Mesmer is pretty much epic under water. If you disagree you might be doing something wrong. I don’t care what your spec is, the wep skills are very very good.
There are other classes that would die for mesmer underwater capability (pun?).
Part of me thinks that someone in ANet was thinking “hey, wanna see something funny? Watch this…”
I’m not sure gold is “flushed” out of the economy by buying gems. If the gem exchange is purely player driven, then it’s merely an exchange of gold from one player to another.
EDIT: However there is the buy vs. sell conversion rate which is roughly a 30% penalty. That might be the flushing you’re referring to?
Part of me thinks that someone in ANet was thinking “hey, wanna see something funny? Watch this…”
imho Yak’s was getting toxic before the season started. I’m in one of the multiple guilds that left. We found TC to be a much friendlier and cooperative environment. However even on TC it’s been a little more edgy since the season started — although nothing like what we experienced in our final days on YB.
Part of me thinks that someone in ANet was thinking “hey, wanna see something funny? Watch this…”
John Smith mentioned this awhile back, and he said that constructing an infographic like that takes a lot of time and translation (not sure why that is so tough though)
Taking a snapshot of complex economy data and translating it into a visualization that will enlighten rather than mislead is actually way more work than it sounds like. There is a lot of expertise and thought required even for things that seem simple like whether to use a bar chart or a pie graph.
And then there’s the part where John probably has other work responsibilities that take up his time. If he really loved us though, he stop wasting all that time sleeping and interacting with his friends and family and give us some brightly colored charts to pick apart
Although some may view that as part of his work responsibilities. I imagine there are already internal reports within ANet covering the economy — any manager worth his salt would want such a report.
Part of me thinks that someone in ANet was thinking “hey, wanna see something funny? Watch this…”
Seems to me it would be a good “report card” on the economy. Also it’s in the vein of “open communication” which the community does enjoy.
I dug through some 1 year old forum topics and you can see a generally more positive attitude when GW2 was released. There was also lots of great new articles like the one I linked above.
Part of me thinks that someone in ANet was thinking “hey, wanna see something funny? Watch this…”
Great stuff that I think the community would love to see more of.
EDIT:
It doesn’t have to be a fancy PhotoShop crafted image. Something simpler but covering all the same details would be sufficient. Graphs are always great so I guess some image construction still required.
Sans data, I think the community would enjoy reports like that. It’s also something you don’t see from other MMO developers (maybe because their economies aren’t as open as GW2’s).
Part of me thinks that someone in ANet was thinking “hey, wanna see something funny? Watch this…”
Recharge your elemental attunements and unleash a wave of energy at your location that damages nearby foes. The next time you swap attunements, you morph the ground around you according to that attunement.
Wave damage: 185
Radius: 240
Combo Finisher: Blast
Breaks stun.
Swap to Fire attunement: Create a [Ring of Fire] at your location.
Swap to Water attunement: Create a [Geyser] at your location.
Swap to Air attunement: Create a [Lightning Storm] at your location.
Swap to Earth attunement: Create [Unsteady Ground] at your location.
Satisfies my requirement that a stun breaker be a “reactionary” skill, which is exactly what you described. I think we could eliminate the swap-effects, and make them effects of the skill itself.
Part of me thinks that someone in ANet was thinking “hey, wanna see something funny? Watch this…”
Do it on reset night trololol XD. But yea seriously though I did a puzzle after my reset night work and no one was in all 4 puzzles.
I did all 4 to complete mine as there isn’t a bunch to do on those karma train weeks; but I think adding them was a way to try to get pvers into world and perhaps convert some into tried and true warriors.
Except they aren’t in the world — they’re in the JP. It’s separate and does not count towards the WvW zone population. It does not impact the WvW score, nor anything else remotely helpful in WvW.
It’s funny in a way as this is sort of a reverse-rant. Historically you hear complaints from PvE about having to go into WvW (badges, map completion, etc). I’m complaining about PvE being in my WvW!
EDIT: If you actually do WvW in the JPs, you get lots of rage from players
Part of me thinks that someone in ANet was thinking “hey, wanna see something funny? Watch this…”
I tried to find a WvW Season Achievement topic, but the search tool doesn’t work for me (although it did a few months ago… wassup?)
So we need 15 total achievements to complete the meta achievement. There are 20 total achievement. Of the 20 total, there are 4 jumping puzzle achievement.
Why? The JPs don’t count towards WvW scores… they are no longer in the zones themselves… why are these present in the achievement category at all?
Unfortunately the inclusion of the JP achievements leaves only 16 remaining achievements to complete the 15 required. That leaves little room for completion choice.
Yeah this is a rant, but this game has become achievement driven and although I love WvW, I hate JPs. I guess I need to loiter around in EBG until a Stonemist castle siege occurs… and repeat 5 times. Yay queues!
Part of me thinks that someone in ANet was thinking “hey, wanna see something funny? Watch this…”
A problem is the two-week content doesn’t persist beyond the two-week window because it’s a “living world”.
Unlike the introduction of new zones which would be around indefinitely, you cannot enjoy the two-week content when you want. You have to enjoy it during the two-week window, or not at all.
It makes it hard to focus on other things (like leveling an alt) without missing the two-week content.
Part of me thinks that someone in ANet was thinking “hey, wanna see something funny? Watch this…”
The gold to gem rate on the exchange is not a measure of inflation. If you consider how the exchange works and interacts with players you’ll realize that it’s a great measure of only one thing…
You tend to answer a lot of questions this way. Almost Socratic (I’d think you were a lawyer if I didn’t know you were an economist).
I wish you would complete the thought, become most of us don’t think in economic terms. Although I’m sure repeating yourself over and over gets old.
I often leave the answer open for others for two reasons:
1. There’s lots of smart people here who know the answers and they should get an opportunity to demonstrate it.
2. It further reinforces the point when some of the community knows and understands what I’m attempting to convey and can demonstrate it without my help.
The answer is the demand for gems vs the demand for gold, but the kicker is only in the subset of players participating in exchanges in each direction.
/nod to azurrei.5691
Except the exchange rate is controlled to some degree by ANet. I believe this was officially stated shortly after beta and was the driving force which increased prices shortly after release from the lows at 30s per 100 gems.
So I think your original answer should have been “If you consider how the exchange works and interacts with players you’ll realize that it’s a great measure of only two things..”
EDIT: If this isn’t true, you could always provide an official ANet statement like “ANet does not influence the gold/gem conversion rate”.
Part of me thinks that someone in ANet was thinking “hey, wanna see something funny? Watch this…”
The range is so small now that it’s really only a personal buff. Not mandatory in my opinion. For staff I usually go with the “vigor on crit”, Blasting Staff, and Evasive Arcana if I have 30 in Arcana line.
Part of me thinks that someone in ANet was thinking “hey, wanna see something funny? Watch this…”
Agree with Tei — remove the trait and give the “boon on attunement activations” as the new Master Minor.
Agreed, if that’s all the “fixed” LE is going to do… Make the arcana 15 the current elemental attunement and get rid of LE. Keep renewing stamina as VI. Then remove the ICD on evasive arcana and then arcana will be fine.
Then leave water as is, and work on fire line because it’s garbage.
Fix signets and cantrips and boom, class is playable again across the board.
What replaces the 5 point water trait? Soothing mist is basically regen that can’t be stripped or corrupted. The base could be brought up a little imo.
Nothing replaces it — it’s fine. We said dump “Lingering Elements”… not the individual element buffs themselves.
You then need a new trait to replace Elemental Attunement then if it would move to 15 points in Arcana.
That’s a different discussion (which you can start if you want) but it’s not related to the point we made above which is eliminate Lingering Elements (again this does not eliminate the 5pt element line minors).
Part of me thinks that someone in ANet was thinking “hey, wanna see something funny? Watch this…”
Agree with Tei — remove the trait and give the “boon on attunement activations” as the new Master Minor.
Agreed, if that’s all the “fixed” LE is going to do… Make the arcana 15 the current elemental attunement and get rid of LE. Keep renewing stamina as VI. Then remove the ICD on evasive arcana and then arcana will be fine.
Then leave water as is, and work on fire line because it’s garbage.
Fix signets and cantrips and boom, class is playable again across the board.
What replaces the 5 point water trait? Soothing mist is basically regen that can’t be stripped or corrupted. The base could be brought up a little imo.
Nothing replaces it — it’s fine. We said dump “Lingering Elements”… not the individual element buffs themselves.
Part of me thinks that someone in ANet was thinking “hey, wanna see something funny? Watch this…”
Or better yet… add the boon from attunement switching to the actual elemental line Adept Minor (yeah the 5pt traits we’re all talking about being lack luster).
Part of me thinks that someone in ANet was thinking “hey, wanna see something funny? Watch this…”
Anything other than vulnerability on scepter auto would be OP, unless there was an rng or on crit component, but no one wants that.
Stealth would be lots of fun, but incredibly overpowered.
Really just increasing the aa projectile velocity (or maybe shaving the cast time a tiny bit) and reducing the precast of confusing images is all the love the scepter needs.
There are 3 stages to the scepter auto attack. Adding conditions on stage 2 or stage 3 would be harmless with regards to clones.
The power coefficient on scepter 1 is half way between staff and 1H-sword. I think a fine balance trade-off is the addition of conditions to the chain, but the reduction of the power coefficient.
Part of me thinks that someone in ANet was thinking “hey, wanna see something funny? Watch this…”
Good points on the weapon specific traits Leuca — I forgot about those (don’t know how, but I did). Yeah focus is missing from that collection.
It’s a difficult job to balance these for sure. The current c/d reduction by attunement makes sense because those traits are in their respective lines (fire, air, etc). Where should a focus trait go? Arcana makes sense for those because it isn’t attunement specific.
I don’t think the c/d reduction should be put on the weapon traits as the elementalist only uses one land-based weapon. That would be quite a powerful trait to have… borderline grand-master level.
Part of me thinks that someone in ANet was thinking “hey, wanna see something funny? Watch this…”
The scepter autoattack SHOULD have a unique aspect that the clones can inherit.
The scepter autoattack SHOULD NOT have a condition.
Just a random thought: What if the third scepter autoattack caused a very short (0.5 sec) stealth?
The main effect would be to break targeting. It would also cause the mesmer to suddenly pop into appearance, making it easier to hide among the clones. Both contribute to scepter “trickiness”.
Some potential synergy with PU, too.
Love the idea, probably OP though. The current blackwater build is already a pain to fight in WvW due to the frequent stealths. No need to add another spammable stealth to the build that already enjoys many stealths.
Part of me thinks that someone in ANet was thinking “hey, wanna see something funny? Watch this…”
Aquamancer’s Alacrity
We moved this trait because all profession cooldown traits are in master tier, and because that is a good investment for this type of improvement. That being said, they may all not be powerful enough to warrant a master level triat right now, but I would rather increase the cooldown to 25% to get people to consider them than to have them be adept tier and allow elementalists to run all four of them.
These traits are obviously a bit odd on the ele because we really have one weapon set but four attunements. Understood that other professions have this in the Master tier, but they get it per-weapon, unlike per-attunement.
I really like earth and air on the Focus, but I’d have to spend 40 points under the new scheme to get reduced c/d on just those two attunements. A per-weapon trait would be cool but now staff c/d or dagger c/d is much more valuable than focus c/d or scepter c/d.
Difficult but maybe like you said you can add a bonus to the traits. So any one of the traits would provide -20% c/d on that attunement PLUS an additional bonus like dmg, reflection, etc. That would definitely be worth the 20 point investment in the trait. Precedence is set on other professions (see mesmer focus).
Part of me thinks that someone in ANet was thinking “hey, wanna see something funny? Watch this…”
Scepter is still missing something but we don’t want to overload the autoattack as we think that promotes more mindless play and are trying to move away from builds that focus so much on the “1” skill. I feel like that scepter should be the tricksy defender that can stop enemies from attacking and defend allies, but maybe it’s single target nature is keeping that from working.
I think the mindless play comes from having an auto-attack that’s better than anything else the weapon has to offer on skills 2, 3, 4, and 5 — so the Player thinks “better not use my other skills because it’ll break my awesome auto-attack chain and kill my DPS”. So it’s a balancing act between buffing skill 1 vs buffing skills 2+.
I’m not trying to preach here (especially to the game designer). I’m just offering my opinion on why adding a condition to scepter #1 might be “ok” if done right. Maybe reduce the power coefficient on the auto-attack (which is surprisingly high for a condition weapon) and add a condition rotation:
Chain 1 — vulnerability (whatever goes here will be clone spammed!)
Chain 2 — confusion or torment or cripple (very short duration)
Chain 3 — clone production
… OR …
Chain 1 — no condition (because it would be clone spammed)
Chain 2 — confusion or torment (higher duration than example above)
Chain 3 — clone production
Part of me thinks that someone in ANet was thinking “hey, wanna see something funny? Watch this…”
I love ele with blasting staff, 30 in fire trait line (30/0/10/10/20), and signets of fire+air. This really cranks out a lot of AoE damage in a zerg-on-zerg. I guarantee you WILL hit five players in an enemy zerg with your skills. Meteor Shower, Lava Font, and Fireball are all awesome in zerg fights as well as sieges (both offensive and defensive sieges).
You are quite fragile and I find I switch to water and pop all my cooldowns (water 5, blast, water 3, heal).
Mostly I sit near the back of my zerg in fire cranking out the heat. Lots of fun. Don’t try solo roaming — that’s not what the build is for.
Part of me thinks that someone in ANet was thinking “hey, wanna see something funny? Watch this…”
The problem is the skill should be used preemptively for the effect (i.e. the add XXX when using skills effect). This contradicts the use of the skill as a stun breaker.
You don’t need “25% chance to trigger burn on fire attunement” after you break a stun. You want that effect at the beginning of a fight. However if you do one, you lose the other.
The stun break was moved to this skill to promote skill diversity (i.e. something other than cantrips providing a stun break). However the stun breaks fit nice on a cantrip because a cantrip is something you’d like to use AFTER you get stunned.
I would recommend moving the stun break to another glyph, and redesigning said glyph to be “reactionary” in it’s nature.
Part of me thinks that someone in ANet was thinking “hey, wanna see something funny? Watch this…”
I don’t know much about eles in WvW, but for dungeons, elementalists are stronger when you specialize in doing one thing. The linked build seems to spread your strengths out too much.
A couple of popular and effective builds are stickied in this thread, namely the Scepter + Lightning Hammer build (in Neko’s guide) and Dagger/Focus (in Zel’s guide). Both take some skill to play and stay alive since you’re gearing and traiting for damage and boons, but both are fun to play
So no popular and effective staff builds?
Part of me thinks that someone in ANet was thinking “hey, wanna see something funny? Watch this…”
Getting back into my Elementalist after not playing it for ages. Honestly I leveled it up to 80 months ago then parked it at a JP chest and never touched it again.
The elementalist weapons seem to be a mish-mash of everything (healing, conditions, direct damage, etc). This seemed like a “do-it-all” build that covers healing when in water, conditions from earth/fire, and raw damage, while also having survivability.
Build would be used for WvW Zerg and PvE dungeons. This is not a sPvP build, and open world PvE is face-roll easy regardless of build.
Thoughts?
Part of me thinks that someone in ANet was thinking “hey, wanna see something funny? Watch this…”
Overflow mechanics have been in place since the beginning. If it was a concern, or a violation, I expect that ANet would have prioritized it at some point previously. They have taken action for some overflow items (like the high-dive in LA through the fire ring for prizes!). However they’ve never addressed overflow node farming.
Part of me thinks that someone in ANet was thinking “hey, wanna see something funny? Watch this…”
I want to know how “normal play” and 15,000 candy corn for a bag, 20,000 for a miniature are related beyond “Most of you are serfs working in the fields for your Trading Post betters”…
Really? I have not yet checked out the price for the bag but I was hoping to get one. But is it really 15k candy corns?!? I’ve spent four hours in the labyrinth and have accumulated fewer than 200 candy corns. How can that bag be obtained in any way other than grinding short of buying candy corns? According to my calculations, grinding out 15k candy corns would take on the order of 300 hours or 12.5 entire days.
1. Sell your candy corn.
2. Buy a 20-slot bag from the Trading Post.
3. There is no step 3.
lol — “there is no step 3”
I’ve been in the labyrinth for 5 hours maybe and have roughly 500 corns. I thought that was pretty good as far as corn gathering goes.
You can use “overflow” to your advantage. After you farm all the nodes in the labyrinth, log out then back in (F12). Chances are you’ll be in a new overflow and therefore have access to unharvested nodes. I expect this to be less viable as time goes on and there are few overflow instances due to less player participation.
Part of me thinks that someone in ANet was thinking “hey, wanna see something funny? Watch this…”
The warrior regen/condition builds I have seen need healing power to a degree, and building with settler or apothecary worked well for them.
Bunker guardians survive purely on healing power and the ability to sustain the small HP pool that they have via self heals.
I have never played it, but people said rangers could use condi/heal pow/xxx type armor and enjoy it well.
Elementalists are supposed to have great healing via water abilities are supposedly are the “best” healers in the game.
So yes, healing power is valuable. No I don’t think it is worthless. Yes I think it needs a revamp so it does not pigeon hole people so much into one stat that makes them ineffective in terms such as damage.
I’m think that you’re confusing healing with healing power. All of your examples are really good, but those builds are effective because of the healing — not necessarily because they stacked healing power.
Also some of the armor sets you mentioned are PvE, not PvP — but they would apply in WvW. I thought your original post was purely PvP. I’m happy considering WvW in that mix though because I like it more anyway .
This would be a great time to insert some math showing the effects of Healing Power in one of those builds you mentioned. Maybe regen warrior’s HPS with and without stacking HP.
Part of me thinks that someone in ANet was thinking “hey, wanna see something funny? Watch this…”
In PvE, healing power may be pointless, but what about PvP? Consider more than just one section of the game.
Maybe you can answer your own question: Do you find it valuable in PvP?
Also consider that skills and effects are separated by area: PvP, WvW, and PvE. So even if you answer "yes it is valuable in PvP’, then it still doesn’t impact PvE if the developers choose it to be so.
Part of me thinks that someone in ANet was thinking “hey, wanna see something funny? Watch this…”
There is value in having your specific edition for the last year. People buying the game now didn’t receive the last 12 months of play time that you received. So they get other incentives like reduced cost and some fluff items.
This argument applies on many levels. If precursors became cheap in 2 years you’d have a similar complaint. However if you paid a lot for your precursor, you got to enjoy your legendary for an extra two years… subtle I know.
Part of me thinks that someone in ANet was thinking “hey, wanna see something funny? Watch this…”
@timmyf: If you use “value” to represent in-game currency, then yes your argument of 15000 candy corns at 8c each is reasonable. However think of “value” as your own personal time (which is almost the only thing of value when playing this game). The value for the candy-corn bag GREATLY outweighs the value of a crafted 20-slot bag in these terms. Keep in mind that I’m not getting the candy corn bag for “free” because I could sell the 15000 corns on the TP for more gp than it would cost me to craft a 20-slot bag.
Right now, yes. Candy Corn is in disequilibrium. It will eventually come down in price. My point was more that they choice a quantity of Candy Corn based on the information they had – that its final value is roughly 8-10 copper each – and that the choice is reasonable.
The current price of corn, however, is not reasonable. There was a shock, so to speak, to the supply when somebody bought about 4 million pieces. (Or many people. I don’t know who would have the inventory to manage this alone, but I guess somebody does.) Then there was a demand shock when ArenaNet announced the 20-slot bags and other items.
Players who buy bags with corn are behaving irrationally. VERY irrationally. So: sell your corn and buy a 20-slot bag with it.
I don’t understand why anybody would complain about this. It makes ZERO sense to use corn for bags.
People are complaining because it makes zero sense to use corn for bags.
Part of me thinks that someone in ANet was thinking “hey, wanna see something funny? Watch this…”
I wish they would just remove healing power as a stat from the game.
It’s not on equal footing with the other stats for the price paid. If you sink 1500 points into condition damage, your conditions really hurt (about 2.5x harder — roughly 1000 points to double your condi dmg). If you sink 1500 points into healing power, your healing is not 2.5x better.
EDIT: This argument is analogous to the magic find argument — if you push heavy into this stat your hurting your team in a way because the amount of increased healing is not on par with other increases you could have received. (NOTE: I said “analogous”, not “identical”).
Part of me thinks that someone in ANet was thinking “hey, wanna see something funny? Watch this…”
Constructive feedback is entirely subjective based on the perception and biases of the person offering it. Just because you feel that your feedback was constructive or good, doesn’t mean that others feel the same way.
Also, I am casual player. I play 10-15 hours in an entire week, and yet still manage to get ascended items, so I don’t like the excuse of casual being used.
And again, I’m not being hostile at all, or even upset. I’m sitting at work waiting for code to compile and passing the time by arguing on the forums.
When I say “You” it is the general use, rather than the specific focusing on one person, sorry if that was misunderstood.
I’m also compiling code lol — the forums are a nice distraction!
This really isn’t about ascended, or even the candy-corn bags. I have a couple ascended weps myself (although I’m closer to 25 hrs a week in-game which isn’t casual according to my spouse).
The candy-corn bags was simply an example of a grindy item which is incongruent with the pax-interview statements. I could care less about the item as I won’t be grinding for it.
@timmyf: If you use “value” to represent in-game currency, then yes your argument of 15000 candy corns at 8c each is reasonable. However think of “value” as your own personal time (which is almost the only thing of value when playing this game). The value for the candy-corn bag GREATLY outweighs the value of a crafted 20-slot bag in these terms. Keep in mind that I’m not getting the candy corn bag for “free” because I could sell the 15000 corns on the TP for more gp than it would cost me to craft a 20-slot bag.
Part of me thinks that someone in ANet was thinking “hey, wanna see something funny? Watch this…”
Actually this has nothing to do with an individual and the rewards an individual wants. I have everything I was after. What it is, is a critique on the desire for a collaborative process and the talk of certain game design, but the lack of implemented game design reflecting the desire to follow through with collaboration.
Which again is bull. Do you feel that the designers OWE YOU to change the game to how you see it for your feedback? Or anyone’s feedback?
I already answered you, just because someone asks for feedback does not mean they have to follow through with the feedback that is received, especially when the feedback is bad or misguided.
If you ask someone for a fun activity to do, and they say you should jump off a bridge for fun, are you required to listen to that? Are you required to go jump off a bridge?
Wow — a bit of pent up hostility?
You’re trying to sway your argument by calling feedback “bad” — not all feedback is bad. In fact I’ve seen some excellent feedback in these same forums. It doesn’t help your argument as it immediately outcasts players who make constructive feedback.
Regardless, the OPs point was valid. There are two, incongruent operations going on — what’s sold to the public (i.e. pax interview) and what’s implemented in the game (i.e. 15000 candy corn for a 20-slot bag). If you fail to see some of these conflicts then don’t bother replying, we’re never going to agree.
I don’t expect everything in the game to be handed out for free. However most should be obtainable by casual play (i.e. playing for 10hrs a week). A bag for 15000 corn is on the grindy side. A different route could have been a bag for “one token” where that token requires a difficult 2hr run through a new dungeon path. That’s very doable for the time available to a casual player.
Keep in mind that “casual” does not mean “unskilled”, “untalented”, nor “unmotivated”. It’s simply a category of players that aren’t in this game many hours a week.
Part of me thinks that someone in ANet was thinking “hey, wanna see something funny? Watch this…”
No, this topic is about time gating — legendaries are not time gated. You can make as many as you want as fast as you want as long as you have the resources on hand.
Also players don’t get legendaries “for the stats”. You can try and argue that, but it would be far cheaper just to get one of every ascended weapon if stats was purely your goal.
It happens that the time gating for ascended weps is in the materials, which is why they are even involved in this discussion.
Part of me thinks that someone in ANet was thinking “hey, wanna see something funny? Watch this…”
Someone in our guild did the exact same thing and received a one-time refund and a correction back to his original home server. It came with a “we won’t help you if you do this again…” message.
Part of me thinks that someone in ANet was thinking “hey, wanna see something funny? Watch this…”
So by the logic I’m seeing in here, one-handed weapon legendaries should require less materials than two-handed weapon legendaries.
On one hand you could argue that — but legendaries are really about the skin + effect, not the weapon itself. In addition, legendaries are not time-gated, so again doesn’t really apply to this conversation.
Part of me thinks that someone in ANet was thinking “hey, wanna see something funny? Watch this…”
