Recursivision.2367

As someone who logged tons of hours on pre-patch scepter catalyst, I'd like to say it was actually pretty healthy the way it was (if not already too strong). Revert the scepter buffs and all of a sudden: It's more balanced It feels more rewarding to play because you actually have to set up your damage instead of being rewarded for pressing any button at any time

I’ve found a simple solution to this problem. I simply make sure I only fight when I have these buffs. As a longbow ranger, this isn’t much of a problem. If I decide to leave the walls of the castle, I’m still able to +1 most skirmishes in sight without giving up the buff due to my incredible range. The buff also serves as a helpful reminder not to stray much further than a swoop from a friendly portal. If you share a similar philosophy, you may be interested in joining your brothers and sisters in Wall People [Wall]. Message me in game for an invite.

Correct. To clarify, this post is in support of unbanning the matchup threads. If I'm not mistaken, it was even alluded to at some point that allowing them again was something that was under consideration (I don't recall if this was mentioned publicly or discussed in a more private venue).

Once upon a time, there were weekly matchup threads for each tier of WvW matches. Each thread would quickly fill up with banter, compliments on good fights, posts about missed connections, amusing screenshots, and general conversations across the servers. I believe these threads served a number of purposes in helping to build a healthy WvW community, including: They were a way to attach personalities to the guilds and players you'd see from week-to-week, but would rarely have an actual in game dialogue with. Increased competitiveness and camaraderie. Public rivalries, whether hostile or friendly in nature, played out in the forums and increased the stakes of fights on the field. It led to some sort of informal "accountability". Guilds would be called out for unsportsmanlike behavior. No one wanted to be branded as the voltron-blob-kitten-jammer fight guild, and that behavior would certainly come to light in the week's matchup thread. Roamers could organize duels during "Fight Night" events where everyone would show up for friendly duels on a borderland. Of course, moderation was always an issue. In fact, I'm certain most of the forums moderation queue during that period came from the matchup threads. There was the occasional toxicity that crossed the line from banter to bannable offense. This was what ultimately led to the ban on matchup threads on the forums. After the demise of the official matchup threads, there were short-lived venues that attempted to serve a similar role, but they too have faded away. Now, no community hubs exist for WvW. Fighting other servers is barely social anymore. It's a step away from PvE when the competitive cross-server social aspect is removed. The upcoming (soon™) alliance and world restructuring risks even further fracturing communities and identities. However, I believe the reinstatement of matchup threads may help restore something that has been lost by the WvW community over the years. What do you think?

Disagree. As a solo roamer, contesting keeps is one of the most impactful ways for me to contribute to the server as an individual. Killing sentries and flipping camps is pretty low impact, but I can actually feel impactful by keeping a keep contested and picking off returning players during an SMC cap. A large portion of the WvW player base seems to consider this griefing, and most servers put very little value on this type of activity. I think this is the real issue. I think these small-scale activities should be encouraged even more by game design and the community. Instead, mounts and other decisions have continued to marginalize the small-scale focused communities in WvW which isn't healthy for the game mode imo.

Yeah, pretty cool!

I mean, most builds have no way to kill a properly played SA deadeye and even in the worst matchups it's on the deadeye being pressured into making a mistake or over-committing. Otherwise, the deadeye can just disengage and reset the fight if they're ever in trouble. But this is off-topic.

Okay. As sleepwalker said, zephyrite runes and mortar kit. http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PeQAIlFwsYOYp4AIp16B-zhTwwDA-e Pretty sure you're overcapped with the above build. You don't even need to run Gyroscopic Acceleration and can instead opt for Mass Momentum and still have almost 100% uptime. Mortar Kit swaps give you just shy of 7 seconds on a 10 second ICD for ~70% uptime and Toss Elixir H is just shy of 10 seconds of super speed on a 20 second cooldown. Fill gaps with Toss Elixir U. Accomplish something similar on holo using Zephyrite Runes, Kinetic Battery, traited Holo Leap, Slick Shoes, etc. http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PeAUWBbkdwoYp4AYB9YA-zhTwwDA-e

I don't think it should outright finish downs, but I think there should be more skills that do finish or have increased damage vs downs. I think vault is a good candidate for the latter. Make it do 20-50% extra damage vs downs. While we're at it, make impact strike a simple AoE down finisher too.

Nice. Rocket is a cool skill.

You can get pretty close. Not too hard to maintain about 90% uptime with the right builds. If you're spamming auto-attack while someone stealths, the projectiles already in flight or being cast will still hit for the reveal as often as not. This is coming from someone who has abused both abilities more than most between scrapper and core engi. I can understand the frustration someone might have playing against scrapper and holo for these reasons. On the other hand, I'm generally happy to see enemy mechanists these days. Usually free kills (or an annoyance at most if they're going to run shift signet and rocket boots to run away from everything). The only time they're frustrating is in situations where you're outnumbered in smallscale fights and being "outplayed" by free mech damage and auto-attacks when you're otherwise mopping the floor with the opponent.

As a self-admitted A.E.D. abuser, I'd like to add in some of my other favorite things about the skill that have yet to be mentioned. Inventions heal reset which allows for back to back A.E.D. usage Shocking aura That said, when you go up against someone who is actually semi-decent at playing around the skill, it does become a liability in 1v1 situations. I think may become an issue if/when anet gives elite toolbelt skills back to scrapper and/or holo. A.E.D. + the extra heal and cleanses from supply crate toolbelt might push some builds over the top.

The NA tournament was fun. Excited to see whether EU will bring anything new and interesting to the table.

I've been playing a static discharge rifle core engi build for a couple of weeks now. The auto-attack change was a nice quality of life improvement. It makes the rifle damage a little more reliable outside of your bursts. However, my 100-0 bursts don't even use the auto-attack, so it's funny that -- all of a sudden -- when I nuke someone without a single auto-attack I regularly get whispered and told I'm abusing the rifle changes. They ate the same damage they would have 2 weeks ago. I think that's pretty indicative of the state of the discussion around the rifle balance. Also, none of those videos should sell anyone on the builds displayed. If anything, they're evidence to the lack of a balance issue.

Do you want WvW to be devolve into a cloud of staff eles and staff-ele-sniping rangers?

Comparing individual skills and traits in isolation and without any context is completely meaningless.

I just want to say, I predicted this post last night when you were fuming about losing duels to a specter as a catalyst in the free-for-all arena.

The what?