Tulki.1458

What happened to the Dryders? They were a race of spellcasting arachnids from GW1. They were bizarre and creepy, and I wish they were in this. As far as I know there isn't even any lore about them in GW2.

We lost the PvP and WvW loadouts we originally had, which were saved separately from your PvE loadout. I'm sorry but this feature has made the game worse for existing players unless they fork over money. Full stop. I cannot support this. As a long-time player since beta, in an uncertain time for GW2, this is enough to make me stop playing the game. I hope you revert this feature altogether. I don't say this lightly, but it is more convenient to play multiple modes without this feature in the game than it is now. Hotlinking builds in chat is the only thing I can say is a step in the right direction. Please keep quality of life free, and charge for content. Don't make the game feel worse to play and then charge to make it better. Free content is severely devalued when quality of life costs money and is expensive. The only thing that can make this right is rolling back build templates (minus build links in chat) and refunding people who've bought tabs. I don't think ArenaNet has ever acted on player feedback threads. If there's a time to do it, now is the time. I don't think you will, but you probably should given the overwhelmingly negative response to how this feature has been handled and monetized three times.

My number one balance concern (which is relevant to PvP but not specific to it) right now is the philosophy of elite spec tradeoffs. On paper, giving elite specs tradeoffs so that core builds are viable is a good idea. It opens the door for more build options.Unfortunately, this philosophy was pursued only partway and then dropped. And now we're left with a number of elite specs that have tradeoffs baked into them, and a bunch that do not have any tradeoffs whatsoever. What are your plans around this philosophy? Are you going to continue it? If you are not, are you going to revert the tradeoffs you've already made to specs like Scrapper and Chronomancer?

Unfortunately, with the way PoF and season 4 played out, I'd say the rules of the mists are so wishy-washy that they wouldn't be able to establish any kind of tension or consequences whatsoever. In Guild Wars 1, the mists were well-defined. It was the space between universes (Tyria, Underworld, other god realms, ..., ???). Echoes of things that happened in those universes would manifest in the mists, but they were just that: echoes. An echo of a person in the mists couldn't punch back through to Tyria. And those who were alive with godly amounts of magic could phase out of reality (enter the mists) to reach other universes. Now, with PoF and season 4 they threw those constraints out the window. The mists has ghosts with agency who can travel to Tyria and impact it. You can die, and come back from the mists. It pretty much behaves now as a tool to circumvent death, rather than the interesting "fantasy version of outer space" that it used to be. They had to write Kralkatorrik so that he was literally eating the mists in order to introduce any kind of tension, because death was not a consequence (and arguably still wasn't because ghosts were just evacuating the mists back into Tyria...). There was potential to have a setting where the mists were an amalgamation of the histories of multiple universes, and they could still do that, but there's no way to take it seriously given how it was used in the rest of the game.

It's probably better not to solicit feedback if you ignore the feedback and go full steam ahead with the changes anyway.

In my mind, a new set of elite specs is the healthiest thing they could do to the game.No game has perfect balance. This game will never have perfect balance, and it wouldn't have perfect balance even if elite specs were never invented.Gameplay variety is well worth the expense of balance. See: Path of Exile. Players like choice and theory-crafting. Many players even like using sub-par meme builds. GW2's combat system is excellent, to the extent that a new wave of elite specs can refresh every type of content in the game. Heart of Thorns and Path of Fire completely busted WvW and SPvP, which is exactly what this game needs right now.New elite specs bring new raid and fractal-viable builds, refreshing both of those types of content. While new elite specs do require new art and audio, I think people are vastly overestimating that cost compared to the rest of the game. Take a look at every living world release in season 3 and 4, and even in Bound by Blood, and it's clear that ArenaNet have never skimped on art and audio. Their releases are almost fully voice-acted, with new sound effects (many foleyed) and tons of new texture work. Compare the new art and effects that elite specs have gotten, and it's totally dwarfed by what we've seen in the story content. There's probably more voice work involved in recording a single episode of living world than there is in recording player character VO for all nine elite specs for five races and two sexes. The barrier to more elite specs is probably mechanical rather than artistic. I think it's the most-needed feature in the game right now though.

Faceting seems weird for a few reasons though.1) If they later introduce a stat type that matches one of your facets, it'll feel like a waste of resources.2) Jewelcrafting shouldn't be faceting armour or weapons. It's not a discipline made for those things.3) There are no circumstances I can see in which I would actually want to pay whatever the cost is to facet something. You're juggling a few stat points around, but not by much. Certainly not enough to change your playstyle.

My point here doesn't really add anything, but I gotta say it's super interesting when members of the narrative team talk about the story with players. And the community over on reddit seems to think the same thing. Obviously there's an embargo on this for spoilers, but after a grace period... it's good to see.

Friendly reminder that the function gyro has so little health that it dies to passive arena damage in raids, making it just about useless. And another friendly reminder that, despite the function gyro being nearly useless, you've now attached Detection Pulse to a utility skill. The only time Detection Pulse has any use in PvE is against Smokescales. So if a PvE Scrapper wishes to provide condition cleanses, they're now more or less foregoing two out of five tool belt skills. One more friendly reminder that Bulwark Gyro does not actually draw damage from allies against most strike damage. I'm actually not sure it works against any sources of damage any more. Scrapper is in a very poor state, design and bug-wise. This should have been done more elegantly. Detection Pulse should have been added to Function Gyro as part of the Expert Examination trait, which currently sees no use in any mode.

Apparently the people in underleveled gear who play the game while watching TV. The strike should've been Freezie level difficult...but maybe it'll progress well. We can hope.(Although to really do so, the game also needs to take time to explain or tell people of potentiol roles. Or the play how you want crowd will never consider adapting their build. Freezie 100% should have been the template for strikes. I was shocked at how perfectly balanced it was as a middle point between the rest of the game and a real raid boss, and the thought of having more of those to ramp people into raids was great. It required no roles, but had randomly-targeted fail-able mechanics. It also had reward skins with a decent enough drop rate that people wanted to do it. Strikes don't necessarily need to stress defense or damage. But they do need to stress mechanical accountability. Maybe they intend to develop Icebrood Construct going towards episode 1 so that it becomes comparable to Freezie, but right now it does nothing to make players better at the game. Players can improve, but you need to challenge them. There has to be a risk of failure. I remember back when Heart of Thorns came out. The open world zones were incredibly deadly, and the meta events were hard. Now, they're not. People got better at the game because it challenged them. Vale Guardian on launch was something insurmountable and intimidating for nearly everyone. People are better now and pug it.

With the current strike in its current state, I do not see them as a good idea.I hope they prove me wrong, but there's nothing in the Icebrood Construct that couldn't be fulfilled as something else. It's extremely easy, and could have been a world boss. The strike itself could have been a fractal instead. Or it could have been a raid boss as part of a new wing. The weird thing is that it's not hard enough right now to fit in with any of those. World bosses are harder. Event champions are more dangerous. Fractals (even T1) are harder. Raids are harder. Even open world events and story instances are harder. I'm not sure who this strike was made for. It offers reward skins, but the drop rates are so low that it's not worth the time.

I still feel like replacing Chemical Field with Detection Pulse in all modes is a big design misstep. Stealth detection has no use in PvE. Why would you make this change? Why not make function gyro emit a detection pulse when Expert Examination (https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Expert_Examination) is slotted? This trait already sees no use anywhere in the game.It feels quite shortsighted to replace a poor skill with a stealth detection skill in all modes. There are cases in PvE where AoE condition cleanse is useful, but now it comes at the expense of a tool belt skill in a spec that already forcefully replaces your elite tool belt skill.

Turrets don't make sense because they don't scale with stats (except Flame Turret), they don't gain boons but do gain conditions, they do not body-block projectiles, and they have larger than normal hitboxes. And ArenaNet will not make them useful because people can use them to afk farm.

In my mind, engineer needs three major changes.1) Another power off-hand option, maybe a mace. It's silly that Holosmith only has a main-hand power weapon, when you look at something like Spellbreaker which launched with both main and off-hand dagger skills. If you want to use the spec's weapon (which is power-based) you have to settle for a condi off-hand or a defensive off-hand even though the spec is obviously fully offensive. 2) Elixirs need to be reworked as less of a selfish option, and more of a supportive option so that an engineer can provide better boons for allies. Holosmith can already provide selfish might generation with the forge, making HGH kinda... not great, and it doesn't allow you to provide competitive might to allies through throwing elixirs anyway. 3) Complete turret rework. Just tear them out completely and replace them with a different type of skill. The last time they were seriously changed was prior to HoT, and it was to massively nerf them into unusability. They don't fit in the game any more. Maybe replace turrets with "mecha-signets"? While off cooldown, the engineer can passively fire off turret shots under specific conditions. Activating a mecha signet places a supportive beacon that periodically loads nearby allies with a turret charge. For example:[Mecha Signet] Rifle Signet.Passive: Load a rifle charge every 3s. On critical hit, unleash a piercing round and consume the charge.Active: Deploy a Rifle Beacon that loads a Rifle Charge into nearby allies immediately, and once again every 6s.Max Charges: 2Max Allied Charges: 1Duration: 12sCooldown: 24sMax allied targets: 5 [Mecha Signet] Medical Signet.Passive: Load a med charge every 5s. When you perform a combo finisher, heal yourself and consume the charge.Active: Deploy a Medical Beacon that loads a med charge into nearby allies immediately, and once again every 10s.Max Charges: 2Max Allied Charges: 1Duration: 20sCooldown: 40s [Mecha Signet] Thumper Signet.Passive: Load a thumper charge every 10s. When you target an enemy with a blowout, knockback, pull or stun, release an aftershock that damages and dazes nearby enemies (PvP split: cripples instead of inflicting knockback)Active: Deploy a Thumper Beacon that loads a thumper charge into nearby allies immediately, and once again every 20s.Max Charges: 2Max Allied Charges: 1Duration: 40sCooldown: 80s

The claim that ArenaNet manually changes the price of gems isn't really a far-fetched conspiracy.The gem/gold exchange isn't a market. You never choose how much to sell your gems or gold for. So the prices have to be driven by something else that isn't the market, most likely some algorithm that they have control over.

I have a few points / questions / concerns on these engineer notes. Holographic Shockwave: Is this range reduction only happening in WvW? If it's also affecting PvE, that'll be a huge bummer as this skill is great for CCing lots of mobs to get a breather. At 300 range there won't be much of a reason to ever use it because there are better (and cheaper) forge skills to use at extremely close range, like Corona Burst, Photon Blitz, or even just auto attacks. I'd rather see some sort of counterplay in PvP rather than a range reduction. Or making it no longer guaranteed to crit in PvP. Impact Savant: Thank you for looking at having this apply to condition damage. Base engineer contains tons of condition damage options which Scrapper seems to throw out the window. Chemical Field: PLEASE don't replace this with detection pulse, especially if you intend for Scrapper to be able to gain barrier from condition damage!Instead, please consider reworking the Expert Examination (https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Expert_Examination) trait to grant Detection Pulse as a proc instead, or to have the trait add a Detection Pulse to Function Gyro. That trait is already unused everywhere, and by replacing a tool belt skill with detection pulse, you're basically throwing away one of the Scrapper's tool belt skills in PvE. This is not good. By reworking the trait instead of replacing Chemical Field, you also allow a PvP scrapper to play anti-stealth without also forcing them into a supportive build. Which is good because Impact Savant requires the scrapper to play offensively to capitalize on it.

Only piece of feedback I have is for engineer: I have an issue with this. Detection Pulse is essentially a pvp-only skill, which means as an engineer you're losing a toolbelt skill by taking Purge Gyro in pve.Instead, could you please replace the Expert Examination trait with some sort of Detection Pulse proc instead? https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Expert_Examination This trait is pretty much unused everywhere. Reworking that trait to be something like "Critically hitting a stealthed foe releases a Detection Pulse (30s CD)" gives scrappers a pvp-focused option, rather than replacing a toolbelt skill with something useless outside of pvp.

Well. I've gone and tested this in the PvP lobby (with people getting hit by the dummy foes) and in open world. In either case, people getting hit by attacks with the bulwark gyro buff are not having any damage redirected. So this skill just flat-out doesn't do the thing it's supposed to do.

I've tested this in the aerodrome. Allies affected by bulwark gyro aren't redirecting damage to me. In open world, I'm not seeing any redirected damage in the combat log. Has anyone else managed to see this skill actually working?

The most prestigious title in the game is "Crabgrabber". Grabbing crabs is far more impressive than killing kings.

These engineer changes make no sense... You say scrapper's specialty should be durability, but then make it so you lose 300 vitality (and thus 1500 max barrier) by choosing the spec. What's the thought process for this? Also, why do holosmiths now lose access to toolbelt skills when overheated? Is the self-damage not enough of a penalty? It's not only a massive nerf -- it also would make the spec way less interesting to play as. The tool belt is the engineer's main profession mechanic. This would be comparable to having an elite spec mechanic lock out virtues, or shatters, or arbitrarily disabling the necromancer shroud, or emptying initiative. There's an entire engineer trait line devoted to the tool belt. This is silly. If you don't want holosmiths to be using core tool belt skills in their rotation, then replace the belt with something else entirely, and give holosmiths off-hand sword skills. Otherwise, this reads like you just don't want to deal with balancing the spec and would rather remove core aspects from it.

Testimonials from anonymous players makes it sound like you're cherry-picking. At the end of the day, you guys need to advertise content. Advertising just the story is not going to work. The one issue common among almost all GW2 marketing is that it's advertising the story. For existing GW2 players and those who have been invested in the franchise, story trailers are what we want. But story trailers do nothing to attract new players. To put it bluntly, people outside the GW2 community have no idea what content was added with LWS3. Nobody aside from current players know that LWS3 added six zones, or the fractals or raid wings. Almost all of them assume LWS3 is just story instances in existing places, because the trailers don't tell them otherwise. Every time you put out a living world release from now on, you should really be clear what it contains. You need to show footage of the new map each time one comes out. When you make a new fractal, it needs to be in the trailer. When you make a new raid wing, it needs to be in the trailer. And you need to tell everyone exactly what these things are in terms that new players will understand. AND you need to tell everyone what the rewards are for this content. Yes, this spoils things somewhat, but it's absolutely essential to sell the product to new players. The last point is unfortunate, since rewards are often stingy, and it's rare that new armour sets are released through gameplay. You may be SOL on that point but you still need to take the rest of the points seriously. Tell everyone exactly what's being released every time.Tell it in terms that players new to GW2 but familiar with MMOs or RPGs will understand.Tell everyone what rewards they can receive from playing the content. Feature lists. People need feature lists.FEATURE LISTS. -- My last point is sort of about marketing and sort of about monetization. I don't know your finances so it's worth keeping this separate, but you may need to consider biting the bullet and bundling living story seasons with the expansions. As in, if you own HoT you get season 3, and if you own PoF you get season 4, full stop. I've shown people the game and gotten them interested enough to buy the expansions, but not being able to participate in the living world zones that were released in the past is a huge deterrent. To put it bluntly, it sucks to see people buy Heart of Thorns and then be disappointed that they can't visit Bloodstone Fen, any of the Ring of Fire island chain, or return to Orr. These things were a continuation of the Heart of Thorns story and are a requirement for Path of Fire to make any sense whatsoever. It's not good to have those content gaps behind additional upsells. I know the original intent was to get people to log in, but it feels more like a punishment for joining too late than it does a reward for being active.