Guild Wars 2

MailMail.6534:

Like I said, I’ve gotten used to the awful CDs in the way that I don’t take the trait at all for CD reduction but rather for protection…

Ditto. Doesn’t mean I wouldn’t prefer 3% per tick or a flat cooldown reduction, though…

My take: The rest of Tyria hasn’t heard about what happened to the Pact Fleet, and by the time they do the PCs will have sorted everything out so that Sylvari corruption outside Maguuma itself isn’t a big threat.

Fay.2357:

Who are you kidding? Druids are going to get nerfed versions of our skills, not buffed ones…

Touché.

As for the purpose of the thread: I dunno, I have a dark sense of humour, and I can’t bring myself to get too, too worked up over video game stuff these days. So I find the whole raging-about-other-class’-nice-things business kind of funny.

I was also inspired by this thread, which is clearly posted in a rather tongue-in-cheek spirit as well: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/hot/Druid-is-a-better-than

Maybe my cheeky suggestion was a bit too realistic.

Dodge is your best bet. It takes .75s to channel with a pretty obvious animation, and it travels pretty slowly. If the Mesmer is using it point-blank from stealth, you’ll just have to time it and take a guess about when the Mesmer will start channeling (hint: Torch 4 and Decoy both give 3s of Stealth without PU, and FotM PU Mesmers probably don’t have enough patience to wait the full 6s before trying to burst you). Then either dodge or use an AoE knockback.

Ok, let’s all speculate on what thing Druids will get that’s kind of like a better version one of our mechanics or utility skills or traits.

My guess: Spirit Pets will take no damage from AoEs. Swapping Aspects will shatter the Spirit Pet for AoE damage and apply two stacks of Torment before immediately resummoning the Spirit Pet with full HP.

I’ve been wrong about a lot of these, but I’ll take a wild swing anyway:

Pet swap will be removed and Rangers will instead cycle their solitary pet through season-related Aspects. Aspect swapping will work with all existing pet swap traits and will have huge benefits for the pet. If the pet isn’t an intangible spirit, then swapping Aspect will provide a huge heal for your pet, possibly even restoring it to full health.

If you were going to do a damage cap, I think it would have to be percentage-based. Somewhere from 25-50% max pet health per attack.

That said, I think the damage reduction specifically against cleaves and AoE is really the right way to go. It should always be possible to outplay a pet class in PvP by specifically targeting their pets.

A Mesmer that relies solely on hiding out in stealth for long periods is a trash Mesmer anyway. I’m actually looking forward to all this stealth detection, maybe all the PU FOTM Mesmers will move on.

Putting the Bulwark Gyro and iDefender into their respective class contexts does NOT make iDefender look any better, and you’re a kitten fool if you think it does.

Engineer context: Extremely good DPS and incredibly strong team support, in the same build.

Mesmer context: High PvP burst but the worst PvE DPS in the game, and even hitting those numbers is reliant on having three damage Phantasms out permanently, which is hard to do given the nature of PvE encounter design. Our group support is not bad, but Guardians do the same stuff better while bringing more DPS.

In the Engineer context, Bulwark Gyro is a little disappointing compared to other utilities, but it doesn’t tank the Engineer’s DPS if they use it. In the Mesmer context, the iDefender is not only kind of bad compared to other utilities, it also completely tanks our DPS if we try to use it.

So spare me the “you’ve got to look at things in context, you can’t just compare skill to skill” bullkitten on this one.

I assume Raven is referring to Time Warp, actually. But it’s still a bad comparison, since Quickness shows up on several other classes as well. Including Engineer: Elixir U.

Charblaze.6958:

Unless chill DoT stops defiance regeneration they aren’t adding enough to a group to warrant inclusion. I don’t think zerk dps in defensive gear matters in a game were support is king.

Robert Gee.9246:

A soft-CC like chill, slow, or cripple will deal damage over time to a defiance bar for the duration of the debuff.

Ehecatl.9172:

Similar to most RTS games. Yes, you CAN keep mass producing troops, but you don’t have the resources to keep that up forever.

You must construct additional pylons waypoints.

codesherwin.9346:

The trait states: “Evading an attack grants stability.”

Presumably this means that this trait only works while you are in combat and you successfully evade an attack. I take that to mean that you can’t just spam dodges/evades to stack up a bunch of stability. If that’s the case, I don’t think the ICD is necessary.

Imagine dodge rolling while a Warrior is trying to Hundred Blades you, a Thief is Unloading, and a Ranger is using Rapid Fire and coming out of it with 50 stacks of Stability. That’s why the trait has an ICD.

AFAIK, the Farmineer build mostly camps out in the Flamethrower kit, maybe you could give that a try until you’re ready to branch out?

http://wolfineer.com/thefarmineer/

Man, don’t even get me started on you guys getting a mobile Feedback.

Haralin.1473:

Gyros with hitpoints of about 10-15K (you can see it in the Video) will melt in WvW raiding and GvG, as i expected they are useless compared to kits. Hammer is ok.

Welcome to WvW Mesmer. Except that Engineer DPS isn’t balanced around having three gyros out at all times, like Mesmer DPS is.

Oh, and at least the Gyros will strip enemy Stability when they die in the middle of a zerg.

Absconditus.6804:

But wait, Robert, isn’t this something that you could do through scripting?

He literally just told us that it isn’t.

Really, with how tiny the HP pools on these guys are, ANet would be better off just having these skills apply a “temporary health” bubble to allies than what they currently do. Though at least the Bulwark Gyro does an AoE daze after dying instantly to splash damage.

Really, the Gyro itself is just as crap as the iDefender. The small health pool means that the differences between the two as far as targeting and whatever else don’t actually matter, because you get the exact same amount of benefit from them when damage is actually flying around.

The toolbelt skill is the part that annoys me a bit. We can’t even get a ground-targeted Feedback, even though there’s no good reason for Feedback not to be ground-targeted, while Engineers get a Feedback bubble that kittening moves.

Exactly the same problem the Mesmer iDefender has. You know, the Phantasm nobody ever uses, not even the free one from an on-block trait. So, good luck with that.

apharma.3741:

Maybe with all these pets flying around ANet will do something about how they’re all cleaved out in a second or two by bosses.

Yes you, Robert Gee, I know you’re reading this. Please AoE/cleave immunity for pets unless specifically targeted certainly in PvE would be amazing.

Unfortunately, everybody but us and the Rangers get the option of leaving their pets at home. And, accordingly, do leave their pets at home, aside from the brief but terrifying reign of the turret engi in sPvP.

Welcome to every forum ever in the entire history of the internet, unfortunately.

I think you misunderstand the problem, Devata. We have other instances of things pointing to other things, so that’s not the issue.

The issue Robert described is this:

• There are two layers to every skill, a “code” layer and a “script” layer.
• Making changes to the “script” layer is pretty easy.
• Adding a countdown to Portal can be done in the “script” layer, because all the necessary information is already being bubbled up from “code” to “script”.
• Adding an arrow to Portal cannot be done in the “script” layer because the necessary information (Entre location, Exit location) is not being bubbled up from the “code” layer.
• Making changes to the “code” layer is difficult and risky.

In general, the people we interact with as “devs” are not actually writing engine/server code, they work at a higher level of abstraction writing scripts. (They may or may not be knowledgeable in lower-level code, but that’s not part of their day-to-day work.)

Making changes to the code that underlies the scripts most likely requires them to loop in software engineers responsible for maintaining that code, as well as going through a long QE process to make sure that the change doesn’t introduce regressions or create new bugs. It’s definitely not impossible, but the software engineering and QE resources required are already in very high demand, so getting them assigned to a small QoL fix is always a hard sell.

The question now is, what happens when you have both a Bulwark Gyro and an iDefender out? Do they reduce one another’s damage?

Well, there’s strong and then there’s “less strong than intended”.

nearlight.3064:

If Adaptive Defense stacked the -condi damage it’d be blatantly overpowered, unless of course you mean having it stack with -4% up to 5 times to get a max of 20%, which would still be overall weaker than its current form. Also it shouldn’t outdo corrupter’s fervor on necromancer for its role.

I read it as giving “take 20% less damage from conditions” as a permanent effect, then a conditional stacking Toughness buff as a totally separate effect. But I could be wrong, since I’ve only read the Dulfy summary and not watched the video.

As a Mesmer, it’s amusing and vindicating to add yet another class to the “Why haven’t you guys realised that our minions die in like two seconds in PvE yet?” choir. Unlike Mesmers, though, at least your DPS isn’t totally reliant on Gyros.

I was kind of amused about this while looking through the Scrapper live stream notes. The Bulwark Gyro itself is essentially iDefender, while its toolbelt skill is a self-targeted, mobile Feedback.

Bulwark Gyro: Applies a large AoE damage reduction (50%) to you and allies. It will also take these damage on itself. It has a very large health pool so you can step behind the gyro and let it take all the damage.
Defense Field (Toolbelt Skill): Straight up reflection shield that reflects projectiles. It follows you around.

Why are Shadow Refuge and Veil visible to enemies?

I highly doubt the Gyro will actually follow you around, as people seem to be assuming. It’s almost certainly a ground-targeted ability. Even if it does follow you, it’s still total immunity to single-target attacks, and the stealth will probably persist even after the gyro’s fuel expires.

I wonder how Rebound interacts with Illusion of Life. IoL usually redowns you when it expires, while Rebound (Chaos, check the thread in the Ele forum, it’s different now) is supposed to prevent allies from getting downed in its duration.

If those two skills interact the way it seems like they should, then Chronomancer with Tempest could end up being the trolliest of troll comps, especially if they both use bunker-style builds.

For (potential) real effectiveness, there’s already another thread about pairing up Chronomancer and Herald for megaboonsharing, which sounds pretty neat.

Random.4691:

175 seems a bit much, especially for that large amount of players that do not like or want to have to PvE, we’re already forced to raid if we want Legendary armor (not complaining just stating a fact) I don’t think we should be forced to PvE to get the Hero points for our new specs as well.

I assume you’re talking about WvW, because PvP players get everything unlocked without Hero Points. But Elite specs are no different than “core” specs in this regard.

tetrodoxin.2134:

However, did I miss something on resistance affecting interrupts? I thought it’d only give you immunity to conditions.

You didn’t miss anything. Only Stability can block interrupts, Resistance has no effect on hard CC.

Condi Mesmer necessarily falls apart against condition cleanse, since we don’t have a whole lot of cover conditions to deploy. We get Confusion, Torment, and Bleed as the only things we can apply reliably. And the only cover conditions we have come from random procs on Chaos Storm and Staff AA.

This is why you hear people saying that Condi Shatter only really works in low-tier PvP. Organised teams will have enough condition clear to totally neutralise it.

IMO, for Mesmer bunker raw healing output and damage soak is not as important as enabling allies to stand on point with you via defensive buffs. Our best healing build is outshined by a Celery Elery anyway, and you’ll probably have one on your team, so we need to hit a different niche.

The reason to bring a Chronobunker to a teamfight, as I see it, is to bring along, in order of importance:

• Alacrity (All’s Well, Well of Recall, iCap)
• Hard control (Gravity Well, ToT, Diversion)
• Boons (Illusionary Inspiration, Bountiful Disillusionment)
• Soft control (Well of Action, Well of Recall, Well of Calamity, iCap, Cry of Frustration)
• Rez/Stomp support (Distortion, Inspiring Distortion, Well of Precognition, Bountiful Disillusionment, Sieze the Moment, Medic’s Feedback)
• Condi Cleanse (Mender’s Purity, Well of Eternity)
• Healing (Well of Eternity, Healing Prism (lol), Illusionary Inspiration, Restorative Mantras?)

On top of which, I really have to say that Restorative Mantras is a totally garbage trait if you’re not using Mantra of Pain. I would never take RM in a bunker build, because there’s no room for Mantra of Pain in a bunker build. I just don’t see the point in a single group heal on a 2.75s channel that you can’t even start until 13s after the last time you needed a self-heal. I’d much rather take Medic’s Feedback, to be totally honest.

The Warriors got the fire spec. Not sure where you heard the rumour that Mesmers would have it.

I played Chronobunker in the past two BWEs, and it seemed pretty legit.

It was hard to force off point, though I did find myself needing to use Distortion every once in a while (and thus temporarily starting the decap timer). But, more importantly, it could totally shut down enemies who came at you. Between ToT and Chaos Storm, you can easily interrupt stomps and rezzes, on top of easily securing them for yourself via Distortion — or now via Well of Precog.

My personal build went for more of the Boonshare route. Chrono/Chaos/Insp with Illusionary Inspiration and Restorative Illusions. I tried it with both Chronophantasma and Sieze the Moment, but I didn’t think there was a clear winner between the two. But I never really felt that I needed the iDefender, so I definitely prefer Boonsharing via II.

Good point, in an organised group the Phants will rarely actually see the effect because the humans will all be clustered.

Too bad, forcing your imaginary friends to dodge boss attacks would have been cool.

Dahkeus.8243:

And it looks more like these bots will be something that you activate for a specific purpose, rather than have them as something you just drop once and rely on for something as basic as dps.

They really seem more like utility-based phantasms on mesmer than ranger pets.

Yeah, except a bit better because Utility Phantasms need to be targeted on an enemy and disappear if that enemy dies. It appears Gyros can be targeted to allies or else just launched from the Engy to do whatever. So they seem more like Spirit Weapons or Elementals that can have ally-targeted skills?

Re Sneak Gyro being visible: so are Shadow Refuge and Veil.

Not to derail the derail, but do we know if the Blur from this skill applies to Phantasms?

Because, if it does, that’s potentially as huge as Chronophantasma for improving the usefulness of Phantasms in PvE…

Quick question, though I’m not sure anybody has explicitly tested this out: When we take the Danger Time trait, do Phantasms get the bonus Crit Chance against Slowed enemies?

The Minor trait that only works for PvP/WvW is pretty weird. I could do without that one.

Rezzing/stomping at range — and presumably without channeling — is a hell of a mechanical twist, though.

TheFrighteningFrenchFry.3275:

What mesmers in tournaments are running mantra of distraction? And if there are mesmers that do that, what skill do they replace?

Solo Queue Mesmers are usually better off running MoD than Portal, since Portal requires team coordination to use most effectively.

Diovid.9506:

arnitheking.8427:

hello engineers, welcome to AI land! Say hello to the 200000 rangers!

You do know that engineer have had AI since they were introduced right?

AI that moves around the battlefield is a whole different ballgame than turrets.

nearlight.3064:

He also seems really afraid to make things too powerful (ie. one step forward, two steps back mentality with tempest notes), and he doesn’t really justify it well enough. … Dragonhunter is very similar to this.

It’s not a coincidence that the two whiniest professions w.r.t. Elite specs are the two that are already the strongest in the game by a huge margin. Tempest and Dragonhunter are pretty well-balanced and essentially in line with what everybody else can do, which makes them objectively a downgrade from the existing meta builds for Ele and Guardian.

Daredevil I don’t delve too much into, but it seems to be his best work, even if all of the concepts are taken from pre-nerfed acro and the staff animations are copied from revenant.

Daredevil is genuinely really cool. I think Thieves will settle down once the animations are cleaned up and numbers are tweaked a bit.

AlphatheWhite.9351:

I’m interested to see what kind of zerg trolling I can do with Echoes of Memory+Deja Vu + Ineptitude.

http://www.marriedtothesea.com/index.php?date=012710

page bug – fifteen characters

Hasn’t showed up in any patch notes, so assume that it isn’t.

Ten times more work for a similar result is pretty much the definition of “ten times less efficient”.

Seems like a pretty fair compromise, if it goes in. Will this be available in BWE3?

Silverkey.2078:

And will on-interrupt effect proc if the CC was done while the enemy was channeling (without actually interrupting the enemy)?

Yeah, I really hope a similar compromise can be reached for interrupts. To be honest, though, I don’t have an idea for one that’s intuitive, practical, and balanced. The Defiance bar really complicates the normal interrupt mechanic. Interrupts by definition cancel skill use, so only one person can get the interrupt proc; but with a Defiance bar in play, a whole team can potentially interrupt the same skill use and stack procs on it. The best thing I can think of is to let each player get one interrupt proc off per interrupt bar (without stopping the skill use), but that could potentially add a lot of overhead for the server that’s tracking the fight.

Fay.2357:

Tbh I think it’s way strong. I think it would be balanced if it didn’t apply the blur to a downed body, that way they could still poison/cleave to try and prevent the res. This way it’s literally a free res every time you use it.

Yeah, this is potentially over the top. Potentially.

Silverkey.2078:

I hope not… I think kitten is fine as it is.

edit: why does “45” “s” get kittenized?

The kitten filter will always trigger on specific “naughty” words. But it also randomly triggers on innocent words, by design, presumably because it’s funny.