Guild Wars 2

purecontact.1680:

Lord Rheios.4152:

I’d figured Dragon Hunter came from Braham working more closely with his Ranger mother. She started teaching him how to use a bow and literally hunt thing, specifically the draconic quarry he’s oath-sworn to help you destroy. So Braham learned to hunt dragons for his crusader-like dedication to actively protect people and your character can be similarly focused.

My guardian is the daughter of a fisherman and he died killed by a quaggan.
He started teaching me how to use a fishing rod and literally fish thing, specifically the quaggan quarry my whole guild’s oath-sworn to help me destroy.
So my character’s learned to fish quaggan for her crusader-like dedication to actively protect fishermen and your character can be similarly focused.

Quagganfisher were born.

Troll appart, naming a specialization from very specific storyline isn’t a good thing.
The braham’s story line doesn’t define my character, it define braham’s one.
If he wants to found the dragonhunter order/faction, I’ll help him to do so like I’ve helped Trahearn with the Pact but I’m not ok if it impacts my character’s so heavily.

What annoys me the most for the dragonhunter name is the explaination from Jon Peters:

JonPeters.5630:

A couple notes on Dragonhunter. We went with this name because we felt it was evocative of the medieval witch hunters. Guardians consider themselves protectors of the innocent. Followers of their faith be it in honor, valor, etc. The origin of the dragonhunter is a more subtle nuanced version of this. Guardians fight for justice and the dragonhunter faction believes justice is the eradication of dragons and their minions. I understand this is a lot more high concept than Mesmer but at the end of the day we felt like we wanted to try and push a more mature theme here. I hope this helps explain our thinking. We had other generic names in mind but felt like it was important to have a mix of spec names that are generic fantasy, more Tyrian fantasy, and more high concept. This one falls more in the third category.

Thanks,

Jon

I’m ok if “Guardians fight for justice”, I’m not if that made me join the “dragonhunter faction (who) believes justice is the eradication of dragons and their minions”.

I want to fight for justice but dear Mr. Peters, you went too far when you set in stone why I am fighting.
It should be up to the player to chose which way his character follow.

If I chose to follow the dragonhunter path, that should be my personal choice like when I chose to be a noble looking for my sister’s body.
I had to chose one of the different symbol of my dedication and I didn’t chose the one which fits to the fanatics’ approach of dragonhunter.

This roleplay story I chose during my character’s creation didn’t affect my gameplay.
Choose whether I want to be a part of the dragonhunter’s faction or not shouldn’t affect my gameplay.

if you invent and popularize a style of fighting, you basically get to name it, and people who use it after you will have to call it whatever you decided it was

if you invent quagganfisher fighting, everyone who uses it after you, even if they do not fish quaggans will have to call it that
it happens in the real world like
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bak_Mei white eyebrow martial art, because the guy who started it was old. Does that mean every practioner of it is old now?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fut_Gar budda family, only buddists can use this martial art now?

fencing comes from the word defense, does that mean it can never be used offensively? is every body who fences now a defender?

assassins comes from hashish, a group of people who murdered enemies after getting high on cannabis.

so yeah, many martial arts/proffesions, etc are named whatever they are named, and people who follow it later use the same name regardless of what they use it for.

Somebody decided to name the style of fighting dragonhunter, and now IF you want to use it, you have to use the name they made up for it.

MelGT.8326:

phys.7689:

MelGT.8326:

Elite specializations are ArenaNet’s answer to increasing the level cap, and advancing character progression, in an expansion. Of course they’re going to be an upgrade to a profession. They wouldn’t be called an “elite” specialization otherwise. But calling it “pay-to-win” is just ridiculous. You could say the same about any MMO releasing an expansion that increases the level cap too.

no, they arent supposed to be stronger, If elite specs are stronger the whole game balance/variability will go in the garbage

I don’t know what post you read, but it wasn’t mine. I never said elite specs were “stronger”. I just said they were a form of character progression. Read the quote you’re quoting before putting words into peoples’ mouths.

you made an analogy with level cap, which is a power boost
you said elites are an upgrade, which implies better.

if thats not what you intended to imply thats fine, but thats what your post suggests

EcoRI.9273:

phys.7689:

EcoRI.9273:

Well its because Guardian also has a timewarp. In the current dungeon setting, tome of wrath’s 5sec quickness is enough to nuke most bosses. So in terms of DPS guardian is better. Where mesmers shine is their ability to run ahead of the group and provide portals to reduce the time to get from point A to point B. However this strategy prevents the mesmer from getting loot, which is why you only see mesmers being played in record runs.

then a mes can now double that quickness time, with signet of inspiration, without taking the CM line.

Don’t need double the quickness time for a single encounter when the boss is dead within 5seconds.

then why woould you want the CM at all?

EcoRI.9273:

Well its because Guardian also has a timewarp. In the current dungeon setting, tome of wrath’s 5sec quickness is enough to nuke most bosses. So in terms of DPS guardian is better. Where mesmers shine is their ability to run ahead of the group and provide portals to reduce the time to get from point A to point B. However this strategy prevents the mesmer from getting loot, which is why you only see mesmers being played in record runs.

then a mes can now double that quickness time, with signet of inspiration, without taking the CM line.

Thaddeus.4891:

phys.7689:

you get back to AAs faster, thats about it.
the DPS of other skills is irrelvent because they are limited by recast times, not by cast times. (in a long fight)

think about it like this, if time warp is so great, why do people barely want one mesmer in a party? 2 mesmers should own right?

not really because quickness isnt as valuable as might, high dps, fury distribution etc.

now alacrity is something new, and i agree that when it comes to creating a party burst, CM is the go to guy.
but outside of that? CM is worse at everything else, (which is fine)

all they would have to do to destroy even that bonus, is make a boss who changes position every X hp%, or puts down aoe that you will want to move out of.

The reason why Mesmer isn’t wanted in dungeon (except for record run), is because at best you can do 1 or 2 timewrap, while having a really bad dps compare to other profession. Now, if you can do 2-4 timewrap in a path AND decrease some of your team cooldown, you start to be valuable enough in a team to be worth the drop in dps of taking a mesmer over another profession.

yall are ignoring that the changes to the core spec and conditions/defiance, are supposed to change their UP builds to competitive builds.

if the mesmers other builds stay garbage, then of course CM is going to be the only choice.

Jerus.4350:

With the increase in burst damage, being able to get all the skills out quicker will be pretty big, and while we don’t value it enough for a mesmer now it’s because we’re talking like 2 uses over a whole dungeon, now we’re going to get multiple sets of quickness. Longer fights Alacrity will make a play, short fights we may just have the mesmer toss down quickness and start running to the next fight with a portal, dropping the second time warp/well at it, we’ll see.

party alacrity support is pretty weak honestly

you got 3 seconds on a 45 second cool down
and a 30 second recast phantasm with low dmg who gives 1 second to one ally per slow attack (if you dont have phantsmal haste)

the 3 second one is the big deal, when used in conjunction with Continuum shift.

anyhow, im not saying CM isnt good for a party, im saying they have a pretty specific use of boosting everyone else to sacrifice their own power.

this means if the spec changes make mesmer other builds competetive, they will still be competitive for doing whatever their focus is.

short version, CM is only OP, if every other mesmer build is UP, which means it probably isnt OP, its just powered.

Jerus.4350:

That’s the thing, often you’re unable to utilize your phantasms anyways, and shatter has it’s limitations as well.

And while TIme Warp’s biggest effect is on AA, you’re also increasing the DPS of every other skill, getting back into AA’s faster, add in Alacrity and you’re back to using your skills faster too.

Pretty big effect.

And with the massive increase to burst that we’re seeing the HP would have to jump quite a bit to create a situation where burst isn’t the main focus.

you get back to AAs faster, thats about it.
the DPS of other skills is irrelvent because they are limited by recast times, not by cast times. (in a long fight)

think about it like this, if time warp is so great, why do people barely want one mesmer in a party? 2 mesmers should own right?

not really because quickness isnt as valuable as might, high dps, fury distribution etc.

now alacrity is something new, and i agree that when it comes to creating a party burst, CM is the go to guy.
but outside of that? CM is worse at everything else, (which is fine)

all they would have to do to destroy even that bonus, is make a boss who changes position every X hp%, or puts down aoe that you will want to move out of.

Jerus.4350:

Thaddeus.4891:

Well in PvE, there will be a clear winner that’s for sure. PvE is about support and dps, which 3 lines will give the most will be the new meta and for now it seem that CM and DH are clear winner. But not by far.

I’m not really an expert with Mesmer, but DH isn’t that more powerful than Virtue or Honor. Virtue give you around 5% damage modifier from UC (25% Aegis uptime) and a 3-5% damage modifier from Power of the Virtuous,

DH is all about the grandmaster trait BGH with give 15% damage modifier + Vulnerability when a foe is tethered by spear of justice.

15% damage modifier + Vulnerability vs 8-10%. It seem that DH is a clear winner. But while Virtue give you a general damage modifier that work for every attack, BGH is a bit more limited. Spear of justice is not a AoE, it’s a single target skill. Yes technically you can get 5 target because it pierce, but in reality it will probably always 1 or 2 targets, maybe 3 if you are lucky. Which mean that a DH guardian in dungeon will be superior against bosses, but a non DH guardian will be better against group of mobs. And we still don’t know how defiant will work now, the vulnerability from BGH may not be necessary.

You’re forgetting the 10% on cripple trait. 10% + 15%, HUGE burst increase.

And phys you have a point, but do you think they’re going increase enemy HP by like 500%? If not then we’re still going to be int he same situation. There’s a reason enemies don’t have that level of health currently, and I don’t think they’ll throw less optimized groups into 10min fights(or even poorly executed ones into 20 minutes) just to get optimized groups to have a minute or two fights.

my guess is they are going to restructure things a lot

I think there is going to be some big changes in PVE enemies, and possibly in might stacking, but its just conjecture.

NikeEU.7690:

phys.7689:

its good at unique party buffs, and increasing party burst.

so yeah its better for the 30 second party spike, but better overall? not really.

Yeah so double Time Warp double quickness well will only be good in short fights. FWIW, time warp is like casting a skill that does about 250k-300k damage. Getting to cast it twice in any fight is by far the most OP single thing in the game. So yeah, you’re totally right that other specs are way better for PvE.

time warp only increases AA dmg by 50% over time in exchange for doing that double timewarp, you are giving up shatter dmg/utility or phantasm upkeep/utility.
which is worth it if that was all, but you are also giving up either direct stat boosts, more conditions, more lockdown, or more shatters in addition to that.

also note, from what we have seen quickness is more common in most classes now.
its not all that.

NikeEU.7690:

phys.7689:

Talyn.3295:

The new content is gonna have to be pretty challenging, based on the power creep of the first two specialties.

people are overestimating the raw power of the specs, they arent gonna be that crazy in practice.

I’m not over-estimating anything. A mesmer using Domination, Dueling and Chronomancer is strictly better for PvE than any other mesmer combination. It’s a strict upgrade.

Dragon Hunter is for all intents and purposes an upgrade. More DPS and more Vuln. The only question is do you replace Virtues or Honor with Dragon Hunter, whether you will replace one of them or not is not up for debate at this point.

The only professions where I don’t expect the ES to be a power creep is Warrior and Thief since warrior gets a ton out of it’s worst line (Arms) and Thief’s Trickery is really strong.

mesmer using chronomancer would be better for your style of PVE no matter what it does based soley on the 30 second boss meta.

fact is the chronomancer is worse at direct dps, worse at condi dps, worse at phantasm, worse at shatters and worse at interupts.

its good at unique party buffs, and increasing party burst.

so yeah its better for the 30 second party spike, but better overall? not really.

JonPeters.5630:

Was hoping saying it once was enough but I’ll say it again. This is a work in progress. Try to give feedback based on the utility and synergy of the trait instead of the numbers. Slow every 3rd critical hit could also be every 10th critical hit. It could be 8s of slow instead of two. Obviously these numbers are an attempt to be accurate otherwise we wouldn’t even give them but a lot of this stuff will go up and/or down before HoT is released.

Jon

all the traits seem fine except alls well, feels a bit lackluster, being that the finish of wells is delayed, it will seem like a happy accident to remove a condition.

IF you have a well up, and IF you happen to have a condition, you should stay on it for 2 more seconds.

you probably need something that either incentivizes a condition removal more, or something that is beneficial even if you have no conditions when a well ends.

Jerus.4350:

lighter.2708:

elite spec isnt even stronger.

anet has no plan in destorying all the builds in game now.

Speaking from a PVE mindset, yes they are, at least what we’ve seen so far. I do hope they tone it down to open up options.

i disagree.

DH isnt mechanically stronger
and CM isnt mechanically stronger.
CM is party stronger, mostly because alacrity cant be provided elsewhere, and the pve meta bosses last 20 seconds.

if the fight lasted 2 minutes, it would be more of a toss up.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

The bold is me;

phys.7689:

AOE (aoe which is better than pierce)
AOE at melee range, pierce at 1200 range is potentially far more powerful

traits down with 20% recast
And it’s still 0.75s longer CD

5 targets
Same

and doesnt require you to stand in place
Nor does it hit if you do, which TS can because its ranged

if true shot is on a long cool down, the weaponset will basically be a trash weapon.

Serious? Because if a DH AA’s your pet, he will have perma cripple on you and your pet. Then 75% up time of stability, assuming he doesn’t hit both you and your pet, or anyone else with the pierce on TS, which is also a finisher. He’ll have near perma unremovable burning on you too at this point. He’ll be deflecting your RF too, its on the same CD. Plus a couple of AoEs to round it out. Don’t forget the KB every 2nd TS activation too from traits.

It’s pretty good.

you cant look at one skill, you have to look at the whole weapon set….
…essentially, stop looking at one big number and going crazy

Wasn’t going crazy at all. Just comparing the two skills, and that comparison clearly favors the DH. I’m only annoyed because DH has a lot of things that Rangers have been asking for, forever. And it seems it is even better. I’m not going crazy over it, but I think it does need some balance work and an increase to TS’s CD would suffice.

Ranger basically has a lot of hits of less individual importance. This makes it actually harder to defend against.
if you dodge true shot, his dps takes a large hit, if you interuppt it, it actually goes on longer cool down than if he missed, and he takes a large dps loss.
very interuptible with a 3/4th cast time.
if he cant land true shot, his dps is trash, if he only hits it half the time, his dps is trash.

if you make the cast time long, you basically make the weapon that has a higher skill cap/risk to reward ratio lower damage than a ranger with no pet even when he plays perfectly, and his enemy takes all dmg.
that would be bad design imo.

im not saying it isnt good, im saying its where it needs to be, double that cooldown, and now its weak, and you have to play harder to achieve that weakness.

morrolan.9608:

Elite specs should be elite otherwise there’s no point, and anet need that to drive people to buy the xpac. Having said that the guardian elite is definitely not stronger, I doubt I will use it, but the chronomancer has the potential to be mandatory for some parts of the game.

the point is not more power,
its getting something new and different.
its an “elite” specialization because they will be exclusive with one another, and they change mechanics

MaXi.3642:

phys.7689:

no, they arent supposed to be stronger, If elite specs are stronger the whole game balance/variability will go in the garbage

yes it was said they will be horizontal progression = not stronger… but right now I’m not sure if I believe them…

Chronomancer is a straight boost to the Mesmer, not a horizontal progression, he don’t have any adjustments on him, just additions and improvements…

on the other hand, Dragonhunter sounds more like an option, he have mainly changed the class mechanic, but it doesn’t look like a straight upgrade, it’s just different…

so we will see what will be next…

chronomancer is giving up Direct DPS/condi/control for versatility and support.
If played excellently, MAYBE chronomancer can equal other builds, but probably not.

to understand mesmer you have to look at the traits, a lot of mesmers capabilities are tied to traits.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

In the video, TS tool tip was like 1600 damage with Carrion Amulet. With Zerker amulet, power runes and traits, Maul does 1500 odd.

True Shot does more damage, near 10x the range and 2s less CD as Maul. I’m really hoping everything else gets a balance pass if these specialisation skills stay as is. 4s CD on TS is pretty absurd when compared to a lot of other skills.

maul does 5 stacks of vuln,
AOE (aoe which is better than pierce)
traits down with 20% recast
5 targets
and doesnt require you to stand in place

if true shot is on a long cool down, the weaponset will basically be a trash weapon.
slow AA – weak base damage
ranger GS=828 per second
guardian LB= 765 per second
rng LB >500=810 per second
rng LB >1000 = 912 per second

you cant look at one skill, you have to look at the whole weapon set.

true shot basically makes achieving max DPS on DH more skill based, and counterable.

this doesnt even include read the wind attack speed increase of 10%, and, you got a pet.

essentially, stop looking at one big number and going crazy

MelGT.8326:

Elite specializations are ArenaNet’s answer to increasing the level cap, and advancing character progression, in an expansion. Of course they’re going to be an upgrade to a profession. They wouldn’t be called an “elite” specialization otherwise. But calling it “pay-to-win” is just ridiculous. You could say the same about any MMO releasing an expansion that increases the level cap too.

no, they arent supposed to be stronger, If elite specs are stronger the whole game balance/variability will go in the garbage

Moss.5371:

Specializations are coming before HoT, you don’t have to pay to have them.

elite specializations is what hes talking about

RabbitUp.8294:

TheDaiBish.9735:

Them green beams could simply be a skill effect. Kind of like the slashes that happen during 100B.

You can see the Necro using the Mesmer auto animation (sword floating and rotating between his hands). That animation doesn’t really lend itself to melee attacks.

But you do see him autoattacking right after in melee range, so it’s a mixed weapon.

i think the slashes shoot projectiles too.
eh well, we shall probably see later today.
game really needs more charachter animations.

i dont necessarily agree with the OPs premise, but all you people responding realize, he is not opposed to an expansion, his problem is he believes the elite specs are straight up better (more powerful) than the other specs.

he is essentially saying they are more powerful, and if you have the expansion you will have an advantage.

Knighthonor.4061:

@1:17 there is a New Skill being used at the bottom left of screen. its some kind of attack that has 6 projectiles coming out and bouncing on the ground twice….

I cant tell who its coming from… looks like a Thief, or Cloth armor…

edit wait thats not a thief,,, he using Axe in off hand,,,,

but that skill could be from the cloth behind him as well. hard to tell..

ranger always had it

Leo G.4501:

Srolo.5208:

Try again. PETA and various other rights activists beg to differ. And what about all the dolphin killings for fins?

It’s the reverse of what we have in game. “Nature” in the form of living, breathing, beings trying to kill society.

Srolo.5208:

You’re still comparing tornadoes to something like a crocodile running around in your house that just ate your dog and is trying to eat you. Do you still not see the difference?

This is an odd point of view.

While “Nature” does include animals, dolphins and crocodiles, that also includes humans then to since humans are also animals. Pointing to warring with animals like crocodiles as a comparison to the subject of Tyria’s current situation would be like comparing it to an engraged madman rampaging through your home. How does that in any way relate to Tyria’s situation? The reason the elder dragons are considered forces of nature is by what they consume: magic. It’d be like if there was a country-sized ancient bird that consumed the huge portions of the ozone layer. That would be a global threat that could result in changing ecosystems around the world!

Konig Des Todes.2086:

However, what’s important to note that fighting the Elder Dragons is no more a “matter of survival” than fighting a war against a tyrannical invasive nation. Because, in essence, once you get past all the magic and brainwashing that is draconic corruption, that’s what the Elder Dragons and their minions are.

And fighting evil nations? That is a case of fighting for justice. And all the Elder Dragons are, are magical ancient dictators once you get past the fluff and the lies/misdirection that they’re mindless animals.

If it were a matter of Justice to fight the elder dragons, a moral choice must exist. The only one really is that the Sylvari are dragon minions but Glint’s egg could be another.

And I wouldn’t Chalk the Elder Dragons as simple dictators. It hasn’t been shown their motives are anything but instinct and self preservation. They simply consume. The only thing they gain from killing us is self preservation. They aren’t trying to conquer us and take our land, people or possessions or acting on some sort of glory. They just feed then go back to sleep. If they were dictators, they’d simply keep what their power wrought.

Azzer.8137:

The funny thing here is actually that 99% of all other names for the specialisation from the community is just plain awfull.

Then use the 1% that isn’t awful.

actually the dragons are intelligent, and zhaitan was greedy, seeking to conquer.
modremoth created a whole race of beings then stole their free will

glint was created to manipulate and control minds at the whims of her master.

yeah they are forces of nature, but they arent just beasts with instinct.

Knighthonor.4061:

RabbitUp.8294:

GS Necro actually appeared in the trailer
http://i.imgur.com/QvLJHSw.png
Screenshot taken from here: http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/2z1t70/greatsword_confirmed_for_necromancer_and_bow_for/

oh no,,, that Melee Necromancer is using Venoms,,,,,

Edit @0:23 there is a Chronomancer

this trailer is a goldmine of info

where did you see venoms, also, it didnt really look meleeish, i saw green beams.
Kinda disapointing,

Chameleon Dude.1564:

I still don’t understand this crafting hate I keep seeing: it’s much more interactive than chest farming or champ training, etc.

uhh for ascended crafting you end up having to do both crafting and something equivalent to chest farming/champ training/etc.

Pride.1734:

Yea collections are quite nice. I got one ascended piece for completing the lumi gear collection which only took about 2 weeks of grinding.
You can get the trinkets easy enough but the armor and weapons are pretty much gated for crafters only.

They once advertised that you could achieve stuff no matter how you played the game, but say if you only want to do WvW where ascended does matter then you are out of luck. Want the cool ascended skins? Gotta craft. Want to do fractals? Gotta craft.
I just wish there where more options.

your only real choice is to do 2 daily fractals. in the 31-40 range and the 41-50 range.

i think the people who think these traits are crazy are just caught up on the new car smell.
To be honest the traits dont seem super strong to me.

the real strength is the the f5,

also feels like 9 traits is pretty limiting, theres a lot of things i could think of to customize chrono play, but there really isnt room for them.

ASP.8093:

Menaka.5092:

JonPeters.5630:

• Illusionary Reversion – Gain a clone after you activate a shatter skill.

This helps making Chronomancy viable for shatters by itself and really strong with Dueling and Illusions. Power shatter can even drop Dueling for Domi…

Drop Illusions. It doesn’t do much for you now that IP is standard. Domination, Dueling, Chrono. Tons of clones, powerful shatters, easy comboing.

15% faster shatters. 20% illusion resummon time (better than alacrity even if you do it every second off cooldown)
phantasmal haste
master of fragmentation.

i mean you can live without it, but you are losing a lot of power whether you are condi, shatter or phantasm by dropping illusions.

Ragnarox.9601:

just look at this:

• Time Marches On – You move 25% faster. The duration of incoming movement-impairing conditions is reduced by 25%. (Cripple. Chilled, Immobilize)

Adept

• Delayed Reactions – Interrupting a foe slows them. (3s of Slow)

Master

• Danger Time – Gain additional critical hit chance against slowed enemies. (30%)

Grandmaster

• Lost Time – Every 3rd critical hit will slow your target. (2s of Slow)

God kitten thats almost perma slow…how to fight that….I was hyped for dragonhunter but all other classes get serious buffs….I am hoping they will buff our medi or shouts to give us resistance or else we will be like necro in pve – almost non existant.

not permaslow at all.
mesmer hits and illusion hits are counted separately in trait descriptions.

so they have to hit you 3 times, which usually takes more than 2 seconds, and they have to be crits. so if they have 50% crit rate, they have to hit you 6 times on average.

scepter is slow, staff is slow, it basically comes down to GS and sword for decent application uptime, really aint that crazy.

Aktium.9506:

ToenailsofGlory.8217:

most impactfully in PvP.

The elite specs will be available to everyone in PvP regardless of whether you got HoT or not.

nope.
“As long as you’ve purchased Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns, you’ll automatically unlock access to all elite specializations in PvP.”

RabbitUp.8294:

That’s the 3rd profession we get in a row whose weapon was already revealed in the trailer and/or confirmed by devs, but name was unknown. The only other profession that fits those criteria is Engineer.

there was a rifle theif jjust as there was a LB guardian.
i think at this point only war ele and rev are unknown.
and ele has a high chance of sword from what i hear.

As an aside, i see a lot of people with beef here have their own preconcived notions about guardians that leads them to believe things that are not correct within the current lore

guardians arent religous, divine, or particularly good
they channel light based magic to heal, protect, or destroy.
since the last 250 years it has nothing to do with dwayna anymore.

they arent angels, far as we have seen tyria doesnt even have a concept of heaven or angels.

Neural.1824:

My disagreement with the name is pretty simplistic.

“Guardian” by it’s definition and such evokes thoughts of “defense” and “defender”. “Protector” and “Shelter”. One who stands his/her ground against an oncoming threat, protecting that which is behind them.

“Dragon Hunter” evokes thoughts of “offense”. “Conquering” and “Attack”. One who takes action and goes ahead to seek out evil.

Of course we have no choice. Anet is going to make it what it is and we can “just deal with it”, but the name “Dragon Hunter” just sounds off to me.

and thats the key here, this isnt about being a guardian any more. Hence why the name has to be about offence, conquering and attack. This light wielding magic users are focusing on being aggressive and hunting the enemy instead of simply protecting people.

the old guardians were protectors
the dragon hunters are smiters.

Orpheal.8263:

hmm, ok, surprising ^^

So the speculation about the necro spec name can begin…

I guess it will end up as “Reaper”, or in regard of DH it could also end up as somethinmg totally idiotic as like Dragonsummoner >.>

i doubt he will be summoning anything, the img looks pretty martial.

he doesnt look that shouty in the pic

necro, its not gonna be based on armor weight

Eurhetemec.9052:

phys.7689:

now if my analysis is wrong, you can either explain why, or dont explain why, but regardless it isnt clear to me how these would not be problems with the system suggested.

What’s being suggested is this.

The first 65 points, you get them however. The next 66-189 points, have to get them through SCs. There may then be up to 65 SCs you’ve still not done. You can do them, or not. Either way they do not give you any more Hero Points (but perhaps could give an alternate reward, or maybe counting for world completion is enough).

so what happens with a player who doesnt gets 65 via other means, then he doesnt get anything past the 189. Then they add the next specialization,
does he get credit for the skill challenges he hasnt done when he tries to do them now? or do they count for nothing?

if he later gets credit, these players have the ability to avoid new content to get full unlocks, if they dont, wont they have to do these extra challenges later? in order to get the points from the newly added ones?

Action Sloth.2603:

JonPeters.5630:

A couple notes on Dragonhunter. We went with this name because we felt it was evocative of the medieval witch hunters. Guardians consider themselves protectors of the innocent. Followers of their faith be it in honor, valor, etc. The origin of the dragonhunter is a more subtle nuanced version of this. Guardians fight for justice and the dragonhunter faction believes justice is the eradication of dragons and their minions. I understand this is a lot more high concept than Mesmer but at the end of the day we felt like we wanted to try and push a more mature theme here. I hope this helps explain our thinking. We had other generic names in mind but felt like it was important to have a mix of spec names that are generic fantasy, more Tyrian fantasy, and more high concept. This one falls more in the third category.

Thanks,

Jon

If the dragons are supposed to essentially be forces of nature, I don’t see how one can take a moral stance against them and enact justice. It’s like taking a righteous stand against all sea water because of flooding and tsunamis.

man versus nature is not a new concept

GreyWraith.8394:

Arken.3725:

After looking over the Longbow skills, True shot really seems to be too strong. I don’t mind it being a skill that immobilizes you but it needs more of a nerf. Increasing the cd would help as well, maybe 10?

Edit: Now most of us need to understand the only REAL reason we saw the guardian doing 4k crits was because he was using an Assassin’s amulet. Look back at its health, 11k leads me to believe that it might only be possible with full glass.

A game that’s very much about movement and positioning… and we have to stand still to do strong damage. I understand what they are trying to do but it’s bad/unfun design. They would be much better off reducing the damage and reducing (or removing) the immobilize.

I don’t care how big the damage is, 3/4 of a second is so long that only idiots won’t dodge or interrupt it.

[edit: I have similar concerns about #5 – the cc and most of the damage occur at the end. Almost 3 seconds is a long, long time for enemies to stand still with glowing arrows raining down around them. I’d like to see the damage spread out evenly over the cast time and maybe the CC effect moved up to 1.5 seconds into the cast.]

having to commit, or set up in order to do dmg is actually a good choice, now the player is commiting to a course of action, which forces the enemy to choose.

This also increases the benefit of setting up an enemy to take a hit, now when you immobilize, you can actually do something of value, rather than just another AA.

Talyn.3295:

The new content is gonna have to be pretty challenging, based on the power creep of the first two specialties.

people are overestimating the raw power of the specs, they arent gonna be that crazy in practice.

Rising Dusk.2408:

Looks like this thread is mostly dying, but I’m still going to post the Thief review so people can comment on it before I send it on to ANet. Thief in general looks to be in a pretty good place, although the changes to the trait lines mixing up Critical Strikes and Deadly Arts are pretty weird. We’ll review it one at a time, though.

Gains:

• 100% critical chance backstab
• +3 max initiative
• +1% damage per initiatve (max 15%, average around ~8% with PvE rotation)
• GM Trickery Trait

Losses:

• First Strikes adds critical damage instead of damage now (damage loss if under 100% crit chance)
• Flanking Strikes activates Haste instead of adding damage (5% damage lost)
• Combo Critical Chance competes with Side Strike for S/P sets

So mostly a wash for the meta PvE build (slight gain on average), but it’ll be nice having more initiative to work with and faster initiative replenishment if you go with Hastened Replenishment in Trickery as the GM.

My thoughts otherwise:

NOTE: Thieves are good, but they are in the unenviable position where an entire two sets of their utility skills (8 whole skills) are utterly worthless in all game formats (traps and venoms). Beyond that, half of their tricks also never get used, so they get a fairly long list below. Furthermore, they have a lot of unbalanced options in traits where one trait is obscenely good and all other options are really bad. I’ve attempted to suggest improvements below to ameliorate these issues.

Dagger Training

• This trait now has too many conditions. It should have one less condition for an adept trait.
• Dagger Training: Deal 5% more damage to poisoned foes.

Trapper’s Respite

• This is a really fun trait. Hopefully it stays for release!

Panic Strike

• If this is to be moved to the Major slot, it needs to be toned down in some way. Reducing the immobilize from 2.5 seconds to 2 seconds would suffice.

Resourceful Trapper

• This is neat, but traps need more to be given some relevance. Merge the old Corrosive Traps trait into this and it will be a bit better.
• Resourceful Trapper: Traps inflict 10 stacks of vulnerability for 15 seconds when triggered and stealing reduces the cooldown of currently recharging traps by 10 seconds.

Improvisation

• The randomness of this trait makes it unreliable and either too strong when it works in your favor or worthless when it doesn’t. The following is more reliable and meaningful.
• Improvisation: You can use stolen items twice. Reduces the cooldowns of all skills of the skill type that is most present on your skill bar by 10 seconds when you steal.

Unrelenting Strikes

• The tooltip on this when it was shown during the live stream had an ICD and showed Might, so it seemed weird. It makes the most sense as follows.
• Unrelenting Strikes: Ferocity is increased by 400 against foes under 33% health.

First Strikes

• This needs to go back to full damage instead of critical damage. This is a nerf in basically all cases currently, and this line needs the help.
• First Strikes: Damage is increased by 10% when you have 6 or more initiative.

Combo Critical Chance

• This is fairly weak and should be merged with the old Combined Training trait to beef it up and keep S/P relevant in PvE for mob clearing.
• Combined Training: Dual skills deal 5% more damage and have 5% higher critical hit chance.

Continued below…

i like the roulette nature of improv, and to make sure you always benefit, pick multiple types.
with everything getting a type, this will be even better.
i get why some would want to change it, but its just for a certain style of play, the reactive gambler.

now i doubt speed dungeoneer would use it, but if they change it one place they change it every place

Sebrent.3625:

I can’t watch twitch from work, but looking at dulfy:

• http://dulfy.net/2015/05/08/gw2-dragonhunter-ready-up-livestream-notes/

Longbow skills

• http://dulfy.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/gw2-dragonhunter-longbow-skills1.jpg

Why is their longbow hitting for solid damage regardless of range, piercing without traits, applying cripple if it hits more than 1 target, and fire every 0.75s as opposed to our 1.00s (0.90s traited). That doesn’t look right. Is there some aftercast that at least makes it more than the 0.75s listed?

Trueshot #2 and Deflecting Shot #3 both look like they’d hurt … what is up with 4s cooldown. I’m hoping that is just a “still in development” issue. It has the same cast time as the auto-attack so that currently looks like skill that you simply cast every time it’s not on cooldown. Not very skillful but looks very effective … more effective low skill-floor crap for Guardians. Deflecting Shot is in a similar position with its fact cast time, still decent damage and affecting any attacks since it’s a blind and projectile destroyer.

Symbol of Energy … this seems okay. I’m just amazed that this weapon has so many hard-hitting skills with such low cooldowns.

Hunter’s Ward … I’ll need to see the video to see the damage on this, but that final damage looks painful. At least this isn’t on some less than 20s cooldown. Bit annoyed that it not only traps but cripples too. Stepping on our toes there a bit.

Traps

• http://dulfy.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/gw2-dragonhunter-trap-skills2.jpg

These all hit hard. We’ll have to see how our own traps stack up to these once they are done with the rework there. Hopefully we’ll be on par. Nothing too horrible here except a Zerk Guardian with 3 traps stacked could ruin someone’s day pretty darn quickly. If you’re full melee, you might cry given they can stack on their traps and pew pew you with their new longbow.

Traits:

• http://dulfy.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/gw2-dragonhunter-traits1.jpg

Minor Traits
Look fine. Nothing to write home about.

Adept Traits
Bleed on traps, looks lackluster, zealot’s aggression and soaring devastation could be sick if paired with other things. We’ll come back to Zealot’s Aggression.

Master Traits
Hunter’s Determination gives 3s stability per target hit by a skill that hits hard, casts quickly, and is on a 4s cooldown … so 3s of stability every 4.75s …. really?! I’m hoping that’s one of those “still in development” things that will be getting tweaked.

Bulwark looks fine.

Dulled senses isn’t too bad … until you look at the synergy with the grandmaster.

Grandmaster Traits
Hunter’s Fortification doesn’t look too bad given how long the virtues cooldowns currently are.

Heavy Light just looks ridiculous when you pair it with the other factors. First, now they want to be in melee with that Longbow because (1) it doesn’t do any less damage in melee (2) knockback is an interrupt … interrupt every 7s just from attacking (3) that knockback synergizes with dulled senses to cripple you (4) that cripple from dulled senses synergizes with zealot’s aggression for extra damage … now back to their minor that does +10% dmg at >= 600 range … or you can be crippled, constantly interrupted, and taking +10% dmg from them any time they get you within 300 range.

Big Game Hunter could hurt, but there are other traits in game that resemble it … I’m just curious about this stacking with other +% dmg traits … as that would get to pretty darn ridiculous levels.

• Big Game Hunter + Fiery Wrath + Zealous Blade + Symbolic Avenger = 15% + 10% + 5% + 20% = +50% damage … from two specializations

I think at the very least some numbers need to be tweaked here … math isn’t that hard.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQFADC4PAWTA-TpgWAAw+DbZAA

assuming carrions in pvp, longbow numbers generally way higher.
true shot requires you to stand in place during casting, and without it, the general damage would be pretty low.

not only that but ranger has pet while doing that dmg.

essentially, dont look at the numbers, you dont know what stats they have.

Arken.3725:

The issue I see phys is it’s a strong burst skill that even if you avoid it, is still recharged pretty quickly which leads me to have it nerfed to like 10 seconds.

i dont think its that strong, its hard to tell because who knows what his stats are, but its less than 3x the AA dmg
that usually not a hax number for a weaponskill, especially ones that you have to stand still for.

with the slow AA speed, i think they have to use true shot to recover their dps.

of course, it could be they have some ranger like AA damage, but i think its probably closer to other classes AA dmg

Arken.3725:

After looking over the Longbow skills, True shot really seems to be too strong. I don’t mind it being a skill that immobilizes you but it needs more of a nerf. Increasing the cd would help as well, maybe 10?

Edit: Now most of us need to understand the only REAL reason we saw the guardian doing 4k crits was because he was using an Assassin’s amulet. Look back at its health, 11k leads me to believe that it might only be possible with full glass.

nah true shot isnt OP. its requires lockdown, and its not spamable. Its your only other DPS skill on the weapon without a big cool down.

Obtena.7952:

My only real disappointment is that there is clearly a large effort to improve QoL for PVP/WvW.

From a PVE perspective, I don’t see alot to get excited about. I won’t be using traps, I don’t wish to loose my blind on VoJ and recharge so I won’t use the new spec. The best part is LB.

they said the f skills still have thier trait interactions. So you will probably still be able to blind people on use.

ronpierce.2760:

Phys, you sort of missed (IMO) the best alternative…

sen·ti·nel
?sent(?)n?l/
noun
1.
a soldier or guard whose job is to stand and keep watch.
verb
1.
station a soldier or guard by (a place) to keep watch.

Their traps are not launched like Rangers, so less aggressive and more preemptive and “defensive” in nature. Sentinel also lends well to being a Guardian while also lending to range fighting. It has a perfect fit in just about every way, and while it isn’t as fancy as chronomancer, I feel it is in general more appealing than Dragon Hunter.

I personally dont care what they name it.

but sentinel feels very passive to me, and this class is very active, especially compared to the regular guardian.
They are designed to go in and out of melee rng, leap around, and debilitate enemies.

To me Sentinel is more for like something that stays in one place and watches, thats not the flavor of this spec at all.

Rym.1469:

There are no man Banshee

After we’ve cleared that,
Ritualist spec is most likely to me.

are you impinging on his manliness?

http://static.comicvine.com/uploads/original/11119/111198274/4246417-banshee_costume.jpg

seriously though, you guys are putting way more thought into names than they might. I doubt it will be banshee, but not because its illogical

Dadnir.5038:

phys.7689:

shouts are AOE around the caster, so they work well for providing melee oriented support.
The holes in necro right now, are melee playstyle, active survivability, and support that provides something unique.

shouts could provide this, however so could other skills.

i doubt you will see something that fits strongly with existing uses of necros, the specializations generally seem to be trying to bring a more active, higher skill cieling and new play to the class. (so far)

You’ve got bias about shouts. You’re right about the fact that guardian’s and warrior’s shout are AOE skills that support the party or debufffoes around you but…

You clearly don’t want to see another kind of shouts. The Ranger’s shout. Ranger’s shouts are basically order given to their pet. So if you imagine a bit what special skill they could give the necromancer while looking at marjory and LS history, we could easily guess that :

Special ability : By specing in the elite trailine necromancer become haunted by a vengefull spirit. By using F2, this haunting spirit feed on your life force and enter in your weapon to deal additional effect.

Weapon : Great sword.

Skill : Shouts . Necromancer’s shout are basically order given to the haunting spirit in exchange of some life force.

From this base, they may give any form to these commands. Be it a kind of black/misty shield of faith to some “Buff us to death” or “Save my life”.

yeah, the ranger shouts are instructions to their pets, but i doubt they will give necro pets, they already got that covered, the specilaizations seem to be about providing something new or different to the class.

Arnath.2319:

phys.7689:

You know, there is a game about hunting and killing demons called diablo III
in it, there is a class called demonhunter
yes, all classes hunt demons, but this one is called demon hunter.

But Demon Hunters in Diablo are dark, filled with hate and rage, they are savage, wanting nothing but the blood of their enemies.

Taken from the wiki:
“Some say that Demon Hunters are no better than the demons they hunt, that they bring death and destruction with them. And indeed, sometimes, a Demon Hunter loses their ability to control their fear or hatred, and consequently lose themselves to their violent impulses. Many Demon Hunters’ eyes glow with hellfire, due to peering into demons and seeing vengeance.”

That sounds nothing like what a Guardian should be, maybe it would work on a Warrior or Ranger, but not a Guardian.

the point is not that guardians and demon hunters are the exact same thing, the point is that just because one thing is called demon hunters, doesnt mean no other proffession/job/whatever can hunt demons.

it also doesnt mean demon hunter is intrinsicly better at hunting demons than any other class.

it is a name that is a description of what they do, They are hunters, that hunt demons specifically.
the guardian spec is a hunter, it uses traps, projectiles, and added mobility, to hunt dragons and the corruption of the dragons. The implication is that specialty came to existence primarily because of dragon corruption and how some guardians reacted to that threat, and altered the way they use their abilities.

This is different from the chronomancer who seems like a mesmer who started messing with the altering of time/perception of time.

Knighthonor.4061:

Oberon Vex.1389:

There are several reasons to think this.

1. It would be the first Scholar class to gain access to them.
2. The most obvious choices for shouts already have them.
3. Npc Necromancers have leadership roles (Trahearne and Marjory)
4. It would address the issue of party-support that Necro’s lack in.
5. Lastly, the existence of a set of skills from GW1: Orders.

Orders were a series of skills that Necromancers could use to apply specific effects to allies that triggered on landing a hit on the enemy. While I do not expect the exact effects to be applicable in GW2 gameplay, the name type would fit very well for a shout skill.

These were the GW1 skills:

Order of Apostasy: all allies remove an enchantment (read: boon) whenever they attack. 5s duration, lose 15% of your life-pool whenever a monk enchantment is removed.

This could be implemented as is to let every ally strip one boon for a total of 5 removals.

Order of Pain: Allies deal increased damage on attacks for 5s.

Could be a generic Might buff or vuln?

Order of Undeath: Minions deal increased damage on attacks for 5s, lose 2% max health whenever a minion attacks.

Not likely applicable, but the name could be re-purposed for a heal ability.

Order of the Vampire: allies steal X life on attacks for 5s.

Another possible heal ability.

So. Just sayin.

Necro’s will get shouts.

The problem with this theory is the role of the GreatSword… Is the Necro Elite Spec melee damage?

if so, it makes sense for their utilities and heals and elite from the Elite Spec to fit that role they trying to fill. Which I assume would be AoE damage. Physicals fit that, umm kits could fit that….conjures could fit that,,,,meditations could fit that, Manipulation could fit.

but how will Shouts address whats Necro’s missing?

shouts are AOE around the caster, so they work well for providing melee oriented support.
The holes in necro right now, are melee playstyle, active survivability, and support that provides something unique.

shouts could provide this, however so could other skills.

i doubt you will see something that fits strongly with existing uses of necros, the specializations generally seem to be trying to bring a more active, higher skill cieling and new play to the class. (so far)

You know, there is a game about hunting and killing demons called diablo III
in it, there is a class called demonhunter
yes, all classes hunt demons, but this one is called demon hunter.

It has no special bonus to killing demons.

they are dragon hunters because they have altered their focus to be hunting and eradicating the corruption caused by the influence of the dragons.

I dont love the name, but its really as good as any other. No name i have seen suggested is any better or more interesting.
mostly they just fit some one elses personal feelings on things

inquisitor? there is no guardian faith, and this has virtually nothing to do with traps/bows/ and more active virtues.
arbiter? a judge, these guys arent really judges, they are just trying to hunt dragon corruption
divinehunter, they are hunters, but they arent really divine, the power of magic that charachters use is no longer tied to the gods. and they certainlly arent hunting the divine.

there isnt an easy good name, here. Thats the problem.