Guild Wars 2

This is a sad change and pretty much ruins why Blighter’s Boon was so loved. In order for necros to pump out boons, necros have to hit things. Here lies the problem, any necros running GS will have issues hitting things, especially so in PvP. If you don’t hit things, you can’t stack might even if you run Spite line. Unless you run a Signet build, which requires you to burn all your Signets or Shouts just to stack enough boons to gain enough lifeforce when you’re being kited.

Blighter’s Boon gave necros an option, when playing with allies, to gain lifeforce and some sustain while in shroud. So even when the reaper isn’t hitting things, they get to gain something that makes them not 1 shot wonders when they inevitably get focused. Because we all know how necros/reapers are extremely vulnerable without lifeforce to pop shroud with.

Bleh, like I said, Deathly Chill and Reaper’s Onslaught never looked so good. Because to me Blighter’s Boon isn’t a good viable option anymore as it’s not optimal to take as the other 2 traits.

Dumb change, time to use the other traits and unslot blighter’s boon permanently. Deathly Chill and Reaper’s Onslaught never looked so good.

With this news, a lot of people who were disappointed have already started playing again. The maps are starting to feel alive again. Guild chat is full of nothing but positive, upbeat chat about the game and what elite specs people are planning on playing now. It’s really amazing how a few tweaks here and there could make such a big impact on players.

This is a good start Anet, now please listen to your players with regards to other aspects of the game that may need tweaked, such as the new WvW borderlands, the lackluster rewards for long events & boss encounters, etc..

Good stuff Colin & Anet, +1.

Thank you Colin & Anet, you guys made the right choice. Big props.

Also other changes coming as well: https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/heads-up-iteration-incoming/

Change coming per Colin, 400 down to 250 hero points. Thank you Anet!

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/heads-up-iteration-incoming/

We need this npc re-enabled like, right now please.

I agree the clock’s ticking. Each day I see less activities in HoT maps, and more complaints in map chat and guild chat. This should not be the case 1 week into a brand new expansion. Time for meetings are over, it’s time to act. I’ll settle with an apology as long as you promise changes are coming. I’m in a few WvW guilds, 1 PvX guild, and 1 PvE guild. Funny thing is the mood is pretty much the same across the board in these guilds.

What people like:

-Gliding, it’s a huge hit. Highlight of the expansion, ppl want it in WvW.
-Guild halls, it’s a huge hit and awesome addition.
-Story, everybody’s loving the story.
-Graphics, there are some really pretty zones.
-Harder mobs, it’s nice to be challenged so you don’t just spam auto while watching tv.
-Elite specializations, people are happy they’re finally able to play something new…but…

What people dislike/disappointed with:

-Elite specializations gated by hero points, haven’t found 1 person I know that likes it. WvW players forced to either PvE or karma train to unlock elite specs, neither of which are fun activities for WvW players.
-Hero points gated by Mastery, Verdant Brinks (starter zone) requiring Nuhoch Proving is a bit much, blocks map completion.
-Mastery as a design is fine, but the exp you get from doing events and boss encounters are not scaling properly with the exp you need to level up Masteries. It’s too much of a grind with the little exp available.
-Events and boss encounters often take a long time to complete, and rewards are lackluster. You actually hurt exp gains by sticking around to do these larger events and meta encounters. I spent 1 hour 20 minutes at an event in Dragon’s Stand where I literally just stood there while pug commanders tried to organize pod kills and such. It was the most boring time I’ve spent and likely I will never do it again.
-New WvW borderlands, while pretty, will require 3 map blobs to feel alive. Currently not even T1 servers have what it takes to make new desert borderlands work. Also too much gimmicks, nobody likes being crippled while running, or getting knocked back/down while trying to fight enemies.

Changes need to happen soon. At the very least players need a post from Anet stating changes are coming, so people stop leaving and jumping ship. I rode the wave over the weekend to get things done. I’m glad I spent extra time because I’m finding it harder and harder to get events, hero challenges, and mastery completed now that maps are often empty. Maps should not be so empty with a new expansion less than 1 week old.

A lot of players really enjoy parts of HoT expansion, it’s just there are tweaks and changes need to be made so it’s fun for more people. Players are vocal about a lot of things because they are passionate about this game. People like me want to see the expansion succeed and the game to continue, we don’t want this game to fail. We like this game. I’d much rather see developers come out and say they’ve made mistakes and changes are coming. Rather than this hardline stance and silence, all the while the maps empty out and more players get discouraged because they can’t get anything done in the new expansion.

By the way Anet devs, Dulfy posted a nice guide to obtaining hero points for the first 3 maps in HoT: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/hot/Hero-Points-Guide-for-HoT

After looking through it, I’m even more ticked off because you’re even gating map completion to Masteries and in the event of Auric Basin, a hard meta event that I haven’t once seen completed. It’s as if you folks really don’t want people to complete maps despite putting all the hours and time into them. Are you that desperate to try and lose players?

For Verdant Brinks, the first zone people would play in HoT, I can understand requiring Basic Gliding and even Updraft. But requiring Nuhoch Proving on the first map? Are you kidding me?

So please, while you’re changing story gating, please go right ahead and get rid of some unwarranted gates for map completion and hero points. Thank you.

Thank you so much for this Dulfy!

If any Anet devs happen to check this out, I just want to say how ridiculous it is that you gate map completion and hero points behind these Masteries and in the case of Auric Basin, you gate map completion there with a hard meta event. Shame on you. It’s almost like you don’t want people to finish map completion despite folks putting in the time to play them thoroughly.

They’re definitely spawning too many maps leaving a lot of maps lowly populated. There are a lot of events that require large amount of players. They need to fix this or fix their instancing trigger code to not spawn a new map so readily.

I played more than usual over the weekend precisely because I wanted to avoid not having people around to complete things. Looks like it has paid off, as I ran around tonight and a lot of the maps are empty. Quite annoying really, as I still have things I would like to complete.

While those that post on the forums are indeed the vocal minority, be glad there are enough passionate players that even care enough to post right now. These folks are like me, they think the expansion isn’t too bad but certain things are just off. They want to like the game, they probably do like the expansion, but some things are just blocking that fun. Elite spec grind for one, which is gated by hero points, which are also gated by masteries, which are further gated by non-soloable content….which altogether are gated by some bad map design that are not friendly to explorers, Tangled Depth comes to mind.

Be glad you are seeing this many passionate players post about this. Because for the majority, they simply would walk away and stop playing. If things are not fixed/tweaked soon, more and more passionate players will walk away. So do something soon and fast, before people give up and just stop caring. People want to like the expansion, that’s why they’re posting about it, so help people enjoy the expansion.

I’m confident you see the statistics and real numbers that you can’t publish. You see empty WvW maps, and how WvW players are avoiding new desert borderland maps like a plague. Part of that is due to the elite spec grind you imposed on WvW players, so most are grinding PvE or ktraining EBG. Other part of it is that the new desert borderland maps are tedious to play in, it’s too large for the current WvW population, not even T1 servers which are markred Full can make these maps feel populated. WvW players also don’t want random things that knock them back, or get crippled just trying to run from point A to B, or some Environment happenings ruining fights. People warned you about this before launch, now you see it, now you see the empty borderland maps. And no gliding in these large vertical maps? Really?

You also see PvE players grinding CoF1 repeatedly to get insane exp and high mastery ranks for central tyria masteries. Was this how you envisioned players would play this game? Grinding something repeatedly because the mastery grind is unbearable any other method?

You see all those failed events because they require just a tad too much out of players that are random pugging. Oh by the way, a lot of the hero challenges I probably could solo on my elite specs…if I had full access to them. Just saying, the decision to kitten people by giving people small chunks of an elite spec is just a bad one. What am I supposed to do with 1/3 of a Reaper class without traits and shouts?

I honestly really wish I could’ve enjoyed this expansion with full elite specs. Things would’ve been much more enjoyable, and I wouldn’t feel as pressured to rush through content just to unlock elite specs fully. Listen to your passionate players because right now, they at least care enough to post. You don’t want to wait until they stop caring and walk away from the game.

I’m sure Anet got the real numbers. They see empty WvW maps, they see not optimal HoT sales (lots of guildies still haven’t bought HoT). They see people playing to a certain point then stop or play a lot less after they hit a wall.

So feedback or not, they see the numbers. I’m pretty confident changes are coming unless they want to commit career suicide. And one thing I know for sure is they do care about the game and they don’t want to let an expansion kill the game off. Telling devs to ignore player feedback is counter-productive, also pointless because they know the details of statistics.

Those of us that play this game know how it feels ingame, there are certain maps already empty of players due to over-tuning of difficulties and terrible map design that discourage exploration. PvP players are already avoiding Stronghold, WvW players are avoiding the new desert borderland maps. Players are grinding CoF1 repeatedly to get central tyria mastery exp, and I know that’s not how Anet invisioned players would play this game.

There are a lot of good things about this expansion, but things are off, too many things that just kills the fun of the game for too many players in all game modes.

Anet there are compromises you can make that’ll make both camps relatively happy.

1. With regards to elite specializations, all you really need is to reduce the amount of hero points required to 150-200. Thinking back I really didn’t have too difficult of a time getting to 50% Reaper. Things didn’t really slow down until after halfway through unlocking, that’s when dread set in and I was stuck in PvE. That’s also when I started doing WvW ktrains (which is something I really hate to do).

I thought the first 2 maps in HoT expansion were fun. Pace felt pretty good, not too fast not too slow. They broke you in and got you accustomed to the new expansion & its features. Now with masteries unlocked it’ll be easier to do for other characters. Between that and WvW ranks, I should be able to obtain 150 hero points for other characters to unlock elite specs without a problem. This way you get to keep the hero point progression that one camp wants, but you reduce the burden for the other camp especially those of us with so many alts.

To help make WvW players happy, please make sure the rank up chest always gives you 5 Proofs of Heroics. This random 2-4 proofs is a pain. I think this would be a good compromise that’ll make both camps relatively happy.

2. For Mastery grind, you can easily make it more tolerable by tripling the exp people get from doing bosses & events. The amount of rewards people get do not scale with the amount of exp required to level up. Reward must be there for players to want to do the content. It’s a MMO and that’s just how it works.

The thing is Anet, players will always find a way. When you create something that a large chunk of your playerbase find distasteful, they’ll always find the optimal way to grind it out even if it isn’t what devs imagined how players would play their content.

Right now due to the elite spec grind, WvW players are coming together, all 3 servers agreeing to do nothing but ktrain for the next week just so people could unlock their elite specs. WvW players have voiced strongly against grinding PvE, and hundreds of WvW ranks aren’t exactly easy to achieve without full on ktraining. So instead of playing the new beautifully designed desert borderlands, people are forced to ktrain just so they have a chance at unlocking and playing their elite specs.

Due to the Masteries grind, people are grinding CoF1 to gain exceptional Central Tyria mastery points. The exp is so crazy that it renders exping elsewhere pointless for central tyria masteries.

Now my question to you Anet devs, is this how you imagined your players would play the new expansion content? Did you want people in WvW to avoid the new borderlands and do nothing but ktrain for a solid week? What exactly does that accomplish? Why can’t WvW players get to play the elite specs they paid for, why do they have to grind for it while sPvP gets them right away? Did you want people to grind CoF repeatedly for masteries?

Nobody I’ve talked to wanted to do either of the above. They’re boring activities. But people do them because it’ll allow them to enjoy the game better. The sooner WvW players get to unlock elite specs for all their characters, the sooner they can get back to fighting and doing massive world vs world combat. For PvE players, the Masteries grind probably wouldn’t be as bad if the exp rewards from doing bosses & events scale better to the amount of exp required to level up Masteries.

People’s concerns were warranted. The elite spec grind is indeed terrible. I’ll say that I love HoT expansion, I’m even ok with the way masteries are since it’s account based. But there’s no way I’ll grind hero points on more than 1 elite spec.

The way it is now, even though I’m having a fun time going through the content, I’m only 50% way through getting Reaper unlocked. Halfway through, though I can’t play him because he doesn’t have the essential skills and traits to make the Reaper effective. It just makes no sense the way unlocks work, you’re giving people a fraction of a fully working character and think people should play them?

Things have really slowed down due to the hero point difficulties past the 3rd map. And I’m a WvW player, I haven’t touched WvW because I’m burried head deep in PvE trying to get the elite specs I want unlocked.

It’s time to change it to allow easier elite spec unlocks. If I can play the new elite specs, I’ll have no problems playing HoT content and grind masteries and whatever else I choose to do. Without elite specs, I know for sure I’m not doing this for more than 1 character. That means 11 of my other characters will not see play time because of this.

Again, this is coming from someone that likes HoT expansion, love the guild hall, ok with masteries grind. I just want to be able to play the elite specs for my characters.

Thanks for this, as I’m currently gated by a mastery I haven’t earned yet. Too bad as I was enjoying the personal story too. I was alternating between personal stories and map objectives, it was working out ok until I got gated.

It’s time to re-think gating elite specs also. I can stomach how masteries are done mainly because it’s account based so once I get one unlocked, I know I have it unlocked for all characters. But elite specs is just too much of a grind. I really wanted to play the elite specs in the new expansion content, but as of right now, 50% into Reaper, I can’t even play him because I don’t have access to necessities and proper build specs. This method does not work and makes no sense.

There needs to be a way where we can unlock the elite specs fully so once unlocked, we can play them with all their skills, elites, and spec builds. The unlock should’ve happened at the very beginning of HoT content, like after going through the initial story line. The way it’s going, by the time I fully unlock my Reaper, I would be too far into HoT and I likely won’t want to touch the content again. Makes it bad for replayability as right now I’m not planning to run another alt through hero point grinds.

Can’t you just let us enjoy HoT? Judging by the dev’s post and your decision to change story gating, it sounds like you get it. So please get it with regards to elite spec hero point grinds. Do it soon before people give up playing, or before too many on the fence people get turned off by the negative feedback they’re seeing on the forums.

Content 10/10
Added content difficulties 10/10
Masteries being account based 10/10
Gliding/vertical usage 11/10
Guild Hall 10/10
Unlocking elite specializations 1/10
Hero points being gated by masteries 0/10
WvW borderlands – Can’t comment, have not played because I’ve been busy trying to unlock just 1 elite spec

I’m having fun in HoT, I really am. I love the added content difficulties, no more just auto attacking to win boss fights. I absolutely love gliding and wish this is the start of future content to the eventual full flight & mounts.

I just wish I could have fun with the new elite specs I wanted to play. As-is I’m playing this content on my same ‘ol same ’ol characters that I’ve played for the past 3 years. I’m not even halfway through unlocking my main character, and while I’m having fun with him, I don’t see myself doing this elite spec unlock more than once or twice.

So to sum it up, love the expansion, love the ideas and creativity in it. But really dislike elite specs gating. There’s no reason I shouldn’t be able to play the new expansion with new elite specs, that would’ve given me the incentives to play them all because they’re different builds. Halfway through unlocking Reaper I can’t even play it because it’s kitten with such limited build options and skills.

It’s bad but luckily, I’m having a lot of fun doing the content, surprisingly.

Wow 10 seconds after I posted this I got it, gotta follow the left wall and dragon’s pounce + glide. Nevermind

I’m stuck in Prized Possessions where I gotta follow Ruka, and can’t seem to figure out how to get across a large space. If I glide, it makes me die after awhile even if I’m on the ground. None of the egg’s power can get me across that large distance. How do you follow Ruka through that particular step?

Robert Gee please post changes post-BWE3. We know you’ve been busy. But now that HoT has launched, it’ll be nice to see the changes so we aren’t surprised by them. Or worse think something’s bugged because we aren’t aware of the changes. Thank you.

Just want to drop a quick note to say thank you Anet, good job on the expansion, I’m having a lot of fun. I’m still not happy with how I have to unlock elite specs, I wish it’ll get addressed in the near future for those of us with lots of alts. But for now, I’m thoroughly addicted and the added difficulties in the expansion content is welcoming. Gliding is everything it’s jazzed up to be. The vertical worlds are beautiful and dangerous.

Fun times, thanks again. Now back to playing

It pains me, I was hoping some people were right in saying “it won’t be as bad as people think”. But looking at it, it’s definitely as bad as people thought. I’m gonna do this for one character, but no way I’m doing it for 11 of my other chars.

yay!

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/info/updates/Game-Update-Notes-October-23-2015

RELEASE THE PATCH NOTES!

Any server that’s high and very high. Avoid “medium” servers because most of them are actually low pop.

Stop the pain, please post the patch notes. It’ll help us endure the next 3 and half hours.

No, in PvP you get to access them all.

phys.7689:

They know people werent as interested in it as they thought. They have data with hiw much clicks previous hot news generated.

Where did you even get that info? That’s not even it. Do people realize GW2 has the most unique hits on mmorpg.com? When you sort by this past year and this past 6 months, GW2 is #1 on unique hits as the most popular game on mmorpg.com. Sorted by this past month, GW2 is #2 in unique hits, only behind Wildstar. This is compared to all MMO’s people searched and posted about on a site all about mmo’s.

When gaming sites don’t post about an expansion launch, it’s very simple. It’s because Anet didn’t spend money advertising the game on those sites. They show preferential treatment to games that do spend money advertising. It has nothing to do with whether a game gets click hits or not.

Now of course MMORPG’s are not as popular as console games or FPS games. But I can guarantee you WoW’s new expansion will be talked about on those gaming sites. And why? Because Blizzard spends tons on advertising. You can have your personal game get its own article on those sites if you are willing to pay for it.

Anet likely has a small advertising fund for GW2.

Our patch notes are too strong, that’s why they’re waiting until launch.

Ashen.2907:

Is it possible that HoT just isn’t seen as very much of a big deal (outside of current GW2 players)?

If these sites don’t operate on advertising revenue, they would’ve posted about it. Because it’s not up to them to decide if it’s seen as a big deal or not. News is news, an expansion for a MMO is news.

But like I said before, these gaming sites operate on advertising revenue. They’ll gladly talk about games & news from gaming companies if they pay for their space & time.

These sites operate on advertising revenue and they show preferential treatment to games/companies that feed them money. The reason they don’t talk about GW2 that much is likely because Anet isn’t spending much money advertising on those sites.

Rubi does like to crack jokes right in middle of someone explaining something, so I know what you mean. Personally I’ve gotten used to it, so it doesn’t bother me anymore. But the first time I watched GW2 streams, I was put off by it somewhat. Notably that time when Mr. Gee was explaining Necro/Reaper and he kept getting interrupted by random jokes that had nothing to do with the subject at hand.

Anyways, you get used to them eventually. If you’re new to the game, give it time, you’ll come to like them.

There are technical reasons to also launching during non-busy hours. There will be less people patching and logging in, which will alleviate load. If they had launched HoT during NA prime or EU prime, they’re asking for trouble.

I’m excited about:

-Guild arena and guild halls.
-New elite specializations.
-Gliding.
-WvW will finally be active again, these past few weeks have been sooooo boring as most guilds & servers are taking a break.
-PvP

My mood was soured when I learned I’ll have to grind hero points to unlock elite specs. I really was hoping to head into the HoT expansion playing new elite specs rather than still spend time playing characters/builds I have played for the past 3 years. I have 12 characters, I was planning on playing them all by building them differently with elite spec builds. But now I doubt I’ll unlock elite specs on more than 1-2 of them. I’m more of a WvW player and I’m not grinding hundreds of ranks per character just to unlock them either.

So to summarize my HoT mood, I’m excited and can’t wait to get back into action. But my excitement was definitely rained on by Anet’s decision to gate elite specs behind hero points. I would’ve been fine gating cosmetic aspect of the elite specs behind hero points. But the elite specs themselves, and the skills that come with them? That’s just a bit much.

Worth noting there are beta weekend videos of Reaper WvW roaming, you can check them out.

Donee’s our resident Condi Reaper extraordinaire: http://www.youtube.com/donee
There’s always Hollts for good ’ol Power Reaper ownage: http://www.youtube.com/user/HolltsGaming

There are others, these 2 guys just came to my mind for WvW roaming. I’m no celebrity like the other guys above, but I had fun playing cele signet & zerker/valk reaper builds over BWE3. Here’s a vid I made with solo roaming & +1 fights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXiDPZBGURI

Reapers are just fun times, 2 more days!

Really depends on which one you’ll be playing the most. I’ll be playing Reaper and only Reaper once I get it unlocked. I’m never going back to the boring base necro. So the choice is easy for me. I don’t know how you’ll split your time between necro/reaper, so the choice is really up to you and whichever one you’ll play the most honestly.

Reapers are pretty awesome for WvW roaming. Downsides to Reaper (and base necros) in WvW roaming are:

-Stealth classes choose engagement, so you have to be ready to get popped on.
-Mobile classes can choose to disengage when they want to and run away, you have little way of stopping them from running away.
-When you get +1, +2, or +zerg, you’re likely going to die because you can’t nike away or stealth. If it’s a +1 or +2 sometimes it’s better you just truck it through and try to fight ‘til death, you’ll be surprised how well Reapers function against more than 1 target.

If you’re ok with these downsides, and understand death happens, you should enjoy Reaper in WvW as I have over beta weekends. There are builds that perform better than other builds when it comes to solo roaming. There are also paper, rock, scissors when it comes to certain builds going up against certain builds. So as long as you understand WvW is a fluid environment, you never know who you’ll bump into, or how many you’ll bump into, and understand a good fight can easily be ruined by +1 or +zerg, then you’ll be fine.

It’s all about managing expectations. Reaper is a much better WvW roamer than base necro, no matter whether you run power, condi, or cele builds. And they’re just so darn fun and engaging to play. Reapers offer unprecedented mobility, stab, sustain, and more cc options than base necros. All of these things help you be a better roamer.

For me personally, I don’t like it. I suspect I’ll do it for my necro because I really enjoyed Reaper over the beta weekends. But I won’t be unlocking elite specs for the rest of my 11 characters, because it’s simply not fun to do it 12 times.

Prior to Colin’s clarification post, here I was hoping I could access these new elite builds, which would’ve given me the incentives to actually play the new expansion content on various of my alts and classes. Because hey, at least I’ll be playing different builds other than the same classes I’ve played for the past 3 years. Forcing me to have to grind on the same classes I grew tired of playing just to unlock the fun new elite specs, that’s a terrible design decision in my opinion.

It’ll be a design decision proved to actually burn people out faster, it’ll make people not as happy playing in the new expansion, and in turn when players aren’t as happy they don’t spend as much money in the game. I see nobody winning if they keep the design.

All people are asking for is to be able to access the elite specs, so they can play in the new expansion as these elite specs. It’ll at least be something different and fun to do, playing characters that function a bit differently than the same ‘ol same ’ol classes of the past 3 years. Nobody’s asking for anything else handed to them, as there are plenty of things to do outside of elite specs, plenty of things to grind and spend time on, in all game modes.

Kal Spiro.9745:

gavyne.6847:

All the arguments have been heard and rehashed for many pages now. He said, she said, I disagree, you disagree, blah blah blah. There are clearly 2 sides of the camp and nobody’s going to change anybody’s minds here. People have their reasons for liking this design, just as people have very good reasons for not liking this design. Time for Anet to step in and comment again in my opinion.

Actually people have reasons for not minding the design, and people have questionable reasons for disliking, and there is no reason for ANet to step in because in two days it will be too late, and in one month everyone will forget all about it just like always happens. Usually because they’ve realized all their complaints were unfounded.

You are clearly in one camp and like I said, you have your opinions and you aren’t changing your opinions no matter how good other people’s reasons are. You see their reasons as “questionable”, ever think they see your reasoning as questionable as well?

Still just back & forth, like politics, so pointless, people thinking their opinions are the best and everybody else is wrong. By now it’s just rehashes of the same things said within the first 5 pages of Colin’s post.

All the arguments have been heard and rehashed for many pages now. He said, she said, I disagree, you disagree, blah blah blah. There are clearly 2 sides of the camp and nobody’s going to change anybody’s minds here. People have their reasons for liking this design, just as people have very good reasons for not liking this design. Time for Anet to step in and comment again in my opinion.

Halcyon.5340:

Many posters already pointed out that Blighter’s Boon is a bit too strong, and I agree with them. You could literally go into Reaper Shroud with 10% health and come out of it with 100% health. When it comes to short-lived boon generation, Reaper is the best at it. The amount of Might stacks that a Reaper can generate by itself is insane (gaining boon above the threshold stack will still trigger Blighter’s Boon). This slight edge that the Reaper has is further strengthen by Fried Golden Dumpling. As many of you are aware, Fried Golden Dumpling has no internal cooldown. In other words, the Might proc can trigger more than once if you’re hitting more than one target. With everything taken into account, I feel like the healing output from Blighter’s Boon should be reduced by 33%, from a base healing of 133 down to 88 per boon. And, I feel this subtle nerf is justified if it means Blighter’s Boon won’t receive an internal cooldown as a nerf in the future.

As it is now, we have two choices – a subtle nerf now or a BIG hammer nerf in the future. Pick your poison.

Disagree, Blighter’s Boon simply gave necros what they rightfully deserve…heals within shroud. It made no sense with the previous design where necros could not receive heals while in shroud. This made things difficult for necros when waters being blasted and if you missed it, you don’t get healed. Blighter’s Boon simply fixed that badly designed aspect of necro shrouds so we could receive heals.

Receiving heals while getting boons really work best when you’re in a team situation in a group with guardians. It’s by no means overpowered when you’re solo and attempting to stack boons to heal yourself. Because when being pressed you’re still going to get knocked out of Reaper Shroud faster than you can stack boons. I’ve tried, the heals are amazing when in guardian groups, but they are small incremental heals. Thieves, mesmers, and even necro well bombs can burst you out of reaper shroud faster than you can get healed via Blighter’s Boon.

It’s worth noting also that you can’t camp Reaper Shroud forever, nor is it efficient to do so. Reason being that Reaper Shroud lack condi transfer/removal. You lose access to your utilities & elites. It also isn’t our highest dps form (that belongs to dagger auto and GS). So the idea that Reapers are going to be overpowered by staying in Reaper Shroud forever and getting healed is inaccurate. It sounds good on paper, but it does not work in reality, in real-time gameplay. This is the difference between theorycrafting vs actual gameplay.

I tried Blighter’s Boon with Soldier’s gear in WvW. I melted inside well bombs just the same, this is while playing with 40+ players and boons were flying everywhere. Reapers are still very susceptible to burst bombs, and without blocks and invulns that other classes have access to, and without being able to receive big water blast heals, you aren’t going to be in a better position than other frontline melees in large WvW combat. Blighter’s Boon give you good sustain, but it’s by no means big burst heals that sometimes you need in order to survive being bursted on.

So again, due to the fact that other classes get healed in their alternate forms just fine, Blighter’s Boon simply gave us the option (and forces us to trait it) to receive the same. If you look at it from this angle, you’ll realize Blighter’s Boon isn’t overpowered.

The one to Rule.2593:

So…..get the elite specs?

That’s the core of the complaint, having the elite specs gated behind expansion content. This means we’ll have to play new expansion content with the same ‘ol characters we’ve played for the past 3 years. Likely have to do masteries in order to unlock some hero challenges.

It’s just boring and disappointing to have to play these same ‘ol characters in the new expansion, and have to repeat it over and over and over and over until you’ve done it for all your characters and unlocked their elite specs. All this just so we could play the new elite specs in the new expansion content both in PvE & WvW.

If you don’t understand this, then I’ve got nothing further to say to you. I wish Colin would come back and talk with the playerbase more so players don’t have to tear each other apart on behalf of Anet. It’s clear some are ok with it, some aren’t. No sense letting players kill each other over it because nobody’s going to change anybody’s minds here.

The one to Rule.2593:

If people were planning on doing it anyway, there’s no point complaining about doing it.

For the 1000000 times, people want to do the new expansion content with the new elite spec builds, not with the characters they’ve been playing for the past 3 years. People want to enjoy new WvW maps with the new elite spec builds, not karma train and grind hundreds of ranks with characters they’ve played for the past 3 years just to unlock the elite spec builds.

People do want to do the content and play the new expansion. People will do raids, grind masteries, farm new mats, work towards legendaries, play all those new cool race games they’ve created, etc.. They just would rather do it with the new elite specs.

kitten .

Liewec.2896:

its honestly like people are expecting to dive in day 1 with a full elite spec, full set of legendary armour and dualwielding the new legendaries…

Using hyperboles to boost your argument never works. People are not asking for all those things, people just want to have access to the elite specs and be able to play the new builds. Then they work on the legendaries, masteries, do dungeon runs, run raids, have fun in WvW, etc.. you know, the actual content part of the game.

Celtic Lady.3729:

Not to mention, it would indeed be nice to use the elite spec while playing through the jungle.

Yeah I thought that was the point, being able to build your elite specs and run through the new expansion with them. I wasn’t expecting to wait all this time for a new expansion just so I could spend more time playing my base characters while grinding WvW ranks and PvE map exploration.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

/sigh

(Silver platter) here yah go. The whole game unlocked for you. Enjoy.

Would you call having access to a lvl 80 character “the whole game unlocked”? No? Then I wouldn’t consider gaining access to the elite specs that we paid for “the whole game unlocked” either.

The actual game is playing for masteries, raiding, dungeon running, WvWing, PvPing, farming for mats, and map exploration which was always an optional thing not a requirement.

I would rather have access to the elite specs that I paid for, so I can go ahead and enjoy the rest of the game at my own pace, on my own time, when I want to. You know, the Guild Wars way. To the OP, yes today’s news is a buzzkill to many. People who enjoy PvE and map exploration of course are ok with the news. But for the rest of us that prefer other parts of this fine game, it was a buzzkill. It soured my mood 3 days before expansion launch…and here I was hyping and getting excited about it before we were slapped with this info.

Which by the way, the same info players have been asking clarification for weeks and months ago. People already had expectations that they could play their elite specs on day 1. And bang, 3 days before launch we’re slapped with this awful news. Buzzkill indeed. My hype & excitement now is filled with dread. Because frankly, running around unlocking hero points is not what I consider fun. Nor is it having to do it 11 times for my 11 characters.

Warscythes.9307:

Isn’t this just like lvling up like in the other game expansions? Why is this a problem now?

Because this isn’t just any other game, this is Guild Wars. GW2 isn’t supposed to make you grind your levels, it’s supposed to have horizontal progression where players play at their own will, in their own time, at their own pace, to enjoy the game. Now, in order to play the elite specializations that many bought the expansion for, people will not be taking their time to enjoy their game. They’ll be burning through and grinding for hero points and masteries just so they could unlock elite specs. Not for one character, but for every single frigging characters and many people by now have many many characters.

I’d much rather they let us have elite spec to play with right away, so we can work on cosmetic points and masteries at our own pace. Let us explore the map at our own pace without feeling like we need to rush through it just to unlock the elite specs.

Same with those WvW enthusiasts. I’d rather they let me play Reaper which I had a wonderful time playing over beta weekends. Now I’ll be stuck playing a base necro grinding and ktraining just so I can speed rank up to unlock the Reaper. That’s not fun, that’s a grind. It doesn’t fit GW2’s philosophy.

Imagine if this info was given before HoT pre-orders started, how much less money you would’ve made. Well played Anet, giving the info people have been asking for 3 days before launch. You’ve soured my mood going into the expansion, and that’s not easily done.

I have 11 characters that I was excited about playing and using elite specs on them. Now there’s no way I’m going to grind PvE for all of these characters, what a waste. If there was some sort of account-wide unlock, where I do a small quest line for, I would’ve been fine with it. But expecting me to grind for each character, that’s just unacceptable and very not-GW2 like.

I’m disappointed Colin, and right now I should feel excited about the expansion, but this news 3 days before launch have soured my mood.

Aye.8392:

And now instead of the emphasis being on playing the content, enjoying the game, and loving the scenery the emphasis is on getting to that next hero challenge as fast as humanly possible to unlock new skills and traits. Sad.

Yeah that just sets the mood wrong, starting everybody in the expansion on the wrong foot. It’s not what GW2 is supposed to be about. I’m a WvW player who PvE from time to time, but I do it when I want to, when I feel like doing it. I do have fun sometimes. But now I’ll be forced to grind hero points for not just 1 character (god forbid elite spec be unlocked account wide), I’ll have to grind for all the characters on my account.

That just sours the mood for me, 3 days before launch.