help even if the way wasn’t blocked by Zhaitan.

Now we’ve got a reason to go there, and with the White Mantle defeated and the truce with the charr, Kryta might actually have the spare capacity to support a liberation movement elsewhere.

To those who think Scarlet hate means she’s succeeded as a villain:
People don’t hate Scarlet like Game of Thrones fans hate Joffrey.
They hate her the way Star Wars fans hate Jar Jar Binks.

What is Staff good for?

in Guardian

Posted by: draxynnic.3719

draxynnic.3719

it should be an awesome support weapon after the upcoming core patch (warrior is getting one, so i bet y’all will too). it’s gonna be great for pvp bunkering & wvw zerging. loads of healing, might & area control- but not a lot of damage. pretty much a must have for bunker firebrand.

that’s assuming anet’s balance team have more brain cells than a two dollar bill. which ah, i hope they do. i really do. but ah, time will tell.

Did you hype yourself up for staff changes? Poor thing.

Oh, boy, and look what actually happened. Oh, the irony…

headdesks

To those who think Scarlet hate means she’s succeeded as a villain:
People don’t hate Scarlet like Game of Thrones fans hate Joffrey.
They hate her the way Star Wars fans hate Jar Jar Binks.

Please undo the Guardian Staff Nerf

in Guardian

Posted by: draxynnic.3719

draxynnic.3719

Gotta say, this was my biggest WTF in the patch notes by far.

“Wave of Wrath is overpowered and needs its range decreased” Said absolutely no-one that I’ve seen ever. Most people wanted it buffed or replaced entirely with a long-range attack (the second option being one I strenuously disagreed with). Furthermore, they’ve given absolutely no justification for it.

Even if there was, I could understand 450 or so, on the order of other cone attacks, but nerfing it down to 300 just seems overly extreme.

I was actually looking forward to trying a staff + axe/torch build I’d been theorycrafting for PoF. Not any more, I guess…

To those who think Scarlet hate means she’s succeeded as a villain:
People don’t hate Scarlet like Game of Thrones fans hate Joffrey.
They hate her the way Star Wars fans hate Jar Jar Binks.

Why are you excited for soulbeast?

in Ranger

Posted by: draxynnic.3719

draxynnic.3719

1) Because it’s not Druid. My first thought on trying druid out during the HoT preview weekend was ‘this looks like it will probably be a powerful spec, but I just don’t find it enjoyable myself’.

2) Dagger, to me, looks like it could be a more interesting melee weapon option to sword and greatsword, neither of which I’m really enjoying on ranger at the moment.

3) More reactive playstyle in general. The stances look like good choices to react to situations that historically rangers have been poor at reacting to, and being able to beastmeld in order to actively use their skills grants more options.

4) While I’m not a person who’s been crying for petless ranger, I have to admit that there are some situations in which pets are dead weight, and it will be good to have an answer to that.

I’ll note that 1-3 are entirely subjective… but ranger has dropped to my least-played profession since HoT, and soulbeast offers the potential to revert that.

To those who think Scarlet hate means she’s succeeded as a villain:
People don’t hate Scarlet like Game of Thrones fans hate Joffrey.
They hate her the way Star Wars fans hate Jar Jar Binks.

So Balthazar wants to be.... (PoF spoiler)

in Living World

Posted by: draxynnic.3719

draxynnic.3719

On point #4: It’s possible that we’ll end up defeating Joko and claiming the Bone Palace as a forward base. Or it’ll be like some of the waypoints in the core game that are only uncontested when held as part of an event chain.

On point #5: The PC in episode 5 makes it very clear that even if killing the dragons was safe, “a murderous, overpowered god of war is too dangerous to keep around.”

To those who think Scarlet hate means she’s succeeded as a villain:
People don’t hate Scarlet like Game of Thrones fans hate Joffrey.
They hate her the way Star Wars fans hate Jar Jar Binks.

S3E6 violation of Charr lore "spoiler"

in Lore

Posted by: draxynnic.3719

draxynnic.3719

And if Jennah ever did go cray cray, it would probably be the blade that went to find a replacement heir. Supposedly there’s a hint that there’s another heir. One would hope anyways. Jennah’s getting to her late thirties and has no known heir…

We don’t know how old Jennah is and I’m not inclined to think that she’s in her late thirties. Remember that she took the throne at an early (if unspecified) age due to the death of her father. Konig or Drax could confirm or deny this but I seem to recall that a big part of the problem she’s had with the ministry is because they increased their power and influence during the early years of her reign, as she (again, as I recall) wasn’t quite old enough to rule on her own. But I could be wrong.

By my understanding, the Queen’s Jubilee (in 1326) was the tenth year of her reign, and her reign did not actually start until she reached the age of majority in Kryta (whatever that is). So if we assume that the age of majority in Kryta is 18, that would make her 28 in 1326, and 32 now.

(If the ten years includes the regency period, then she could be up to four years younger (she was the ruler in Edge of Destiny, set in 1320), and if the age of majority is something other than 18, then her age could be different based on the different age of majority.)

And yes, a big part of Caudecus beef is that he decided he enjoyed being in charge when he was the regent.

To those who think Scarlet hate means she’s succeeded as a villain:
People don’t hate Scarlet like Game of Thrones fans hate Joffrey.
They hate her the way Star Wars fans hate Jar Jar Binks.

Fixing the fire wyvern

in Ranger

Posted by: draxynnic.3719

draxynnic.3719

Yeah, the weird turns with pathing issues are frustrating. I’ve seen the chain-bolts drakes do it too, but at least with those you can more easily use the F2 at range.

On the fire formation thing – yeah, I would think that it should probably be more of an expanding field (similar to Nightfall) rather than not appearing until the end. Mind you, the wyvern pet skills are particularly disappointing when compared to what the NPC wyverns of similar ages do…

To those who think Scarlet hate means she’s succeeded as a villain:
People don’t hate Scarlet like Game of Thrones fans hate Joffrey.
They hate her the way Star Wars fans hate Jar Jar Binks.

Who is Livia? [LW3 Questionable Spoilers]

in Living World

Posted by: draxynnic.3719

draxynnic.3719

TL;DR of previous three posts: ArenaNet should have put more lore references to Livia in the earlier game, before we were getting her involved in the plot, like we’ve gotten of Pyre or Jora.

TL;DR of other posts: Livia should have had a bigger role in Season 3 to matter to non-GW1 players.

They could at least have had Exemplar Kerida showing up being mysterious previously. For instance, she could have been in Bloodstone Fen, saying that she was there on her own mission independent of the hunt for Caudecus. Then again in the mursaat ruins in Ember Bay. When we found the aspect in Caudecus’ bedroom, they could have had Canach mentioning that Kerida is an expert on Lazarus. That way, when the reveal happens, it’s of a character who’s been mysterious for months, not one whom we may have first met in GW2 just hours (or even less!) before the reveal.

To those who think Scarlet hate means she’s succeeded as a villain:
People don’t hate Scarlet like Game of Thrones fans hate Joffrey.
They hate her the way Star Wars fans hate Jar Jar Binks.

Fixing the fire wyvern

in Ranger

Posted by: draxynnic.3719

draxynnic.3719

It doesn’t need fixing. Drakes need fixing. Not only their AI, but Salamander, Frost, and Reef Drake F2s. Those cones can be side-stepped so easily and are better off converted into bouncing bolts like the River and Marsh Drake F2s.

Salamander and Frost Drake being further left behind since their durations are a 1s base, balanced when Expertise Training used to give +50% condition duration to pets (current +33%).

Eh, I don’t think the cones need to be changed into bouncing bolts. They’re not the most PvP-oriented pets out there, but not everything has to be, and against PvE enemies there are times when the cone is more useful.

Maybe it could stand to be more responsive, though.

It probably is fair to say that the fire wyvern probably has the F2 that it does because drakes already have the cone breath weapon role.

To those who think Scarlet hate means she’s succeeded as a villain:
People don’t hate Scarlet like Game of Thrones fans hate Joffrey.
They hate her the way Star Wars fans hate Jar Jar Binks.

PoF predictions...

in Lore

Posted by: draxynnic.3719

draxynnic.3719

I predict that we will kill Balthazar and Rytlock will take his power to become the new god of war, Kormir-style. Rytlock clearly already knows something that he will FINALLY reveal to us as he mentions it in the trailer, and who else is kitten enough to take that kind of power (besides the PC, but we all know Anet won’t let us do that).

You heard it here first folks.

Actually, I made that speculation shortly after Episode 5. It was a little tongue-in-cheek, but I can (and do) claim to have come up with the idea long before hearing it here.

Part of the justification was that having a charr replace the god who possibly started the charr-human war in the first place could serve as a form of apology, and given the charr liking for war and fire (even if the non-Flame Charr have stepped away from that a bit, they still appreciate its practical applications) a charr who’s demonstrated an ability to cooperate with humans would be a fitting choice. It’d also be a way to troll the Flame Legion by having a charr god of fire who isn’t one of theirs.

To those who think Scarlet hate means she’s succeeded as a villain:
People don’t hate Scarlet like Game of Thrones fans hate Joffrey.
They hate her the way Star Wars fans hate Jar Jar Binks.

New Ranger Specialization: Soulbeast.

in Ranger

Posted by: draxynnic.3719

draxynnic.3719

As for soulbeast… how ‘supernatural’ the skills are will depend largely on the choice of pet, I think. If you’re melding with a jacaranda, then sure, you’re calling lightning. If you’re melding with a bear, then the abilities you get are probably more mundane than some of the things we already see in ranger melee attacks.

As someone mentioned above, rangers always had a lot of magical stuff: summoning spirits, enchanting roots to entangle enemies, throwing axes imbued with frost magic, shooting magic arrows that make them invisible. Soulbeast goes even further: the process of melding with a pet is highly magical thing. So at the moment soulbeast is as close to Legolas as holosmith to Aragorn (they both have a sword). I still think the thief is the closest: just a normal guy with great mobility, lightning reflexes and exelent skills of using a short bow and stabby things. If deadeye was using longbow instead of rifle the picture would be 100% accurate.

Strictly speaking, Tolkein’s elves have magic too. It’s more subtle, but it’s there.

However, that’s actually a little beside the point – you were the one who brought Legolas up in the first place, I was just running with it. The people who wanted a petless ranger are essentially just looking for the nature-y archer or GW1 ranger archetype, not Legolas specifically. The magic present in Soulbeast, particularly with pets with more mundane skills, fits that archetype. The renegede, with a bunch of attacks involving things coming out of portals, really doesn’t.

To those who think Scarlet hate means she’s succeeded as a villain:
People don’t hate Scarlet like Game of Thrones fans hate Joffrey.
They hate her the way Star Wars fans hate Jar Jar Binks.

Who is Livia? [LW3 Questionable Spoilers]

in Living World

Posted by: draxynnic.3719

draxynnic.3719

One thing I would note is that there is something that makes it surprising that the human PC immediately says “You’re THAT Livia?”

Which is that in Sea of Sorrows, that’s not the response to the protagonists – mostly human in the scene in question – meeting Livia. One of the characters observes that Livia was possibly in the Shining Blade at the time of Zhaitan’s rise (which was well within living memory at the time) – none of them seemed to connect the name Livia to the founder of the Shining Blade as we know it today.

Perhaps our PC is simply better educated on that period of history than Cobiah Marriner was.

To those who think Scarlet hate means she’s succeeded as a villain:
People don’t hate Scarlet like Game of Thrones fans hate Joffrey.
They hate her the way Star Wars fans hate Jar Jar Binks.

Queen Jennah: Tyrant?

in Living World

Posted by: draxynnic.3719

draxynnic.3719

draxynnic.3719

In Sea of Sorrows, Livia makes it clear that the Shining Blade is dedicated to the Krytan monarchy, not to the individual who happens to be occupying the throne at the time. They can, and do, defy the monarch if they feel that the monarch is putting the interests of Kryta at risk, and this is particularly so if they feel that the monarch might be putting the continued rule of the royal family at risk.

I truly hope you are wrong. Because if true, that means the Blades are the true rulers of Kryta.
Is the same as saying that the Police Force in one country is dedicated to maintain the order in the country. And if they feel that a President is not good enough for this or that a President may not serve the purpose of maintaining the order in the country they may take action against him. Keeping the President as institution but eliminating the person they don’t like.

If the Blades are not a merely tool for the monarch and they have even the slightest degree of initiative (regarding the Monarch) based on what they feel, that means Kryta is no more a Monarchy. It is an anarchy.

I find a much better situation to have Jennah as a Tyrant than to have the Blades as the secret organization deciding who will be the Monarch, what kind of politics the Monarch is allowed to make, deciding when a Monarch should be replaced etc. All of this based on what they feel.

Eh. Having the power to remove the ‘official’ government does not mean you’re the de facto government yourself, unless you do so (or threaten to do so) on a regular basis. And if, hypothetically, the Shining Blade started to do that, I imagine it wouldn’t be too long before a monarch conspired to remove them.

From the precedent I cited, it appears that the Shining Blade generally doesn’t interfere with the monarch’s decisions. They didn’t interfere in Edair’s succession and only defied his orders once – in order to allow prisoners to escape, in accordance with orders from the previous king.

Keep in mind that the oath of the Shining Blade is still to support the rule of the Krytan royal line. If they were to undermine that rule by puppet-mastering the monarchy, then they would be violating the oath… and the founder of the Shining Blade as we now know it is still around to make sure they don’t get any ideas.

If you know about the Australian political system, a parallel could be drawn to the position of Governor-General. The GG has the power to dismiss a government, and being able to do so in an emergency is part of their job… but in practice it’s rarely used (it’s only happened once) and the GG generally doesn’t get involved in politics. The Shining Blade is probably similar. In a pinch, they can defy the monarch, possibly even replace them… but they only do so if they believe that the alternative will be disastrous.

To those who think Scarlet hate means she’s succeeded as a villain:
People don’t hate Scarlet like Game of Thrones fans hate Joffrey.
They hate her the way Star Wars fans hate Jar Jar Binks.

New Ranger Specialization: Soulbeast.

in Ranger

Posted by: draxynnic.3719

draxynnic.3719

Eh, renegede has a lot of clearly supernatural attacks for a Legolas. Soulbeast or even dragonhunter is probably closer.

Both soulbeast and dragonhunter have lots and lots of magic attacks, so with this kind of criterion the best petless ranger-Legolas is a thief.

I considered thief, and generally speaking you’d be right, but thinking in terms of being an archer specifically – the way thieves use bows is very different to a Legolas. Plus, there’s clearly magic involved there.

Dragonhunters do have clear use of magic, but it’s less overt than renegede seems to be. Come to think on it, I also didn’t consider warrior, which will fit in there somewhere.

As for soulbeast… how ‘supernatural’ the skills are will depend largely on the choice of pet, I think. If you’re melding with a jacaranda, then sure, you’re calling lightning. If you’re melding with a bear, then the abilities you get are probably more mundane than some of the things we already see in ranger melee attacks.

More broadly, I don’t think it’s fair to say that soulbeast is doing away with the pet mechanic. How long you remain in soulbeast form, and how you use it, is a choice. The proof will be in the pudding, of course, but I could also see it being used to enhance the use of a pet and make it more viable: for instance, it provides another means apart from pet-swapping to prevent an endangered pet from being disabled, a(nother) means of instantly calling the pet back to you if you need it, and so on.

Well, yes, you can stay in beast mode as long as you want and switch as much as you like. But here we go to the tempest analogy, where every second outside fire attunement is a dps loss. Of course, it will not matter in openworld (even now there are plenty of staff druids on any world boss doing pew-pew with AA), but in raids and fractals it will matter. So, as long as ranger and his pet are not sharing all the boons 100% of the time we will be forced to play all the time either in beastmode or with an active pet (depends on which will be the optimal way). And discouraged to switch the mode on/off. Just as switching pets now: you are switching only if pet is going to die.

Which is a question of balancing.

Personally, the aiming point I would go for is that if you want top DPS you want the pet out more often than not, but melding can allow you to make use of a specific pet skill now (for CC or to blast a field, for instance) and compensates you for situations where pets just aren’t viable.

To those who think Scarlet hate means she’s succeeded as a villain:
People don’t hate Scarlet like Game of Thrones fans hate Joffrey.
They hate her the way Star Wars fans hate Jar Jar Binks.

New Ranger Specialization: Soulbeast.

in Ranger

Posted by: draxynnic.3719

draxynnic.3719

forum bug 15 characters

To those who think Scarlet hate means she’s succeeded as a villain:
People don’t hate Scarlet like Game of Thrones fans hate Joffrey.
They hate her the way Star Wars fans hate Jar Jar Binks.

New Ranger Specialization: Soulbeast.

in Ranger

Posted by: draxynnic.3719

draxynnic.3719

Name a class that plays like a petless Ranger.

If you take the pet out ranger would be hardly distinguishable from other adventurers like thief. Whether you like it or not, but pets were what distinguished rangers from other bow-firing axe-and-dagger-stabbing trap-throwing guys. Just like necro’s shroud and minions or mesmer’s illusions. Fully (more or less) controlled pets with a large roaster of abilities were the buisiness card of rangers. Well, until now. So it is understandable that some of players are not happy about petless soulbeast. At least we retain something from our pets (the skills). The most ironic thing that at this point the best petless ranger (that Legolas people wanted) is not ranger, but renegade revenant.

Eh, renegede has a lot of clearly supernatural attacks for a Legolas. Soulbeast or even dragonhunter is probably closer.

More broadly, I don’t think it’s fair to say that soulbeast is doing away with the pet mechanic. How long you remain in soulbeast form, and how you use it, is a choice. The proof will be in the pudding, of course, but I could also see it being used to enhance the use of a pet and make it more viable: for instance, it provides another means apart from pet-swapping to prevent an endangered pet from being disabled, a(nother) means of instantly calling the pet back to you if you need it, and so on.

I suspect some people will use it as a means of doing away with the pet altogether, but it shouldn’t be the only way that the soulbeast can or should be played.

To those who think Scarlet hate means she’s succeeded as a villain:
People don’t hate Scarlet like Game of Thrones fans hate Joffrey.
They hate her the way Star Wars fans hate Jar Jar Binks.

Most powerful NPC for each profession?

in Lore

Posted by: draxynnic.3719

draxynnic.3719

Well, in the interests of being fair (again)…

Taimi is still a kid. She’s done everything she has as a minor without completing a formal education (probably not even to the extent that Scarlet did). If she can do what she’s done now, even “standing on the shoulders of giants” as it were, she’s probably going to be truly formidable in ten years.

On the other hand, though… she isn’t there now.

To those who think Scarlet hate means she’s succeeded as a villain:
People don’t hate Scarlet like Game of Thrones fans hate Joffrey.
They hate her the way Star Wars fans hate Jar Jar Binks.

WvW and PvP Ascended Armor Upgrades

in WvW

Posted by: draxynnic.3719

draxynnic.3719

If you have reforged either the PvP or WvW ascended armor you will need to earn a new piece of PvP or WvW ascended armor.

Reforged ascended armor will not work.

That’s a pretty huge flaw to have an already wildly stat selectable piece of precursor armor become worthless in regards to this legendary upgrade. Ironic too when it’s all about stat changes, and it makes me think this wasn’t thought through very well. There are a massive amount of players that have now essentially thrown entire sets of precursors away.

I hope you guys can change your stance and recompensate players for this. Really sad.

I suspect it’s because there are technical issues that mean they can’t. The server probably didn’t track which illustrious armour pieces were reforged versions of a PvP or WvW armour piece.

So, you’re literally undervaluing PvE Legendary Armor with this update? You can get a easier to get stat swapping version through these game types. Thats simply a smack in the face to people who got PvE Legendary armor. Wow.

You still get the exclusive animated skins.

Stat-swapping armour was a functionality that should never have been fixed to a single route of acquisition in the first place. In fact, I think ArenaNet raised the possibility of alternative routes for stat-swapping armour back when they were first talking about legendary armour, it’s just that they gave it to raiders first.

To those who think Scarlet hate means she’s succeeded as a villain:
People don’t hate Scarlet like Game of Thrones fans hate Joffrey.
They hate her the way Star Wars fans hate Jar Jar Binks.

Two huge problems with ranked pvp

in PvP

Posted by: draxynnic.3719

draxynnic.3719

I made a similar post like this that addressed the second issue

I don’t think you should be rated off of teams, its just too easy to lose a bad match up, you alone could the reason the end score was even 300 to 500, youre still going to get moved down in terms of rating

Where as if its completely based on the individuals performance we would have less people annoyed by it

Some ppl will never see plat, not because they themselves are bad, but because they keep getting put with teams where its just not a good match up or their team is bad

You shouldn’t be punished for that. Lets say youre gold rated and youre almost plat, yet for the last 2 days straight youre teams have had 1 person I call johnny 2×4

Johnny 2×4 doesn’t know wtf he’s doing, he isn’t paying attention to the chat, so you basically have a 4v5 and, we all know how unlikely you are of winning those

Then you have bots to take into account which is another topic for another day

It should just be based off of how well each person performed and how hard they tried to win. Did they ptfo? Did they support one another as a team? Did they contribute?

Did they cap and decap objectives? etc

It should go by the individuals, not based off of entire teams

The problem with this is that it’s hard for the AI to judge what does and doesn’t make a difference in the game.

For instance, in some games someone can bunker a point for an extended period and do very little damage to the enemy team at all but still have made a significant difference because the enemy team has two roamers that keep trying to take the point and you keep scaring them off, while if you weren’t bunkering they would keep capping the point. Alternatively, someone could be sitting on home when the enemy team never seriously attempts to take the point, and that person is effectively doing nothing while the rest of the map is a 4v5. How would the AI be able to pick whether bunkering was a decisive factor in your team winning or whether the rest of the team was awesome enough to win an effective 4v5? Or whether, conversely, you bunker a point and your team loses, but loses for reasons other than you bunkering and you were actually making the right call?

Whatever criteria you come up with for determining a player’s individual performance, some players are going to figure out that criteria… and a means of exploiting it. And then you’ll get players looking to inflate their personal score rather than legitimately trying to win the match – particularly the kind of player who decides the game is lost if their team doesn’t do well in the first couple of minutes. I’ve seen PvP games before where it often feels more like you’re competing with your own team more than the enemy, and I’d hate to see that happening here.

To those who think Scarlet hate means she’s succeeded as a villain:
People don’t hate Scarlet like Game of Thrones fans hate Joffrey.
They hate her the way Star Wars fans hate Jar Jar Binks.

"I will be the only God!"

in Lore

Posted by: draxynnic.3719

draxynnic.3719

Rytlock’s reason for wearing the blindfold is actually revealed early in PoF:


He’s not blind at all. He’s wearing it for much the same reason ritualists did – it helps him to focus on sorting out the “voices in his head”.

The hologram simulation showed more to me that it was the act of the orbs going silent causing Tyria to go silent, rather than “going chaotic and overloading”. Comparable to the Earth’s core going dead, no longer rotating, rather than things like we saw at Bloodstone Fen and Thaumanova.

If that’s the case, then magic being taken out of the equation won’t solve the issue. The issue is The All itself being out of balance – the six “bodies of power” that are not the Elder Dragons but intricately tied to them dying off.

Eh. What I see in that simulation is energy arcing between the two orbs and then grounding into Tyria, causing Tyria to crack open. Essentially, just a continuation of what happened when the other Elder Dragons were killed, but this time it hits the magic overload stage.

It’s possible that there is a bigger problem with the machine than with how the other dragons were killed previously. The machine essentially sought to cancel out the fire and ice spheres, so it’s possible that such cancelling would have removed magic from the equation rather than adding it, leading to the scenario you describe. However, it did seem to be that the simulation was showing the result of too much magic rather than too little.

Either way, there is an element of Taimi’s simulation probably not taking into account the possibility of Balthazar absorbing the magic.

To those who think Scarlet hate means she’s succeeded as a villain:
People don’t hate Scarlet like Game of Thrones fans hate Joffrey.
They hate her the way Star Wars fans hate Jar Jar Binks.

Most powerful NPC for each profession?

in Lore

Posted by: draxynnic.3719

draxynnic.3719

I’d also argue Scarlet is leaps and bounds ahead of Taimi. Taimi is only as good as she is because she has built upon what Scarlet and Omadd left her. Standing on the shoulders of giants as it were. Without them Taimi wouldn’t be all that impressive, even her golem pales in comparison to the golems of say, Snaff. Scarlet, on the other hand, made massive innovations that lead to her nearly conquering all of Tyria.

By that argument, Scarlet is only as good as she is because of what Omadd, Elli, the Flame Legion, Dredge, Inquest, Krait, Nightmare Court, pirates, and Mordremoth left her.

The only thing Scarlet made herself was the Steam creatures, which Taimi criticizes as being obvious amateur work. Everything else she had were just improvements on other people’s works, like Taimi doing such on Scarlet’s and Rata Novan’s works.

To be fair, Scarlet was at least fusing together multiple sources of knowledge, including many that other engineers never considered before her, in order to develop her technology. Taimi is purely working off the legacy of Scarlet and Omadd. (And that’s assuming Taimi is actually an engineer in the first place. We’re assuming she is, since all the story is pointing in that direction, but asura don’t need to be engineers to invent. If and when she starts fighting, she might turn out to be something else.)

Scarlet was certainly a Villain Sue, but she probably was the most powerful engineer we’ve seen so far.

To those who think Scarlet hate means she’s succeeded as a villain:
People don’t hate Scarlet like Game of Thrones fans hate Joffrey.
They hate her the way Star Wars fans hate Jar Jar Binks.

New Ranger Specialization: Soulbeast.

in Ranger

Posted by: draxynnic.3719

draxynnic.3719

Also, you keep mentioning nature magic and I get what you mean but, it’s only really a part of the kit. Rangers are also trappers, survivalists and animal tamers. The latter I think is actually more important to the concept than the druidic side of things. Now, all of these nature-themed of course, but they’re not all necessarily magic, nor does it have to mean that ventures outside of that box should be anathema, especially not in cases like elite specs where the devs should feel free to come up with new and exciting ideas (not necessarily guns). Especially since with more numerous elite specs we’re not all meant to go for the same ones, and some specs will appeal thematically to some but not others. I’m sure not all warriors imagined themselves as Spellbreakers at the outset.

Well, the part of my post you quoted was actually an acknowledgement that it need not be the case for every elite specialisation. Mostly, I was objecting to the idea that drawing the line at guns was an arbitrary distinction, and that the line should be drawn at Stone Age technology or open slather.

To expand: A rifle spec, to represent a more ‘modern’ viewpoint of the outdoorsman, would be fitting as an elite spec in the future to represent the exceptions to the rule. This sort of thing is partly what the elite specialisation system appears intended to do – to take the profession in a different direction – and in this case, ArenaNet actually has a built-in explanation for why the elite specialisations can’t be mixed: it’s the spirits that provide the power behind druid, soulbeast, and other elite specs that object to guns.

On the other hand, there’s no reason that an elite specialisation with a gun has to happen now either.

On a side note, to make things less OT: I think it was a missed opportunity to not make Soulbeast more desert themed, maybe have some sandy visuals or a crystalline effect reflect the beast aspect into our soul or something. Bit more exciting than the green thorns aura we have currently, which I see some people being disappointed about. Druids were very fitting in Maguuma Jungle after all, and I think that as rangers we really should theme our new elite specs after the environment of the new areas we go to. Deserts are part of nature too right?

Well… Druid might have been Maguuma-related, but not all of the HoT were (or at least, certainly not obviously so…) – I’m happy with not EVERY elite in PoF being shoehorned into being specifically desert-focused.

To those who think Scarlet hate means she’s succeeded as a villain:
People don’t hate Scarlet like Game of Thrones fans hate Joffrey.
They hate her the way Star Wars fans hate Jar Jar Binks.