suialthor.7164

It may be per build for every character. Running multiple builds with the same relic, we either move it manually after switching build templates or we need more relics to compensate. Each character multiplied by the number of build templates is a large number of relics.

Open World Legendary Armor: Good idea. The PvP and WvW sets only require time. The same is mostly true for the raid set if you are willing to hammer away at it with training groups. The only part that is challenging is the achievements for Deimos and to a lesser degree Cairn. If I get the expansion the new designs are good enough that I might build a set just to unlock the skin. Easier Skyscale: Skyscale was more annoying than fun to earn. Again, good idea. Things should be fun. More Weapon Choices for All: This interests me enough to maybe get the expansion instead of waiting to see if the low number of maps are any good. Runes and Relics: Good concept with horrible execution. When is the last time you heard someone excited about farming for runes? It sucks. Sometimes it felt like punishment. Yet people do it because they want the bonus. In the announcement they even mentioned various requirements etc.. so its just another gating mechanic. Go suffer in order to get something fun. The best part of making legendary runes was no longer having to do specific farms in order to get the set bonus anytime I wanted to try something new. Now they remove the best part and add kitten farms in order to get it back in the form of a relic.

Many runes share the same base stats so that is a minor QoL. The bonus was unique and often required farming specific areas to obtain it (for non legendary runes). The bonus offered the primary QoL incentive to invest so much time/effort.

I appreciate the goal of splitting runes and relics. But adding a new hamster wheel for those of us who invested in legendary runes is disrespectful of our efforts. Also, from your news post: All of your news today made a big emphasis on wanting players to have more fun and do what they enjoy. This statement is the exact opposite of what you claim unless you mean that all relics will be available through all possible sources. Otherwise what you are rally saying is that is okay for relics to require specific farms that might require doing something you actively hate. Did you learn nothing from locking existing runes behind content?

Releasing meta events in parts discourages me from playing. The first half has to be repeated for a chance to reach the second part. Might as well wait until everything is released or face the high chance of burnout. If the first half is bad, then there is nothing to look forward to in the second part. Who wants suffer though something they don't enjoy for the chance that it might improve? Better off waiting to do it all at once. With the new content cycle that may mean waiting until everything is released or possible just skipping a "mini expansion" because so much of it is bad. The mask mechanic serves no purpose other than annoy us. It might be acceptable if there was a mastery. As is the mask mechanic interferes with fun. It is one of the worst ideas I've seen in a while. Separate the explore time and the meta time. If we are getting fewer maps then we need to be able to enjoy them outside of the meta. Dragons end had the explore first but that was bad because of the overall time requirement in order to get a decent group. This one flips that, which is also bad because by the time the meta is done the last thing I want to do is spend more time on the map. If you insist on split increments then have a full reset/close between explore and meta. (I've already completed the map so the issue isn't completing the meta, but the time sink) The map is exhausting. Please avoid slow drawn out fights/mechanics, constant repetition (go collect orbs), etc... The mid and final fight are boring. Turtles are slow, so try not to force their use so much. (occasional use can be good) Provide a reasonable amount of keys. New players lack the stock pile of materials to burn through to buy keys.

There are people better suited to discuss the balance aspects. But I will add that I'm in agreement with those complaining about the animation/audio changes. 😞

For so many words, very little was actually said.

Engi rifle 1 style/animation is a fun change of pace. (how it feels, others can discuss balance) Hopefully a few more under utilized weapons will get changes to make them feel more enjoyable. The actual "balance" parts of the patch is about as bad as expected after reading the patch notes. Warrior is perhaps worse than expected to the point of wondering how it received so much development, testing, etc... and still gets delivered in its current state. How did so many people think this was a positive and enjoyable change? This is so bad I would enjoy reading a case study of how it fell through the cracks.

You make things worse for some classes/specs, and players simply have to wait a few months and hope it gets addressed so they can have fun again?

I hate anything that limits dodge or turns dodge into a rotation. If they want to "get creative" with dodge then it needs to be done in a way that is completely optional.

EoD looks "pretty." But I enjoyed the other two expansions, and most of the living seasons, more than EoD. The map design in the two middle zones is awful. If you have to memorize everything to navigate it without a map, then it is poorly designed. Sure it might be fun to explore but that is a one time thing. The focus should be on making it enjoyable for extended use. Adding more distinct visual elements would go a long way to solving this. Big maps (with the exception of the last one) should not have contested waypoints. With the exception of the last map, all the others need at least 1 more waypoint if not 2. Story needs to remove all the RP walking and unavoidable dialog that takes so long I often step away form the computer. It was okay the first time. After that it is a waste of time. At least give us an option to skip it after we complete the story on another character. It was bad before EoD but in this expansion it seems so much worse. The last meta is a two hour event if you expect to get into a decent group. That is a huge portion of an evening after work. Remove the preparation phase (this is the equivalence of your commute to work) and make it a farm phase. Then the map resets for the meta where you earn buffs as you progress across the map. If they want to keep the difficulty in the last meta then let it be something we can queue for as a premade squad. Otherwise design for less than optimized groups. Many of the new elites are disappointing. To many of the renown hearts are boring due to lack of combat options. I'm fine with giving pacifist options. But please do not make that the only reasonable method. Again it was annoying before, but seems worse in EoD.

Open world content should be doable with open world builds. If it requires fine tuning subgroups etc.. then it should be instanced. This map would be fine if we could queue as a premade group and avoid random players from joining. Then leave a nerfed version for the open world meta.

So we agree that skills should cover the basics. However, this isn't about raw damage like most people in this thread assume. Before breakbars the utility skills could offer some flexibility in your fighting style. Now it feels like utilities (in open world) focus almost exclusively to balance defiance break from your weapons. It would be nice to change out the utility skills to add some flavor.

You do realize there are skills that help with mobility and defense? Even if adding "deeps" you should consider your weapons and decide on AoE, single target, etc... But if I have to dedicate 1 or 2 for breakbars (due to low cc on weapons) then the third is usually a stun break that doesn't sound very flexible to me.

The focus on breakbars has limited some of the flexibility in my open world builds. This is largely due to weapons having different levels of crowd control. So it forces my use of other skills to compensate instead of adding flexibility in fighting style. I wish they would rebalance weapons with breakbars in mind. And it would be nice to see the damage boosted in some of the ones that underperform.

The first time through is okay. But once starting on a second character a few things are annoying. Would be nice if they could add the following: Skips for all the slow escorts and scripted speeches while doing story missions. After having completed it once. Add reasonable combat options for all renown hearts. Having pacifist options is fine but it is so painfully boring after the first time. To be fair add pacifist options to the other hearts. Add a few more way points, especially in Echovald, after map completion on 1 character. I want to play, not spend all my time traveling or memorizing maps. Also I don't understand why the fishing level in the starting zones (core game) are so high.

Do void mobs spawn anywhere other than the event near Teleri Village?

There should be an a high survival, lower damage, build available for all classes in open world. Just like there should be high damage and lower survival builds. Having a choice in gameplay is nice. Removing sustain discourages me from playing some condi builds in open world. Lack of choices is boring.

Water proof the mech Move kits to the second set of weapons (no longer a skill) where we are limited to 1 being active. This allows us to use all of the trinkets (that work well together) and have some flexibility on the weapons. Otherwise we're screwed while the Mech is dead.

The endurance juggling to make dodge functional is what I hate most about the spec.

Moving the attack to an F utility (keeping normal dodges) would be good.

Melee isn't working. The 600 range isn't enough. The class is simply to squishy. A simple to play power based 900 yard range elite spec would have been an easy win for you. Short bow would have been fine. If you are determined to stick with hammer then the traits need to massively buff survivability. Then make all of the elements the same distance so you can balance it correctly. Plus reduce some of the complexity. There are plenty of other options for "playing piano."

Sword feels a little better. F3 is an acceptable band aid The whole opposite legend thing is a bad concept because it means Vindicators are actively avoiding half of what they will be balanced around. Dodge mechanic and juggling endurance to this degree isn't fun. F2 is boring because juggling endurance isn't fun Traits are boring due to endurance juggling and/or making dodge into a rotation The game endlessly spams us with reasons to dodge. Making it less accessible and/or part of a rotation isn't fun.

Or let us trade in Transcendence for the material costs.

You identified good issues. However, you seem to have difficulty understanding that if gameplay focuses on avoiding half of your elite spec there might be a problem. Does it sound fun to say hey just work around these skills we created since they are useless without proper stat support? This is complication for no reason other than to be complicated. Which feeds into point 3 because you will be balanced around those extra abilities. Btw, please make that dodge replacement a spec option. Juggling endurance on top of working around half of your elite spec does not sound fun.