Hugs.1856

In pve open world, power berserker with greatsword is really fun and satisfying to use. For start, I'd recommend: Strength mid-mid-midDefense bottom-top-bottomBerserker top top top utilities : blood reckoning, shake it off, signet of fury, outrage and headbutt. To kill stuff, you go signet of fury, berserker mode, f1 great sword, healing skill, then f1 again. Finish the job with skill 2 or 3. To survive, weakness from the defense line is great and there is a good synergy between rousing resilience and the combo headbutt /outrage. It's also fitting to berserker that you survive by hitting stuff (F1 gives back some health if you are hitting multiple ennemies due to adrenal health and might makes me right) As you get better, you can swap defense for discipline(Middle-bottom-bottom) and drop shake it off for a physical skill and go for strength bottom-middle-top.

For fractals, I use mantra of potence and the one cleaning conditions. Last utility depends on the fractal but is usually a consecration (with the virtue trait that reduces consecration recharges): hallowed ground for stab most of time, purging flames for addition condition cleanse and wall of reflect for projectile. These effectively act as a one side firebrand tome 3. And apart from sirens reef, I can't remember a fractal where I'd need a faster recharge of tome 3 over the comfort of not worrying about rotation.

There's a lot of things to do but it's not presented in an engaging way. Going through the achievement panel or the wiki to know what steps to take to obtain a certain skin / gear / achievement can feel tedious. Then there's the horizontal progression that almost forces you to set your own personal goals. Basically if they take the idea of the dailies but present them in a more engaging way with goals that can last more that 15 minutes, that could help players struggling to set up their own goals or who are put off by the Ui of the achievement panel.

Nope : all non arcdps users have now more loadouts than before plus the new template features. Before we had 1 loadout per game mode and 0 template. Now you have 3 loadouts to handle as you wish across game modes plus 6 templates. What is lost is the auto swapping between game modes and how legendary gear resets, if you swap out of a gear template. That should be the first thing to fix in my opinion. The naming also adds to the confusion : loadouts are not templates and a build is not just trait and skills, it also includes gear. For skills and traits, they should have make a tutorial : use 2 of the 3 free loadouts for the skills and traits combination you use most often. don't use different loadouts if the change is minimal (1 or 2 skills and traits). Do it manually on the same loadout in that case. use the 3rd free loadout to load in from the Account wise template storage panel, where you would have stored the builds you play less often. If you just play with 3 sets of skills and traits, then just use thar 3rd loadout for your 3rd set. No need to use the account wide template storage feature. No they are not. They are two per character (unless you spend gems) and require manual switching when playing different game modes. Unless there will be separate templates per game mode, this so called "feature" is nothing more then a cheap gimmick to siphon gems from players, for an already existing feature. And makes the functionality way worse (auto switching >>>>> manual switching). Not to mention, we will have to manually re-do builds across at least a dozen of characters, that we already had setup before. Anet needs to remove build templates, and fix this s*** show before implementing it again. This is just not true. For skills and traits, the combination of the 3 loadouts per character plus the 6 Account wide templates make it so anyone not using arcdps is better off in terms of number of templates / loadouts compared to before. There just is no way that this new feature could have forced you to re-do builds across characters. On the other hand, losing the auto swap per game mode is definitely a step back. The perfect system would have been account bound skills, traits and gear templates, linked together with the same auto swap per game mode as before. If Anet still wants to go with the loadouts route for whatever reason, then only monetizing these loadouts (Both skills/traits and gear) while keeping the account bound skills and traits templates free would have been much better received - even with the current limits of the system.

Nope : all non arcdps users have now more loadouts than before plus the new template features. Before we had 1 loadout per game mode and 0 template. Now you have 3 loadouts to handle as you wish across game modes plus 6 templates. What is lost is the auto swapping between game modes and how legendary gear resets, if you swap out of a gear template. That should be the first thing to fix in my opinion. The naming also adds to the confusion : loadouts are not templates and a build is not just trait and skills, it also includes gear. For skills and traits, they should have make a tutorial : use 2 of the 3 free loadouts for the skills and traits combination you use most often. don't use different loadouts if the change is minimal (1 or 2 skills and traits). Do it manually on the same loadout in that case. use the 3rd free loadout to load in from the Account wise template storage panel, where you would have stored the builds you play less often. If you just play with 3 sets of skills and traits, then just use thar 3rd loadout for your 3rd set. No need to use the account wide template storage feature.

Start with ascended trinkets, get some food and utility as well. None of these is hard to get by and provide large bonus. But in wvw, winning or losing will mostly be due to skills and build rather than stats (and therefore gear)

Had Anet just monetized gear loadouts, no storm would have been unleashed. But considering one of the the game's great strength is its flexible build system, having to pay to quickly swap traits and skills is hard to accept. You could even argue that designing the system as loadouts instead of template was a way to justify the monetization...

A huge improvement for many but a few questionable design choices : 1/ no more automatic build swapping between game modes 2/ legendary gear resetting runes/sigils/infusion to inventory when you exit the gear loadout they are slotted in. 3/ no more quick situational swapping of a weapon on loadout A if that weapon is used by gear loadout B The core issue is advertising these as build templates when they have been designed as skills/traits and gear load outs. The only true templates we have are the account wide build storage. The other 2 features are loadouts and come with their fair share of pros and cons. Keeping the auto swap per game mode and developing build storage to factor in gear (without freeing up inventory space) would have been a far superior solution in my opinion. Plus it would have made monetization much easier : cheap account wide build storage / template with a higher limit than 24 but more expensive character loadouts (and only 1 loadouts available at start if Anet feels greedy)

This poll may not be representative of the overall population but it's interesting to see the results. I guess Anet metrics aren't far off these results (in terms of broad brackets), hence the monetization.

If possible I'd like the current system that automatically swaps traits, skills and gear For each game mode to be kept. It's an amazing little addition. Taking that away would be an extra annoyance to the build templates implementation.

Two points : 1/ how do you define skill?2/ how hard should raids be? 1/ Having lightning reflexes with nimble fingers is a way to define skill, what you'd call mechanical skills. Having a vision of the combat is another aspect. Knowing the perfect timing of the mechanics is another one. And so forth. Some classes are more or less skewed towards a particular type of skill. I think it's a healthy Game design decision because it gives each profession a distinctive feel and caters to different tastes. If you feel (rightly) that elementalist puts too much of an emphasis on mechanical skills, then you should consider another profession more suited to your playstyle, perhaps warrior or necromancer. 2/ Since you seem to be talking about raids, then how hard do you think raids should be? I personally don't find anything wrong with pushing players to be good in all aspects of the game - mechanical, vision, mechanisms - for what should be considered as the ultimate challenge. Especially considering that since the power creep of pof and players getting more experienced, raids became much more accessible. So the "push to be mechanically good" is quite soft to say the least.

Guild wars 2 is hands down one of the best value in terms of content per dollar in the entire entertainment industry. The amount of fun you can have right now, just buying Path of fire is incredible. Comparing it to mobile games cash shops is just plain wrong. Now. The dark side of this value for the money is a more aggressive cash shop than I would like to be. Aggressive in the sense it relies on loot boxes and heavy incentives to buy gems. It's a 2 edged sword and i'd be curious to see a gaming company find the perfect balance or maybe even completely reinvent the business model.

It was actually one of the common suggestions in the form of people complaining about their multiple gear sets taking up half of their inventory. Actually thinking about it, this was probably a barrier for many players to play different builds. You almost need an extra storage bag per build currently, get bags that don't sort and go through multiple awkward clicks. No doubt it deterred a few people from playing different builds. So build templates will probably entice more people to try out different builds. But this implementation almost leaves Anet with no choice but to monetize that extra storage space and sets that low starting point of 2 free gear templates.

I also find it weird to split gear and traits/skills. A build is by definition the combination of these 2 components. So it makes little sense to have to go to different places to load a single build. And the 3rd panel, the account bound build storage, just adds to the confusion in my opinion. I believe though that they are limited because that's the way the system works inherently and splits these traits /skills and gear "at source". My preferred implementation would be to just have the current account bound build storage panel, except that the builds stored also factor in gear and the limit is higher than 24. You click on the build in that left panel, it loads up everything. Clean.

Only arcdps users who frequently load more than 2-6 builds on a single character will lose out with the new system. For everyone else, this is a double improvement : templates and inventory storage. What's really interesting though is how they implemented the system. No one asked for free storage or even thought that it'd come with build templates. From the stream, we know that they didn't dare touch the inventory code. So it's as if they had no choice but to go with this weird, cumbersome 3-panels Ux/UI : account bound build library, character build, character gear. I think this "Do not touch the inventory code " constraint is what caused the delay in implementation, prompted the monetization and led to that odd free storage gift.

For 99% of the people these templates will either be:Same as now because they wont even use themorAn improvement I think the same : this system is a straight up, free, significant upgrade for the vast majority of players. The issue is that it's a downgrade for the most dedicated players, who lose a key feature, no matter how much they are willing to pay for. I am thankful to Anet for the implementation but I am not sure it's wise to upset your most dedicated players. Especially the crazy ones who went through the trouble of having full legendary gear. It's a pity they had to choose between upsetting these players or touching the inventory code.

Pros beautiful mapChange of pace and atmosphere (probably quiet before the storm)The metal concert and the shooting eventThe characters writingCons Same old narrative tricks as always: comic relief from Bramham instead of Tami, run around the map and overhear some lore, being told what to do by all npcs.Overall, it was a most welcome change of pace and atmosphere. The map is gorgeous and some activities / events are fun. As for the story, it was well executed but nothing new in the delivery of the narrative.

Having set roles is a healthy design choice because it allows variety in playstyles, team interactions and a better sense of identity. Plus, players will always go for the perceived fastest and safest route, which will lock down a meta. The real issue is about the roles themselves - do they promote a fun and engaging experience- and the efficiency gap between the different setups - you don't need a healer in fractals but it makes pugging that much smoother-

In pve, the real issue is with the disparity of skills rather than the raw numbers of power creep. When you have a factor 10 difference in dps between hardcore and beginners, How do you balance fun encounters for everyone? If the gap wasn't so wide, you'd just have to give the mobs the same tools as the players, so relatively speaking, there'd be no power creep. Expansions have to sell so you're bound to have this super powerful tools in hot and pof.Also, giving more tools to each class, isn't bad in itself, provided there a good trade off to make sure you don't have apex builds. But I think they should find a way to bridge the gap of efficiency between players as well as design encounters that don't rely heavily on dps checks or boon output.

This. This is part of the marketing campaign to get new and returning players into the game. Starting with season 5 kinda implies you'd have to play all previous 4 to enjoy it. So a fresh start with saga gets everyone on the same page. It's also easier to plan releases : story related updates will be part of the saga and feature / festival updates can happen anytime in between

If Anet had managed expectations, we wouldn't be discussing so much.Yes we would, because there is always a loud group of people that want to complain no matter what happens. True, they did what they said: they gave a sneak peak of the new season and nothing else.Nothing else? This is demonstrably false. The video speaks for itself. In their mind, it was just a chilled community gathering with long term fans to lighten up a rough year and celebrate the exciting new Saga. It's probably also the conclusion of the marketing campaign that launched in Q1 where they get to showcase the game and its nice community to new and returning player. But the way the announcement was advertised is completely out of proportion with the presentation itself. And to top it all, having the last interview about merchandising, is just handing out the stick to be beaten.How? They advertised it as a live event showing a sneak peak of LW season 5 to kick off PAX, and giving away some goodies to attendees. They did that and more. So, if it was out of proportion, it's because they slightly undersold it. The more hype you build, the more expectation you create. Perception matters more than facts sometimes and this even is really the epitome of this.Plus you know, the internet and all that digital anger...This is the most important thing you said. The community built up so much hype, thereby inflating their own expectations to an impossible standard. This really is all about the Internet and digital anger. Anet loses no matter what they do. They could have announced a new expansion and people would find something to complain about. They're just especially mad because they got all worked up over what they imagined Anet advertised, rather than looking at what was actually advertised.It's the way it was advertised that got people mad. The month in advance announcement, the live event, the host, the countdown, the "omg! Can't wait to share with you" comments from the stream the previous days, the 30 minutes+ pre event etc. None of this was the community doing: it's all Anet's. If you hype something in such a grand way, how can you not expect people to be eager for some big reveal? Personally, I have no problem whatsoever with the event in itself. I am just baffled that after the backlash they got at launch due to the game being over hyped, the backlash they got when they over advertised the esport part of the game, Anet thought they could get away with just a trailer after such a hype build up once again. Again, in their mind, it was probably just a chilled community event where they could showcase the trailer and get players in line for the release in September. Had it clearly put this way, you'd just have the usual vocal minority complaining but certainly not such negative reaction.

If Anet had managed expectations, we wouldn't be discussing so much. True, they did what they said: they gave a sneak peak of the new season and nothing else.In their mind, it was just a chilled community gathering with long term fans to lighten up a rough year and celebrate the exciting new Saga. It's probably also the conclusion of the marketing campaign that launched in Q1 where they get to showcase the game and its nice community to new and returning player. But the way the announcement was advertised is completely out of proportion with the presentation itself. And to top it all, having the last interview about merchandising, is just handing out the stick to be beaten. The more hype you build, the more expectation you create. Perception matters more than facts sometimes and this even is really the epitome of this.Plus you know, the internet and all that digital anger...

There was clearly a call to new and returning players in this event: hot being bundled for free with pof and the move from seasons to saga are clear clues of this attempt. Moving from seasons to saga makes it less daunting for new players as they don’t feel they have to play the previous seasons to enjoy the current saga. It seems like the logical conclusion of the marketing push they did in Q1: big advertising campaign, give new free to play players 6 months to settle in with the core game, then go with hot free with pof and the new saga thing for pof buyers. Where the plan fell short -seemingly - is that the core message of this event was very dry and just a tease actually. Which is completely out of proportion with the hype, new player or not. Then you have the anguish of committed players: after the lay offs of February, they would like to know where the game is heading. Online games are perceived as an ongoing service where customers want to see whats ahead. It may not be rational or useful at all to want to know the roadmap but again that's what customers do when they care and perceive the game as an ongoing service.

More teasing than content. Cool stuff to be fair but mostly in the form of "it's going to be great, deep dive in the charr and norn culture, dynamic maps, lovecraft tone, we're all excited and hope you are as well! Thank you, here's our merch and see you in game!" Oh and the hype wasn't only on the players : going live on twitch a day before the event with a live countdown was quite...bold... for this sort of announcement.

To be honest... I have a hard time being upset about the merchandising fluff. People have been saying for years that ANet does zero marketing and a lot of people outside the game don't even know it exists. There has hardly been any RL Merch released for the game that wasn't specifically organized by the community. The fact that in this past year a whole bunch of merchandising deals have been pushed through is actually kindof a big deal to be honest. It means the marketing department is actually... marketing. Also I wouldn't be surprised if daddy NC made them include it in their segment. It is akin to the blizzard and diablo mobile case: wrong crowd at the wrong time. The merchandising is what it is, but it sure feels like a money grabber at the end of a show that was dry of actual content - which can only add fuel to the fans' fury and frustration. Really sad though because in itself the event was pleasant and chilled.