Terrorangel.1526

You can swap out strength but you will loose about 30% damage. 15% from ferocity and 21% from Berserker's Power. But that definitely provides better mobility. While the Relic of Warrior reduces the weapon swap even more I think it is not worth using it with Discipline because you don't need to swap weapons as that often and can make better use of another relic considering the cooldown of weapon skills and sigils that proc on swap.

Thanks to the recent changes to Burst Precision HamBow is a "viable" build again for core warrior in sPvP. The build offers high burst damage with decent cc on the hammer kit and soft cc on bow. The build revolves around Burst Precision and tries to max the ferocity as much as possible using Valkyrie Amulet and Rune of the Dragonhunter. To get maximum burst damage, I opted to play the strength traits with Berserker's Power. While using the Defense trait line for sustain. Because I don't use the Discipline traits I felt most comfortable to play with the Relic of the Warrior. Since the burst skills have a cooldown of 8s it felt most convenient for me to reduce the weapon to be able to keep up the pressure. Signet of Fury is another key piece of the build. Mainly to refill your burst gauge whenever needed but the extra 360 ferocity are also very convenient and synergizes perfectly with burst precision. The build lacks mobility but you are able to exchange hammer for sword/shield or warhorn. The swords burst skill deals a lot of damage as well. while soft locking the enemy with immobilize. There are a lot of different ways to play the build and I can imagine exchanging the strength traits with an elite specialization. If you like seeing some big crits popping up on your screen or want to feel some nostalgia from good old HamBow days, maybe give it a try yourself. Have fun http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PKgAINlJwwYUYl4wrsdeB-DaAPlIFBZKB6WIEyCQmHGAA

When I use the trait Hunter's Determination and use the elite skill trap Dragon's Maw, the trap cooldown goes back up to 50s instead of staying 40s. The trait doesn't increase any other elites cooldown. I don't know if this is intended, but I couldn't find any information regarding this in the patch notes or on the wiki. (I noticed there is no tooltip "fact" change when using a racial skill with the trait equipped, but didn't test if the racial skills are able to break stun or aren't affected by the trait at all.)

There are 2 things that I am missing for a long time. First: Comfy Cat Chair Second: Canach's Backpack I really want my Sylvari to have a themed backpack, please make it available again or even better: Bring back Vouchers! Please... Maybe add Vouchers to the Black Lion Statuette Shop? That way we can finally get our hands on those precious items. I just want to chill on a comfortable huge cat.

First of all thank you for all the replies. As I understand it, the "profession-identity" seems to be highly tied together with the available utility skills and there is a big worry about possible power creep. What do you think about a mechanic to choose your elite spec on the trait-window that is detached from the actual traits? Resulting in the option to choose any 3 trait lines but the utility skills are still only available if you choose the corresponding specialization as trait line. But still with only 1 elite specialization available at a time. I can understand that utility skills take a big part in the identity of a specialization. For me the distinguishable feature is the unique profession-mechanic: the special burst-skills of warrior, double attunement of weaver, the Jade Mech or gyro mechanic, the unique shroud, druid's celestial avatar, different shatter skills, etc. They have a much bigger impact on the feeling of a profession to me than utility skills. That does not mean that they have no influence on the identity to me, just not as much. With that option very unique play styles become available. A Firebrand that has access to his virtue tomes but can use traps if decided to trait for dragon hunter instead. He will loose the option to use mantras though. Will that lead to insane power creep? I doubt it. Most traits support the specialization mechanic. Using my example: the Firebrand would miss out on every support for their virtue tomes. But I didn't think about every single combination yet, so if there seems to be something extremely powerful please don't build your argumentation solely on that one or two options. Why would you even want that? You might ask. A single reason: To make the "original", the "vanilla", the "core" professions more interesting. While the elite specializations can choose from all core utility skills and the specialization related ones the the core builds miss out on the diversity. Another idea just came to my mind: What if a core profession could choose a core trait line as their "specialization"? Making it stronger if chosen as specialization. That could even out the odds in favor of vanilla players. "The virtue core guardian", "the survival core ranger", "the curses core necromancer"... Just a thought I wanted to write down before I forget it.

So, we did get the weaponmaster training and now have access to every weapon even without its corresponding elite specialization. Something that has always been very appealing to me personally was brewing builds with the idea of having access to all the utility skills a profession has independent of the specialization. I am aware that many of them are tied to a certain mechanic of an elite specialization, but the thought of using any of them is very exciting. Something that has always bothered me is the limitation that comes with an elite specialization. To me it feels like being forced to play a certain way, because the traits of the specialization determine which utility skills I use to get the most out of the specialization. Of course can I play everything however I like to, even if it is not "the optimal" way to do it. But just imagining throwing a trap as core guardian or using a stance as core ranger seems nice. I would love an option in the trait-window to choose my specialization, totally independent of any trait lines that I use. Of course, the corresponding trait lines do improve the specializations a lot, but I could also choose to use 3 vanilla trait lines and still play my specialization. There have always been traits that improved certain utility skills, but you didn't need to use the trait for playing with a skill. What is the difference to right now, you may ask, since we already have access to all weapons. For example could I choose to play an elite specialization and have access to the specialization f1-f5 related skills without using the traits of that specialization at all. For example an Elementalist playing as a Tempest and having access to overloads but using Earth-Fire-Water Traits. Or the Necromancer being able to freely choose the shroud they want to use. There have been many times where I would love to use the Necromancers core Deathshroud while using shouts or playing as core Guardian with the normal virtues but using the traps of Dragonhunter, the list goes on. I can foresee the argument that having access to even more utility skills to choose from can make it harder for new players to make their builds. But at the time they are able to actually train the elite specialization, they are already level 80 and that's enough time in my opinion to get an idea of the core skills. I would like to know if there are others that thought about something similar and would like to hear your opinion about that. Which combination would you like to try?

I would like to see the "Comfy Cat Chair" return to the Gem Store. Also I really like the new pants skin. I hope very much the correlating chest piece that can be seen on the Gem Store picture will be on sale soon as well, very pretty!

Just did some testing with a build and it slaps nicely. Originally I just wanted to play with signets, especially bane signet. But I ended up with a build focusing on symbols. It makes a lot of fun to burst people with it in pvp. The crits are nice high numbers and the build offers a consistent damage application. Due to its very low hp (11,645) it is quite squishy and it also does not offer as much mobility as WB. The build resolves around symbols and wants to put down as many symbols as possible. To help with the lack of mobility it uses sword and greatsword. I am saying this because I didn't test other weapons yet but I can imagine that scepter with its symbol or staff might be an option. Mace, even though the damage numbers on the skill tooltip look great, seems to be too slow. Version 1: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PWwAEx7lJw+YgsJ2IOyLvpXA-zZIPlGlAZKC6VIUwCwEDAA This version focuses on symbols itself and uses the Honor traitline to max out their duration. The extra symbol when casting a heal skill is another benefit. It doesn't offer any utility though and just wants to go full damage and slap. Version 2: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PWwAEx7lJw+YgsJ2IOAKvnUA-zZIPlGlAZKE6VEUwCwEDAA This focuses more on sustain with healing from meditations and having another regular condition cleanse besides the healing skill and the meditation. Also the ultimates cooldown becomes much lower and can be used more often after using the symbol-skills on a contestant point for example. With this version I could imagine using Litany of Wrath for consistent heal from the placed symbols. Another approach is to trait for virtues. That provides more resolution uptime for the Retribution trait (10% dmg increase while having resolution), condition cleanse and also stability- what the build is missing. Just wanted to share that. Have fun trying the build yourself and maybe we will see more symbol-guardians in pvp soon 🙂

What if there was a rune that applies "revealed" when striking an invisible foe? If the rest of the stats are "bad" maybe it wouldn't be an auto include to many builds but still be a viable option for roamers. Celestial stats, some boon/condition duration and the last bonus would be to reveal every 30/45/60/90 seconds depending on how long the reveal lasts. To prevent whole zerks being revealed from a single attack maybe it can be capped at 1 enemy per proc? Of course that has an impact on a mechanic that many professions rely on. I didn't think much about it. I just had this idea when I read someone complaining about not every (core) profession having an option to reveal at all.

But isn't it a given that you can be one shot in a teamfight by any other class that plays full damage? If I play tunnel-damage focusing on burst rather than sustain, I can't complain if the enemy hits their rotation perfectly and/or I am missing a stun break in my utility skills or didn't evade at the correct time. Especially in a teamfight you have to look out for so many possible threats as the enemy focus can shift to you at any time. If the Cata for example was berserk with around 11k HP he lost most of his sustain when he decided to use his earth skills while chasing the Tempest. Also you can clearly see the Catalyst dodging 2 times in a row AND using the air signet for stun break as well. Then again with so little HP any damage focused spec with burst could have killed him at that time.

I would like to know your opinion regarding the future of Guild Wars 2 Gem Store policy. During the years there have been many new items in the Gem Store. Not only different types of the same items but with the expansions and new mechanics new items entirely were added to the store. The amount exceeds by far what is displayed. As more items are released the rotation of the items becomes slower and slower. Some don't see a comeback to the store ever (at least it feels like that), while some seem to be over-presented. I can imagine it is getting harder to choose from all the options which items will be offered at the Gem Store. An automatic rotation that is preset works to some extend but leaves out newer items if the rotation isn't changed regularly. Ingame items like the Black Lion Statuette try to work around that but require a regular update as well. The predecessor Guild Wars offers ingame items through a store that's accessible from the game's homepage (Store). Guild Wars 2 does the same (Guild Wars 2 Store) but the amount of items is minuscule in comparison to the sheer amount of existing items. I would like the online store to offer much more items. While the ingame Gem Store shows the most recent items and newest skins and has regular discounts for items like bag or bank slots. In the best case the homepage offers all items. Maybe without discounts (like it doesn't offer discounts right now, i.e. bag slots). A small notice at the top corner of the ingame Gem Store window saying "More offers here" for example that opens the homepage could do the trick. If you agree show your support with a comment and a reaction. If you disagree leave. A comment. And have a discussion or just share your opinion. Due to forum violations I had to repost this, sorry to whom I confused with my post and thanks to the people who participated in the poll before.

Thank you for the nostalgia. Regarding the topic: I don't see the need for that in most situations. If you require someone to play a specific build and use specific armor you are usually in a setting where you can talk to each other and ask for them to tell you or post their used gear. Where I would have liked that option for example is in WvW when I can not whisper an enemy and ask for their build. But most of the time people use similar builds to the "meta" and you can deduct their traits from the used utility skills or weapons. IF that option would be in the game I do agree with Galmac: That means an option like "I don't want to be inspected" something similar to offline/invisible mode where you can not be whispered to and your communication is restricted as well would be necessary. And that seems to be so much stuff again to be implemented that I doubt the usefulness of the ability and its usage.

Please release the Seven Reapers Armor, Etherbound Armor and Foefire Armor as whole armor sets in the Gem Store. And I would love to see Water Dragon Armor returning. The old armor sets like Magitech are in the game for 10 years now and reappear much more often.

Is it possible to increase the "rotation speed" of outfits, skins and/or gliders in general? It seems there are always the same outfits available and never leave the Gem Store while others are purchasable once or twice a year.

But isn't that the same with people flocking to the offensive Traits? What is the difference? Of course people would want to play only offensive sets but when their playstyle or build doesn't allow that, because they die too fast, they would have to adapt. Meaning changing an offensive trait for a defensive one or taking a defensive utility skill. I guess that's just not the mindset of the casual player. I would prefer a skill tree that is playstyle and utility focused over a power focused one. Maybe there wouldn't be much change and no new build options at all. Maybe it's just a shift from the traits to the runes. Instead of "you have to play this build to maximize damage" it would be "you have to use this rune" (and like you mentioned that's also already a reality with gear in general). The only difference would be that every profession, unattached to traits and specialization, would have access to boon enhancement. But that's nothing more than theory crafting. Thinking about it, maybe I tried to detach preset playstyles from trait lines and make more diversity viable. Runes might not be the right approach for that.

Would you share your thoughts with me? Why do you disagree, what exactly makes you disagree? Besides that, great comment. Thank you for your insight.

I have a dream. A dream where I don't have to use a Trait because it changes how a Boon is applied to myself or my allies. In this dream Traits do still apply Boons, but they have fixed values. That means a trait that provides me with Might does not increase the Power Might provides and reduces its Condition Damage. But there are Runes that do exactly that. I can choose to equip a Rune that increases the Power value if I want to play power and I can use a defensive Rune that increases the damage reduction of Protection up to 40%. or another Rune that increases the effectiveness of Vigor. I don't have to rely on a Trait to fulfill this role anymore and can play with a Trait Line that has always been Power focused before and make it a Condition build. What does that mean for Traits that focused on that before? They can be remodeled to improve the profession mechanics. Effects that are truly unique to a profession, a guaranteed crit, a damage boost for your next attack, an increase of base stats for the effects duration or more Utility-Skill focused traits to improve Mantras, Wells, Cantrips, Shouts, Engineer-Kits, Turrets, Signets, etc. Maybe add new criteria that has to be fulfilled: After blocking 7 attacks grant a boon (on your next attack?) or: When successfully dodging an attack your next hit steals life, applies a condition or strips a boon. maybe: If striking an enemy that is 600 or further away get "Cool_Effect_Name_Here" "Cool_Effect_Name_Here": (6s) Your next critical hit deals 20% more damage. 15s CD. or: Ferocity is increased by 180 for 3s. 15s CD. Or, what I personally really like: The next Condition/Boon you apply is doubled (5 -->10 stacks might, or 3 --> 6 stacks of burning). Yes, that does sound strong but with an appropriate cooldown and/or foreseeable conditions to be met it would provide new depths to the professions. Would you prefer to not add any more profession unique effects that you have to look out for in competitive play modes? Or do you like that every Trait Line (Specialization) has its focus and "tells you" how it should be played? Let me know what you think about this.

Hello, I am thinking about the Major Trait "Wrath of Justice". I will shortly explain the Trait for those who are not familiar with it or don't want to open the Game/Wiki just to understand what I am talking about. Then I want to share my impression of the Trait and lastly make a few suggestions for the Trait in the future. What the Trait does Wrath of Justice: Striking an enemy with the damaging effect from Virtue skill 1 casts Lesser Signet of Wrath. — In-game description It has the effect to immobilize the first enemy struck by the active effect from Virtue 1. The condition duration is 3s in PvE and 1s in PvP. The Trait has an internal cooldown of 25s that can be reduced to 20s if traited together with "Perfect Inscriptions", because the Trait is actually a Signet itself - without giving any passive benefit though. Perfect Inscriptions: Signets gain reduced recharge, improved passive effects, and continue to grant their passive bonuses while recharging. Effectiveness Increased: 20% Recharge Reduced: 20% — In-game description If I didn't make a mistake the Trait reads: "Whenever you hit the first enemy with your active skill of Virtue 1, immobilize them for 3s/1s. Cooldown: 25s/20s." That does seem quite underwhelming for a Major Trait, especially in comparison to the other two options you have available. My impression The Trait in PvE: A 3s Immobilize for a random enemy in PvE seems useless. If you are able to reset your active effect of Virtue 1 with the Minor Trait "Renewed Justice", the Trait does NOT reset itself as well and has still the cooldown of 25s/20s. Used on a boss with a defiance bar the condition deals 50 "defiance damage" every second, so 150 in total. Renewed Justice: Virtue skill 1 is renewed when you kill a foe. Recharge Reduced: 100% — In-game description The Trait in PvP: The 1s immobilize can be decisive for a battle (in sPvP). But I would like to mention that the Guardian is a fairly mobile profession with blinks and ports, both in utility skills and weapon skills - with just another port added to Hammer 4 in the upcoming patch on February 14th. Therefore I do not see the need for a 1s immobilize on a fairly long cooldown that requires the attack after activation to hit. The weapons that benefit of a stationary enemy the most do already have a CC added to their kit, i.e. Hammer, Scepter and Bow. Opinion and Suggestions Originally the Trait offered its passive bonus (in Lesser Signet if Wraths case - Condition Damage) to allies, but due to the rework of "Perfect Inscriptions" that was removed as well. The Trait does not have enough value to be used in any situation I can imagine. As a Major Trait it's underwhelming, the effect does not synergize with either the Traits or the tool kit the Guardian has to offer. As a Major Trait it should be more meaningful and beneficial to use it. The other 2 T2 Traits are focused on Power ("Retribution") and Condition Damage / Burn ("Radiant Fire"). Retribution: Strike damage dealt is increased while you have resolution. Damage Increase: 10% — In-game description Radiant Fire: Gain Zealot's Flame when you critically hit an enemy. Burning you inflict has increased duration, and your torch skills gain reduced recharge. Zealot's Flame (3s): Burn nearby foes. 4 Burning (3s): 1,572 Damage Recharge Reduced: 20% Duration Increase: 20% (PvE) / 7% (PvP/WvW) Interval: 1 second — In-game description The way it is right now I would remove the Trait. I can imagine a trait that fulfills an utility role. I would like to see a Signet focused support trait. For example: "Wrath of Inscriptions": Signets now remove a (damaging?) condition when activated. (From the Guardian or 3-5 close allies?) or: Signets now grant additional boons when used or bring back the former effect of "Perfect Inscriptions": Signets now grant their passive effects to allies when activated. At this point I would like to know what other players think about the Trait. Maybe I just didn't see its worth and it is used in some game modes and/or situations. Or you agree that the Trait needs some work. Thanks for reading up to this point and have a nice day.

@ThrakathNar.4537 Before the traits were seperated in PvE and PvP they changed the playstyle very much. For example could a warrior play very offensive while relying on "Lesser Endure Pain" which had the same effect as it has now in PvE. Or to talk about the engineer: The trait "Emergency Elixier" was super strong and annoying a while ago. It was named "Self-Regulating Defenses" instead of an Elixier E, which didn't exist before its traits rework, you drank an Elixier S. First every 60s, then every 75s and ultimately every 90s until the Elixier got replaced entirely. (To be exact at the very beginning, after release until 2015, the trait had a 90s cooldown). The cooldown was reduced by the "HGH" trait as well providing 3.75s invulnerability every 48s and letting you finish enemies even at very low hp safely or letting the engineer escape every or at least every second fight easily. Those traits were very impactful in PvP and because of that too good to not use them. I agree that they might appear to be "dull" but to me they offer much more than some "stat boosting trait". @Dadnir.5038 I can only imagine that they can't or are unwilling to create completely seperated traits for every game mode. With the introduction of Heart of Thorns mobs were given much more CC then they ever had before. But the players shouldn't need to use most of their utility skills for stun breaks or defense. Since you have only access to 3 trait lines at the same time and very few skills comparing with other games the devs need to squeeze as much utility as possible in those few traits to improve the gameplay. Besides utility there is the aspect of "flavor of a profession/trait line". I imagine it is much easier to apply an element that already exists in the game to a trait then coming up with a new one. For example if you want to provide a profession with some more stun breaks you can't just make a trait doing just that. So take a utility skill having a stun break and add some "spice": longer duration of X, reduced cooldown, removes X condition/s, grants boon/s X... The impact of those traits depends on their respective trait tier. I wouldn't like changes in utility skills like Endure Pain that remove chracteristic effects of a profession. Imagine doing that for all of them. Every profession would be the same. While the skills look different and might have other types e.g. being a Stance instead of a Spectral skill they would essentially the same skill: "The Barrier Skill", "The Stability Skill" or "The Condition Cleansing Skill". Even if that makes every profession more balanced maybe they are only balanced because they have become the same. The sad truth is PvP being the very last aspect of the game that gets attention (maybe there will be a new map every 5-10 years). I don't think there is much playtesting for new traits or specs and the devs barely regulate something regarding PvP balance beforehand.

Disclaimer: I mostly refer to PvP since I don't have much to none WvW experience. In my opinion a cooldown of 60s+ is not a problem. Considering those effects are passive and do not afford any skill, since you can not "see" them yourself (whether they are ready or not) to play around them. That is why I do not want them to be ready every single fight or multiple times in a single fight. Knowing the cooldowns of your opponents and playing around them is part of the game and who does know these should be rewarded and not be punished by some passive that triggers every 20s or so. I agree that 300s is very unpractical. You would almost never want to use those traits. Almost because some traits trigger an ability that provides an effect over time and applies boons AND breaks stun... while others simply negate a single CC every 5 minutes - looking at you Shared Anguish. I like it very much when traits benefit from each other. Be it reducing each others cooldown or applying positive effects such as condition removal. These synergies are present but some professions have better synergies then others, for example the Major Grandmaster - Trait HGH from Engineer synergizes very well with other traits (Hidden Flask, Emergency Elixier) while improving a lot of Utility Skills and Weapon Kit skills as well. Synergies like that have to be handled very carefully when it comes to powerful traits. A passive trait should never have the same or less cooldown than an Utility skill which does the same. In cases with synergies an appropriate longer cooldown is justified. While those traits are very strong and unpredictable for other players we must not forget that those players forego the other traits they could have chosen. Instead of making the passive traits equally "bad" the other choices could be improved that the decision which trait to use does not become a "no-brainer".