The information was never obscured. Each expansion clearly says what it is offering. There is no LW season episode as part of the expansion. That is made clear. If u are out of the loop or dont check what u buy that’s not Anet’s fault.
Yes u ultimately get 2 sets. Envoy 2 is used in the mystic forge as the precursor for each piece. Envoy 1 u can do w/e u want with it. If u dont care about crafting leg armor u can keep Envoy 2 and use it as u want. Basically everything u assumed is correct.
I wouldnt go as far as to say that ranged combat sucks….but longbow ranger is flat out useless….even blurred frenzy does more dmg than that crap.
Making buff aoes higher would completely break the gameplay, especially in wvw. They are fine as they are and reward groups with proper positioning. If u wanna roleplay do it in divinity’s reach pls, not fractals.
Living World seasons were never part of the expansions, i dont know what u are angry about.
If u go on vinetooth with 5 people it will be super ez. The problem is both health and defiance bar scale with people. When 9/10 dont know what cc is then vinetooth becomes a problem. It is not a boss issue but a l2p issue. With PoF release there will be less people doing AB so vinetooth will get much much easier.
Also if u are about to do vinetooth dont ever….ever pop a tag. Less people is always better for that event.
From what i’ve seen so far it will probably be condi scourge with dhuumfire. U just let your sand thingies stack burns while u kite the champs and whatnot.
As mentioned above biggest problem is population. U need a large amount of active players for any matchmaker to work properly otherwise u would need to w8 20 min or something for a match. Fixing the matchmaker itself is almost impossible at this point.
Pretty much, 99cm is a lot easier than 100cm, and as the weeks passed and bugs got fixed 100cm has become a lot easier as well. The achievements are nice for newer players though to have some goals to work towards.
PvP is very accessible to you, in fact you can even have your very own arena. Care to try again?
Same for raids. Everyone can create a raid squad, invite people and enter instance.
PvP gives you full rewards just for trying.. raids don’t.
Ah, so it’s not raids that are inaccessible, it’s their rewards. Thanks for proving yet again you’re only after the shinies.
Umm, .. you were actually confused on that?
Did you honestly really think anyone would care about raids if they could have gotten the same rewards from doing living story?
It doesn’t surprise me in the slightest to see the self-righteous stance of “raids are inaccessible” reduced to simple greed. But it does amuse me to see it admitted. It’s always fun to see someone undermine his own position in a debate.
What can I say, I’m an honest guy, unlike the people that try to pass it off that they just want the challenge or whatever… really everyone in these discussions knew that its always been and only ever will be about the loot... nothing else maters.
Maybe now we can dispense with the facade that there is any other motive, and make the loot accessible so we can all stop talking about the raid.
You are far from honest. The biggest debate in this discussion has always been about a lore/training mode or free loot. It’s something that u never mentioned, not even slightly until the discussion turned in that direction, at which point u either come clean or get the kitten off this thread. And now u just drop it as “it’s a given that it’s about the loot and its always been about the loot”.
No it wasn’t. Take every active raider. EVERYONE. Everyone clears at least 2 times in a week, even though the loot is crappy after u already killed a boss.U are actually losing gold by spending consumables, especially now that they are more expensive than ever. If they cared about loot they would just farm fractal 40/ silverwastes and get rich or just play the TP.
You thinking it is all about the loot shows your alienation with everything that raids stand for, everything people play them for AKA fun (even people with 500+ li still clear weekly) and how a stranger u are to this topic to even have a “valid” opinion. Admitting that u just want free loot without effort was u throwing your own credibility out of the window.IF there was any truth to what you just said, there would have never been the veritably endless and I might add, still continuing, objection to a ‘story mode’ version of the Raid, to unlock the Lore and Legendary Armor for the less hardcore crowed… but the never-ending outcry against it, makes it clear as day, It’s always been and always will be about the loot.
If there was any other reason, there would not have been the massive objection in the first place to a story mode.
However. I feel that its a pity that reality and the actions and words of your fellow raiders disagree with you, It could have been a great game if there was any real truth to your words, a game we all could have enjoyed.
You could have your fun, I could have my loot, and we all would be happy.. but.. yet that’s not the reality of things now is it, because, it’s all about the loot, and that is why, here we are.. still at it.
First of all being happy isnt about having everything u want, but being content with what u have. I am pretty happy atm even if some things are out of my reach (PvP, WvW shinies as i dont play those modes much). That’s what being happy is. Realize that u yourself are all that is limiting you from getting the loot u are so obsessed with, no Anet, no community, just you. U’ll probably have better chances butting your head against the wall than complaining in forums.
Secondly the opposing opinion to raid story mode is that: 1)it won’t have any replayability just like any other story content.Play it once the it gets forgotten in some corner. 2)Most of the “immersion” in raids comes from the actual difficulty and how engaging the fights are. A toned down version would automatically kill the immersion making the instance boring, as immersion is what you play the story for. There is a big reason for not wanting a story mode and that’s because it eventually won’t amount to anything.Also atm t4 cm’s are much better for raid practice than any “story mode” could ever be. If someone can go through 100cm smoothly, performing good and not dying then raids are gonna be pretty easy. That’s all the practice u need.
Lastly good job on pretty much dodging everything people with ACTUAL raid experience have to say about raids while u seem pretty oblivious to the whole concept. As for the loot, if u are so obsessed with it u can get it just like everyone else does. No1, not me,not Anet, not the playerbase has to hold your hand, u arent a baby after all.
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How would you guys love a CM of every fractal? And i don’t meant 80% reduced healing, i mean an actual CM like 99 and 100.
They node only appears on the highest level, and comes with a clear warning label that everyone must F100 agony resistance (150 iirc)
i’d actually love a full cm run. At least fractals like aquatic and solid ocean would be more fun than what they are now
The Devs themselves said that for now the fractal daily system is fine, for now, and when more fractals are released they will change the system to incorporate all of them. “We will cross that bridge when the time comes”.
As for now most groups i play with have a 5 fractal daily run with 2 cm’s + T4 dailies which takes about 40 min roughly. Not too short, not too long.
PvP is very accessible to you, in fact you can even have your very own arena. Care to try again?
Same for raids. Everyone can create a raid squad, invite people and enter instance.
PvP gives you full rewards just for trying.. raids don’t.
Ah, so it’s not raids that are inaccessible, it’s their rewards. Thanks for proving yet again you’re only after the shinies.
Umm, .. you were actually confused on that?
Did you honestly really think anyone would care about raids if they could have gotten the same rewards from doing living story?
It doesn’t surprise me in the slightest to see the self-righteous stance of “raids are inaccessible” reduced to simple greed. But it does amuse me to see it admitted. It’s always fun to see someone undermine his own position in a debate.
What can I say, I’m an honest guy, unlike the people that try to pass it off that they just want the challenge or whatever… really everyone in these discussions knew that its always been and only ever will be about the loot... nothing else maters.
Maybe now we can dispense with the facade that there is any other motive, and make the loot accessible so we can all stop talking about the raid.
You are far from honest. The biggest debate in this discussion has always been about a lore/training mode or free loot. It’s something that u never mentioned, not even slightly until the discussion turned in that direction, at which point u either come clean or get the kitten off this thread. And now u just drop it as “it’s a given that it’s about the loot and its always been about the loot”.
No it wasn’t. Take every active raider. EVERYONE. Everyone clears at least 2 times in a week, even though the loot is crappy after u already killed a boss.U are actually losing gold by spending consumables, especially now that they are more expensive than ever. If they cared about loot they would just farm fractal 40/ silverwastes and get rich or just play the TP.
You thinking it is all about the loot shows your alienation with everything that raids stand for, everything people play them for AKA fun (even people with 500+ li still clear weekly) and how a stranger u are to this topic to even have a “valid” opinion. Admitting that u just want free loot without effort was u throwing your own credibility out of the window.
Anything “equal” to you would be something actually way harder to get than the raid one – and likely practically impossible to get.
Legendary armor is available in PVP and WVW
And i have already seen many raiders complaining about it, saying that it’s way too easy to get it there. Even if it doesn’t have any special skin.
Many raiders? It’s more like that the overwhelming majority doesn’t even care about it at all. Even in this subforum where so many people are being treated like toxic elitists almost all comments were positive towards the change.
Personally, I have yet to found someone who is strictly against it.
No1 is against it. Active raiders dont really care, pvpers dont care as much, wvwers are very pleased cause thats where stat-swapping is most important. It doesnt have any difficulty, just takes time. So again no1 is against it but there are some really salty people that cant use leg armor aquisition as an excuse for ez raids and such.
The PvP/WvW leg armor was basically Anet dropping the mic on the people complaining by saying “there u go, now go back to playing”.
It was always about the shinies. Hiding that is the only way to get some “credibility”. Anet could implement a story mode with minimal rewards (basic lootbags) and everyone (the vocal people especially) would still complain despite getting what they wanted. It’s just hypocrisy and vanity.
Here’s the fault with that logic. Raid rewards aren’t that great now. We get a guaranteed exotic, a few magnetite shards, a small chance at an ascended chest (the chance feels higher in fractals and WvW, in fact) and the legendary currency.
None of that is much better than a champ bag. The raid legendaries are considered ugly as sin (and there are multiple paths to the functionality now) and, as I noted, there are way more efficient ways to earn ascended.
With that in mind, I doubt many would care if an easy mode gave a lower reward.
So, yes, it is about getting the experience, not the paltry exotic and small chance at an ascended chest and legendary insight.
I could see an argument for rewarding a tiny amount of magnetite (without unlocking the unique boss skins, of course) – but that would just be as a (really slow) way for people to get toons ready for the real raids – but that one is pretty optional (and it wouldn’t detract from raids – people can farm magnetite on escort and w1 trash anyway if they really care about that).
Lul i get about 20-30g in liquid gold with roughly 200-250 magn shards (depending on minis) for 2hours of play. Add the asc drops which are pretty good on rng and u got pretty decent rewards. I pretty much buy anything i need (asc gear) with magn shards and if i have a surplus i use it to sell ghostly infusions (about 100g per sell). The rewards are fine as they are.
The vast majority of the vocal people when ez raid mode is discussed, withdraw from any kind of discussion when rewards are the subject. They hide behind their little finger and w8 until another thread has opened. And if that thread doesnt go their way they w8 for another and so on….it’s just sad.
So im calling it for those vocal people that observe this thread. If Anet introduced an ez mode without the achievements, currencies, collections, liquid gold for killing the bosses and loot similar to what u get on runs where u already killed the boss b4 in the week WOULD YOU be satisfied? This is where the line is drawn between reason and pure entitlement.
Do u want a mode to take it easy or practice? Or are u simply trying to get rewards for zero effort? I don’t expect a straight answer tbh but w/e, food for thought i guess.Sorry, but I don’t see a lot of people asking for – or even discussing – the idea of lesser difficulty with the same rewards. People are asking for a way to experience the content (and often bring up the model other games use – which does use a scaling reward to ensure higher difficulties are rewarded properly – it just makes common sense).
It seems like you are assuming a lot – in which case, there is no way to provide an actual counterpoint – because youre fabricating a hypothetical model that many of us don’t believes exists in the first place.
There are some valid discussion points around whether they should or should not implement a story or easy mode, but “the community will just ask for more reward” isn’t one of them. First – almost no one is asking for comparable reward systems and, second, those that do ask for it pretty much do the same with every other part of the game now (you’ll never make that small group happy in any part of the game).
People are already asking for ez mode with same rewards in this same thread, if u check u will see it. And generally people avoid talking about it cause it removes any credibility from their posts. This community has always been greedy, right from the start and this is general behavior and not a one-time thing. It also resulted in core Guild Wars 2 becoming one of the most stale and boring MMO’s due to braindead difficulty and very easily reachable end game goals. Glad that changed at least.
It was always about the shinies. Hiding that is the only way to get some “credibility”. Anet could implement a story mode with minimal rewards (basic lootbags) and everyone (the vocal people especially) would still complain despite getting what they wanted. It’s just hypocrisy and vanity.
Here’s the fault with that logic. Raid rewards aren’t that great now. We get a guaranteed exotic, a few magnetite shards, a small chance at an ascended chest (the chance feels higher in fractals and WvW, in fact) and the legendary currency.
None of that is much better than a champ bag. The raid legendaries are considered ugly as sin (and there are multiple paths to the functionality now) and, as I noted, there are way more efficient ways to earn ascended.
With that in mind, I doubt many would care if an easy mode gave a lower reward.
So, yes, it is about getting the experience, not the paltry exotic and small chance at an ascended chest and legendary insight.
I could see an argument for rewarding a tiny amount of magnetite (without unlocking the unique boss skins, of course) – but that would just be as a (really slow) way for people to get toons ready for the real raids – but that one is pretty optional (and it wouldn’t detract from raids – people can farm magnetite on escort and w1 trash anyway if they really care about that).
Lul i get about 20-30g in liquid gold with roughly 200-250 magn shards (depending on minis) for 2hours of play. Add the asc drops which are pretty good on rng and u got pretty decent rewards. I pretty much buy anything i need (asc gear) with magn shards and if i have a surplus i use it to sell ghostly infusions (about 100g per sell). The rewards are fine as they are.
The vast majority of the vocal people when ez raid mode is discussed, withdraw from any kind of discussion when rewards are the subject. They hide behind their little finger and w8 until another thread has opened. And if that thread doesnt go their way they w8 for another and so on….it’s just sad.
So im calling it for those vocal people that observe this thread. If Anet introduced an ez mode without the achievements, currencies, collections, liquid gold for killing the bosses and loot similar to what u get on runs where u already killed the boss b4 in the week WOULD YOU be satisfied? This is where the line is drawn between reason and pure entitlement.
Do u want a mode to take it easy or practice? Or are u simply trying to get rewards for zero effort? I don’t expect a straight answer tbh but w/e, food for thought i guess.
Ain’t nobody doin’ squat in this game for no loot. Lol.
Perhaps a larger percentage of the PoF raids will be a bit less intense so that both types of players can have their niche. Would be nice to have one chill wing to play right through every week.
W4 is more than chill as 3 out of 4 bosses are braindead. Deimos is ez as well with range strats etc, etc.
It was always about the shinies. Hiding that is the only way to get some “credibility”. Anet could implement a story mode with minimal rewards (basic lootbags) and everyone (the vocal people especially) would still complain despite getting what they wanted. It’s just hypocrisy and vanity.
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Why can’t we get boons application ranges up to 1500 distance units so that ranged specs can actually play at ranged distances as opposed to the current “everyone stand on top of each other in melee range of the target and ignore as much as possible” playstyle we have today?
Spoken like a true roleplayer. Imagine how wvw and pvp would be with such a change.
Full zerk with gs sword and shield, everything dies in a sec. having the cc from tides and blurred frenzy is a strong burst as well. But generally for open world a full zerk mind wrack will kill everything faster than u can imagine. i usually run domi/illu or duel/illu
I’ve also used this build for soloing HoT HP’s and champions and it was super ez due to the extremely strong cc and burst from gs skills.Since i run leg armor i switch between leadership/scholar runes depending on what im doing.
Putting all aura infusions and full legendary gear fits my playstyle. #Dealwithit.
If u play 1 hour a week it is better to completely drop MMO’s as a genre and play some single-player games (action, adventure) where gameplay is more intense and satisfying for the little time spent.
MMO’s require progression to achieve goals so playing so little will ultimately never amount to anything.
I cannot believe some people can’t do kitten in this game unless Anet hold their hand and tell em “It’s okay, we will make it braindead difficulty so u can have shinies too, like those cool kids right there”. Its so bad, it’s amusing.
Keep up the good fight and stay away from reddit. I heard there are sharks there…..
LUL i’ve raided for 1+ year and havent met anyone who gives a flying kitten about lore in raids. This feels like a joke.
All these pocket raptors coming at me, panic!, so much wildlife lost that day….Anet fix plis.
Finding a pug mesmer that can portal and distort is a bliss. Happens sometimes but rarely.
As with every thread in this forum the answer is and always will be ez mode raids! Here called it first. The answer to all our problems!
I generally prefer ts cause it’s much lighter to have it in the background instead of Discord. Then again i have potato pc.
Not really an exaggeration, most casual groups disband pretty quickly, not even an hour tbh making the farm too short to compare to a full commited farming group. Also in the real scenario u will also have people dying at least on molten effigy cause people will down if u dont kill it fast which increases the overall time by a big margin.
An hour of farming is a reasonable and adequate indicator for comparing. You don’t need to extend it because the loot won’t change over time.
And I have never seen anyone dying on molten effigy besides being total incompetent or a new player in this fractal. A lot of classes are able to block/reflect his autoattacks making them no threat at all.
You are mixing up newcomer groups with casual farmers, there’s a big difference between those.
Perhaps i am. This is strictly from personal experience, and i always found a lot of newcomers in casual groups. It usually feels like there are at least 2 newcomers/unexperienced in casual pug groups. With guildies it might be different.
40 fractal with a “relaxed” group just doesnt make enough gold to justify running it. Again it is all about efficiency.
No, that’s not true. Even a “relaxed” group farms more g/h in fractal 40 than in every other content around. RIBA is far away in numbers.
It’s one thing to not know anything about your class, the encounters and be a total beginner in this fractal but that doesn’t fit to a standard casual farm. With 5 players in at least appropriate damage gear bosses are melting anyways. Only a group of complete beginners would struggle and be total inefficient but those mentioned relaxed groups aren’t. Of course they don’t dupe the video scene, don’t use the meta comp or best in slot food but this is not necessary. And it’s not 3-4 times the gold difference, that’s too much of an exaggeration.
Not really an exaggeration, most casual groups disband pretty quickly, not even an hour tbh making the farm too short to compare to a full commited farming group. Also in the real scenario u will also have people dying at least on molten effigy cause people will down if u dont kill it fast which increases the overall time by a big margin.
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That’s where chronophantasma comes in. It removes the handicap of losing all your dps even if u shatter. Shatter is working just fine, even with shattering phantasms. At least in wvw/pvp u always shatter them after a while as they won’t live for long.
" Not having waypoints removes the option for playstyles that enjoy using them"….
I’m using waypoints cause it fits my playstyle. I’m an experienced waypointer…… Sorry i loled so hard at this.
That would inevitably lead to a new meta comp designed and tailored for speed and efficiency. Any kind of repeatable farm leads to this. It would genuinely be much more interesting at first but over time it would become just as repetitive as Frac40 is. Farm aint about fun or being casual. It’s about hardcore efficiency, otherwise u are better off playing silverwastes and HoT metas.
I never said it wouldn’t have a meta, I said probably a more interesting one, in particular I imagine stealth skipping would enter into the discussion. A skill which use to be important in gw2, which is now pretty much forgotten.
Also, there are plenty of casual farmers. Half the dungeon community pre hot were basically casual farmers. Half the f40 groups have relaxed group comps. I see necros, engis, and thieves in f40 groups all the time.
You say casual fractal farmers might as well run meta events, has it occurred to you that players actually have preferences? We get about 45 minutes of instanced pve content per day. More like 3-4 total hours on raid night (thats including fractals). Maybe players want to play content where their individual contribution is meaningful, while also working towards long term goals such as legendaries, etc.
Farm is by definition doing repetitive content for a hefty amount of gold. It’s not fun by any means, no1 likes to run the same thing 30-40 times over. The “casual” groups on 40 fractal usually just run 10-15 times at best and then stop. That’s mostly cause the bosses dont die fast and u cant use portals so they make a tedious activity even more tedious. The optimized groups can run up to 50 times earning overall 3-4 times the gold cause everything dies fast and it takes longer to get tired or bored. That’s were the farm is.
A farm is successful if u are making the most gold/hour that u can in your own capacity. Otherwise it is a waste of time and you should be doing something else, maybe something more fun. For people that wanna take it ez and relax SW RIBA is the most profiting farm atm. 40 fractal with a “relaxed” group just doesnt make enough gold to justify running it. Again it is all about efficiency.
I notice that the final boss throws a lava ball and does a explosion thing which will down anyone who gets hit by it.
The ball itself doesnt one-shot players. It always leaves a red aoe wherever it hits and that’s where most of the damage comes from. The easiest way to stay alive is to use your special action key as it gives invelunerability for 2-3 seconds.
1) As some1 said buffing the power scaling of your dmg skills u break viper reaper, that’s pretty much a no-no.
2) Most of the power dps classes do their damage through passive buffs and modifiers.Guard gets 250 ferocirty + 10% dmg while having retal. Tempest has too many modifiers as it is.Even power thief has these kinds of modifiret. Necro has strong modifiers as condi but nearly zero for power.
U would need some major overhaul to make reapeer a power dps class
To break up the complaints of the new elite specs in every class forum, here’s a question for you:
How viable is GS in PvE? (mostly open world, dungeons and raids)
I love the GS, I love the legendaries and I just want to smack kitten with a big sword.
However, for condi Sword/Torch seems to be the build to go, while nobody really tries power as everyone thinks it’s overnerfed. Are those assumptions valid or did I just not dig deep enough find a viable GS build?
U are thinking this the wrong way. Yes gs has been nerfed a bit but certainly not overnerfed, the true difference maker is that condi ps has been buffed time and time again. So on one hand u have power build the never was particularly amazing and on the other hand u have a totally overpowered condi build. Probably the best dps build if u gear for full dps. It’s busted.
Most people who wanna really use GS will mostly play guard atm, sad but true.
Obviously op should just make their own group, but I want to bring up something else.
Can we replace the fractal 40 farm with something better? How about a repeatable achievement to do all fractals 25-50, that has a really good monetary reward? I think it would be a lot more interesting to run through a variety of lower level fractals, rather than the same fractal again and again. Additionally, this would probably lead to more interesting team comps, and filling a lot of the void left behind by the killing of dungeons.
That would inevitably lead to a new meta comp designed and tailored for speed and efficiency. Any kind of repeatable farm leads to this. It would genuinely be much more interesting at first but over time it would become just as repetitive as Frac40 is. Farm aint about fun or being casual. It’s about hardcore efficiency, otherwise u are better off playing silverwastes and HoT metas.
Flying mounts were hype when first introduced in wow. After a while people started noticing the difference in the game. Every map became a wasteland, u could never see other people, interact with them cause everybody was flying. When u strol through a GW2 map u always see people passing by doing events doing hearts,vistas,POI’s. That would be completely gone.Add how map exploration, vistas, jp’s and other things work in this game and u have a recipe for failure. It also doesnt make any sense when have gliding.
They introduced mounts cause PoF maps are very big with very few wp, at least that’s how the justify their implementation. But flying mounts are an entirely different thing.
Just make a group for escort, its super ez and feels more like a dungeon instance than an actual raid. U dont need certain classes, u dont need to min/max or have really good gear, there are 2-3 mechanics to watch out for but overall is easy to beat. Everyone has something their locked out (i cant get ascension cause i dont wanna pvp for 2 seasons, if at all), but in this case it is pretty short and easy.
This sentence is so incorrect. How is raiding isolating people? It forces you to play with 10 other people.
10 other people is not “the whole gaming community”.
No it’s not, but you’re never going to play with the entire community though. People have different interests. Are people who play mostly WvW and PvP isolating themselves of the community? Besides, playing raids doesnt mean not playing other content. I can raid on monday and do open world on tuesday. The notion that raiding has isolated people from the community is utter foolishness. The reality for me is that i’ve made more connections with other people through raiding than ever before, because you actually need to communicate and cooperate. I interact more during 30min of raiding with 10 people than during an hour of doing a DS meta with 150 people.
Same thing for me. I had mb 2 people to play with until i started raiding. Through time i met people specifically through raids and soon i’ve found myself in a wonderful guild. I can’t remember when i last played this game alone.
There are 2 things in this game that have an actual community with people that know each other and socialize. Raiding and WvW. Suffice to say, most active guilds are also centered around these activities….talk about isolation {sarcasm}.
Yes agreed , mirage isnt chrono. What they mean, at least what i think they mean and what i realized from playing mirage during the weekend is that with chrono we made full use of the spec and took advantage of every single mechanic it gave us. Blocks, alacrity, movement speed, double burst with cs or get our health back with cs, or double invisibilty, grav well, moa etc and chronophantasma which was one of the best skills we ever got. CS alone gave chrono so much potential to try different things, combos and take advantage of what was given to the spec.
With mirage it feels like we’re playing 30% of the spec and the rest is 70% pure core mesmer. Mostly cause things like ambush,mirage shard and 80% of our traitline are simply not worth using.
As long as alacrity is a 5man boon 2 chronos will always picked. Some classes, especially cps/condi berserker depend on permanent alacrity for their own effectiveness. Same as tempest/dh/engi and pretty much any class that relies on cd’s and not autoattacks.
Groups can play around no distortions, or even less quickness but alacrity has been intergrated into the composition so much that we need crazy changes for the meta to change.
By this i do not want to imply that the design of the spec is good. They kittened up with the design of some traits and skills, some of them blow. Thats a fair argument and something that probably should be addressed when some of the traits are just flat out unplayable.
What i want to put forward is that mirage is far from underpowered and something id argue to be at least one of the best specializations for now. Mirage definitely doesnt need an all around buff but rather a new look at some of the skills and traits that are underpowered and flawed.
Im not going to go into how some traits like stunbreak on dodge should not exist. They will always come up anyways but to give some perspective, its like daredevil dodge on steroids.
The problem for me is that mirage feels like an unfinished spec. With a new spec u should be playing a different way, thats what elites specs are about.We still have to play around shatters cause ambush is bad with most weapons and phantasms don’t do ambush, while mirror shard is simply too bad. Basically u have clones,phantasms, shatters and ambush, 4 mechanics that contradict each other.If i want to make any use of ambush i need to play scepter or sword. Staff ambush is clunky, gs ambush is a joke. Once again if i wanna play power i rely on mind wrack and mind wrack alone.
All we have is another shatter mesm with a few tweaks. Thats what mirage is atm. A tweak to base mesmer. Doesn’t feel like a new spec.
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People on T2/T3 are usually on edge…..that’s cause u get very mixed kinds of players (most dont know mechs yet), t2/t3 also have the worst instabilities making gameplay tedious and players extra edgy. Once u go to t4 that’s probably gonna change. People dont “progress” anymore, they just do a daily routine, so its more relaxed and most player know the fractals inside-out, making it a pleasant experience.
As for getting kicked or flamed….thats completely on the group. “All welcome” parties dont kick people, ever. Parties with reqs might kick if u cant pull your weight. Flaming doesnt really happen. People dont really bother with flaming unless they’re 10y olds. They will either just do the fracs and be done with it or kick. Just get of t2/t3 fractals and u will have much more fun!
Not speaking generally speaking but as far as PoF specs are concerned you should head to reddit. There are some very detailed and structured post there without all the salt.
“Hey, guys. You know those elite specs you’ve been working on for the past 2 years? Yeah, well someone on the forms is complaining that they don’t like it so I’m gonna need you do do the whole thing over m’kay? Also, we ship in a month. Have fun!”
They were also working on leg armor for 2 years. See how that turned out. Difference is that this is the reason u do an open beta. To test stuff and get feedback. It’s always better to tweak and change stuff b4 the content is officially shipped rather than do it after and face a lot more grief. IMO this beta should have happened, if possible, much earlier so that there is enough time for meaningful feedback and changes. One month is simply too short to make anything happen……
Too many things not working with this class.
1) We dont get an f5, mirage cloak is overall worse than a normal dodge which leaves us with ambush as the only thing we get from this spec. As mentioned mirage mirror doesnt work. It feels suicidal to run at a specific area just to get a 0.75 dodge, too risky and lucklaster.
2)Ambush is the only thing that we get in the end. However THE ONLY weapon that has a good ambush skill is scepter and scepter alone.The rest of the weapons are terribad with ambush.
3) Because of (2) we basically have only one option for weapons which scepter/torch/Staff. That’s it, period.
4) Axe is unreliable at best and for a spec that has zero clone generation we are forced to either get mirror images as utility or deceptive evasion from dueling traits.Clone generation from axe is bad through and through.
5) …Ambush…again. We basically trade dodges (survivability) for burst dmg. AND we have to shatter in order to get our endurance back (vigor on shatter). That mean we need strong clone generation so check (4). Meanwhile the only survivability comes from invisibility so torch is mandatory and we probably will need decoy or mass invi.
6) Lets say i roam wvw, i usually play power shatter with decoy, blink, signet of illusions. Rarely i play condi with the same utilities. There is no point to use any deception utilities over the ones above as they are miles ahead and actually synergize. I could perhaps switch signet for one shadowstep but it just shows how bad the new utilities are.
7) This feels like a condi spec through and through. Core condi mesmer already performs well in a pve scenario and condi chrono is one of the strongest classes in WvW roaming/PvP. Meanwhile power shatter is a pure tryhard build that got nerfed while Anet was trying to nerf condi chrono. Good job on that btw. Why would u give, considering the above, another condi spec that pails in comparison to the 2 i mentioned above? There is simply no point in running mirage over those 2. Instead a power spec would be much more welcome and refreshing.
(8) In order to keep up the pressure or the dps we need to keep clones alive, yet we need to shatter in order to recharge endurance or spam meaningless mirage mirrors. At the same time phantasms, a major mechanic on mesmer, are completely useless with this spec as they dont use ambush. Also why do we still have shattering with this spec….it makes zero sense and has no synergy at all.
9) As mentioned in (1) we dont get an f5, we lose clone generation, we lose defensive power (no shield,cs,alacrity, no lockdown whatsoever) and all the skills apart from scepter ambush are weak, too weak.
All in all, even core mesmer is stronger than mirage at this point, let alone chrono which is miles ahead. As it stands now there is no reason to pick mirage in any single game mode.
Anet u have one month till release, better make use of that time cause this is not looking good…..
(edited by zoomborg.9462)
I’ve been running bolt on chrono for ages now and it really looks good. Im going for shining blade atm as it feels the best all around sword skin for mesmer, kinda purple-ish and the astral glow is amazing. Both skins look amazing with shining blade being slighlty more fitting of the theme.
Still u dont need to invest a fortune as there are a lot of nice sword skins. Both regular and gold fractal skin are good, abaddon sword skin is amazing, the purple mist sword skin (dont remember the name), infinite light and there are probably much more that im not aware of. If u want something good looking with average cost i’d recommend the whisperblade. Probably the most fitting sword for a traditional looking mesmer.
(edited by zoomborg.9462)
The most used dps meter atm is ARCdps, u can just google it and it will pop up. unfortunately i always liked bgdm but thats RIP.
It’s quite a surprise that no1 mentioned the big big QoL update anet released last spring. B4 that all the wp in the HoT maps were locked until u did all the events, same went for adventures as most were locked until u did the whole meta and then had mb 10min to do the afdventures and u had the participation system were u had to reach 200% to get the most rewards. U basically had to invest 1+ hour in a single meta while now u can just hop on and reap all the rewards.
No1 also talked about the locked merchants that also got unlocked after the update. I remember having to do a whole cycle of ds just to talk to the merchant to get a gift or a machined sword or an insignia/inscription. Anet does remember the casuals and this was the biggest proof there ever was. And u literally couldnt progress on a map with no 30 people doing all the events so if u were playing on odd hours that was a nightmare.
Mind u that was pretty early and came due to the outcry that everything run on a very strict clock making it feel like a job instead of a game. In OP’s mind HoT might still not be casual friendly, the bigger picture however suggests otherwise.
They were not. No waypoints were locked in HoT except for Dragon’s Stand. All others were always available unless they were contested.
All waypoints were pretty much locked. If u joined a new map in AB for meta u had to travel to every gate cause everything was locked. On VB every waypoint except the start of the map and central pact camp was locked. On TD some waypoints like ogre and scar were almost permanently locked and u had to use nuhoch wallows to get there. Same with Itzel. The only unlocked wp were the starting and Teku Nuhoch.
Contested=Locked, most waypoints had a whole chain of events b4 they stopped being contested. U can unlock scar waypoint by doing 2 events, rata by doing 1 event. Back then u had to do the whole chain to unlock them. Same with AB (fully do pylons) and VB (fully do outposts).
Unless there were 20+ people doing events u basically had to traverse the whole map to get to your destination. And if u joined moments after meta reset u were stuck unless u did the events chains.
(edited by zoomborg.9462)