Jaykay.9641

Initial impressions on design: Trait and Mechanic Design F2 needs a different mechanic or addition. The ability just feels unrewarding when using outside Legendary Alliance. I feel almost punished for using it any other stance. Idea for change at the end of feedback. Adept traits are another feelsbad design moment outside of Alliance stance. There are 2 traits that directly affect Legendary Alliance stance and the only other option is a 90 sec ICD in PvP that will be mandatory if you don't want to use Legendary Stance. Balance in Discord is nice Legend swap idea but yet again, another benefit to ONLY Alliance stance? Why are we being punished for not using Legendary Stance? Song of Arboreum and Saint of zu Heltzer synergy is real. It will be lots of dodge with this combo and will be really good. Like a 5 sec CD between dodges. IMO, the design of traits around Legendary Alliance is frustrating as a player. It limits customization and build crafting. Renegade has a meta PvP build with Jalis/Shiro and doesn't use Renegade stance. I think this is good design and should be a design goal for all professions. F2 Mechanic Suggestion Unexpected Alliance - F2 now grants 50 energy and 1 free Legend Swap without a cooldown. Using Unexpected Alliance while in Legendary Alliance Stance will instead flip utility skills. This will allow players to use Vindicator without Alliance stance by "flipping" Legends for free without cooldown similar to how it is now for Alliance stance. This will create some fun plays with the free legend swap. Will probably have more feedback after some more testing in PvP.

Was thinking the same thing. Being stuck using staff for almost every PvP/WvW roaming build is frustrating and now it seems we might be able to shed that weapon. I can definitely see GS/Sword/Axe as a weapon set now. We have a built in block and mobility in GS now to match other professions (*cough* Ranger *cough*). Also, Alliance legend gives a built in cleanse/healing/mobility for sustain that Staff provided as well. Finally, offhand sword was almost mandatory for damage since Staff didn't have much. Don't forget that we can get even more mobility with offhand axe and Axe 4 (Frigid Blitz) has a decent power coefficient at 1.5 so it can do some damage in it's own right. So my prediction: Alliance/Shiro GS/Sword/Axe will become a viable Roamer for WvW and sPvP while also providing a new power Zerg build with Hammer/GS and Dodge damage spam. I have concerns with Alliance F2 (I'll have some feedback on that in official thread when it launches), but I'm exciting for Vindicator!

As @Za Shaloc.3908 mentioned, the Serene Rejuvenation design seems to be the past way Devs designed the traits to coincide with specific Legend utilities. I could write an essay on how this is poor design choice, but it's where were at. Imo, the issue isn't Serene Rejuvenation per se, but it's the design of the talents themselves. We are given three distinct play styles that coincides with top, middle, and bottom traits. In a way, Salvation traits don't actually give you a choice, you select talents based a specific game mode and deviating from the trait rows almost puts you at a disadvantage. To top it off, when 1/3 of the traits are given to a poor mechanic in Healing Orbs, it limits the choice and design space even further. I'm exciting for Vindicator testing and I will definitely have some feedback, but I'm already frustrated with some of the existing traits lines in Rev's kit (such as Salvation traits). I'm going to try my best to not let that affect my feedback but it's always going to be in the back of my mind.

Whatever the build and due to the one dodge mechanic plus players having experience with Mirage, we'll see some staple gear used for a lot of the builds that come up: Energy sigils Superior Rune of the Adventurer Bowl of Orrian and Truffle Meat Stew or Holographic Super Cake and my personal favorite - Stamina Sigils (going to be so fun WvW zerg bombing this!) If you don't have legendary runes or sigils, may want to get these now. Very good chance these go up in price starting tomorrow 🙂

Sorry I'm late to this thread. Haven't been keeping up. I've been waiting for new Rev info to look at forums and that came today. So this thread may get buried amid the flurry of attention the new Vindicator teaser trailer, but just wanted to give some attention to this thread as it is important. I've been trying myself to make a Hammer rev roaming build work, but it's challenging. I feel like Shiro/Jalis is almost necessary bc of mobility of Shiro and the CC from Jalis to set up your bombs. I'm trying to get away from Staff as it's almost necessary in roaming builds, but you need a defensive weapon somewhere so I've been experimenting with Herald with Hammer/Sword/Shield but not using Glint. So I've been trying Shiro/Jalis with Berserker gear and a couple pieces of Knight for toughness on Back piece and Amulet. With Speed Runes, HP hits 20k because of Herald 10% hp and your at around 2500 armor and I can still hit the 2400 power, 50% crit w/o fury and 200% ferocity. With speed runes, I've found it easier to kite unless you run into Speed Reaper or Superspeed Scrapper. I'm still debating on traits. Invocation is the usual (like most Rev builds) but I like Retribution in other slot bc I can flex into Weakness synergy or Resolution might building. The issue with Resolution is that Shiro/Jalis have high Elite energy costs. But as Shao said, Your not spamming Weapon abilities on Hammer so you sometimes have an abundance of energy. Devastation would be the other option for Damage because you can get might and quickness, but I've been using the Strength Runes for might generation and missing out on the quickness. Simple version of build I've been running is here I can go on and on about this topic, but I'll end with these thoughts: I think I'm going to revive an old Hammer redesign thread that someone posted months ago about turning Hammer into a duelist weapon while still retaining the WvW zerg abilities. I'd like to hear more thoughts in that. I'll wait till after the beta. Finally, the new Vindicator trailer may open up some options for Roaming Hammer Rev as it looks likes a Greatsword/utilities will give mobility and defense which will help Roaming hammer Rev as you won't have to slot Staff in 2nd weapon for defense. Can't wait for the beta. We'll have more answers soon.

Looks like combination of some Reaper, Warrior, and Ranger greatsword abilities in the trailer. You can see the Reaper Gravedigger and Death Spiral animations and even Ranger Greatsword block animation after the Graverdigger ability. Hard to tell which abilities are from legends or the weapon, but looks like we're getting everything we've been asking for: a mobile, high damage AoE weapon with some defense built in. Anyway to have a PvP build not have to be forced to use Staff is a win in my book.

18 months. That's how long it's been since the massive competitive balance updates of Feb 25th, 2020 that brought a ton of changes. Changes this drastic probably need many, many months of iteration and testing to get it right. Ironically, just a few weeks later on March 12th, 2020, we were given our first tease that ANet was working on the new expansion. In hindsight, this should have been the first indication that balance was probably going to be a back-burner topic until EoD was released. While we have had multiple competitive balance patches and even a "pre-EoD skills and profession" balance patch in May 2021(this was basically a PvE - raid/fractal balance patch), it still feels like it's a topic that Anet is struggling to keep on top of with issues and design choices that are still not resolved today. One of the changes that was introduced was heavily increased ICDs of "automatic" traits. Many traits across many professions were slapped with 300 internal CDs in a way to discourage players picking these talents until the specific talents would be reworked. Well, 18 months later, still no fixes. I understand COVID and EoD development affected the studio, but it also affected everyone else too. So I don't see this as an excuse anymore since everyone had to deal with it and I think it's time for some answers. I know many players are having fun testing out the new beta E-Specs. I'm also glad to see some progress in moving forward to EoD as well. But in the back of my mind, I feel ANet missed a big opportunity to update all of the 300 sec ICD and plain, poor talents and skills in the game to reflect the new expansion. Why is the beta design process not taking this in to account? Is Anet OK with the current Beta test strategy knowing there are so many talents/weapons/utilities that should NEED to be reworked? Will players get frustrated testing and theorycrafting with the current skills and traits but only to some traits/skills changed at launch? Is Anet collecting correct data knowing that these traits need to be changed? @Cal Cohen.2358@Josh Davis.7865 - (pinging these two as they seem to be the most involved with balance) So what's the plan? What is the direction you intend to take balance of Traits, Weapons skills, and utilities that seem to need changes? Why are we still in the position of 300 sec ICDs? What's the direction of CC skills having next to no damage even if it's an extremely hard to land skillshot (ex. Drop the Hammer. I'm a Rev main so I'm biased)? So many topics that players have had over the 18 months that still aren't resolved. Again, I know you guys are busy with working on the expansion; priorities are after all, priorities. But I would just like to know what the plan is moving forward and why aren't the topics listed above priorities. I think as a community, we're due for some communication and clarity on these topics. Thanks.

So wait... Still no changes to the 300 sec CD traits in competitive modes? When will these be changed?

I agree. We could finally see a true full ranged condi Mesmer with staff/Scepter/X Virtuoso. We obviously don't know talents yet, but I could see stealth utilities and talents (Prismatic Understanding, Escape Artist) being very useful for Virtuoso and it's repositioning. Similar to Trapper Rune DH, the Virtuoso could potentially cast from stealth their F skills to hide their new cast times. Also, might see a good use of Escape Artist now that it gives a blade stock instead of spawning a clone.

Malicious Sorcery - Make attack speed of scepter baseline and add something else to the 20% CD reduction (ideas could be 2nd charge of skill 2 or 3, increased ranged to 1200, etc. These examples might be OP, but they are just examples) Phantasmal Force - Creating an illusion grants 1 stack of might; Illusions deal increased strike damage for each stack of might you currently have Mental Defense - Reduce CD drastically or remove; would like a mantra CD reduction trait or gain some form of previous benefits from Mantras before the cast time was removed Chaotic Transference - Please, please, please! change this from Chaos Armor to Chaos Aura. "granting Chaos Aura gives protection" . This can open up other ways of getting protection instead of press Staff 4 when the other staff talent in Chaos is better in almost every way. Desperate Decoy - lower CD or change. It's really easy to waste the stealth because the stealth can surprise you and then you attack knocking you out of stealth. Phantasmal Fury - Add swiftness or might to the fury and let it do all illusions. Player already has permanent fury from Master Fencer; so more Phantasm boons are needed to get some sort of value from Persistence of Memory. Phantasmal Warlock - just change already. This skill is bad. My main complaints are from some poor talent options and too many traits that say phantasm instead of illusions or clones. I think streamlining most of these to say illusions would make things simpler and less confusing for new players. Agree with most of everything said already.

Sorry, late to this thread.... Wanted to respond to this and this is in the name of fun. Celestial Renegade has been seeing an increase in play in roaming and small scale, so this is a good place to bring this up. Revenant Protective Solace on Ventari Stance can give a permanent projectile block dome. The CD is 5 secs after deactivation and only uses 6 pips per sec (so -1 of neutral). You can maintain this indefinitely with Ancient Echo energy gain on Core Rev (Ancient Echo provides 20 energy on a 20 sec CD which is the exact amount of energy Protective Solace uses over 20 sec). You can also get wild and use Replenishing Despair Trait in Corruption line which gives you a free energy pip, which will allow Protective Solace to be up 100% without needing to gain energy at the cost of a giving Torment to yourself every sec. While it's not a reflect, this a way to give 100% block uptime vs any projectile based damage. Obviously this is very niche, but it is doable. *Edit - Protective Solace and Ventari's will are also instant cast (Side note fun fact - Runes of Tormenting actually heal yourself if you give torment to yourself when using the Replenishing Despair trait, lessening some of the damage you do to yourself)

Summoning Necro for this thread.... Just wanted to bring attention to this build as it is seeing some play in WvW. In fact, @Vallun.2071 even made a guide on it for his YouTube channel. Video can be seen here - Ventari is Viable . There's some minor changes like sigils, runes, and food, but everything else is spot on. With a combination of Celestial stats still dominating roaming and the current state of shortbow, I don't see this build going away any time soon. Well done @Za Shaloc.3908. You've created a monster 🙂 Personal rant: I love theorycrafting and fringe builds, but this build highlights my 4 least favorite things that I dislike about Revenant. First, Core Rev is the only core profession that lacks a ranged dueling weapon (No hammer is not a dueling weapon, it's an AoE zerg weapon). Shortbow fixes all of these issues. Second, Salvation trait lines are so 1 dimensional; you usually take all the talents in a row that corresponds typically to a game mode. Third, maybe 2A, Salvation trait line usually gets limited value unless you use Ventari Legend. Finally, the reliance on Invocation trait line and Rapid Flow for swiftness. Core Rev is the only profession that gets it's ONLY source of swiftness from a trait, not a weapon ability or utility. It's probably intentional design, but Rapid Flow really limits trait lines for Core and Renegade, and most likely the new E-Spec if there is no source of swiftness on it's utilities or new weapon. (I try my hardest to refrain from using Invocation that for my personal Renegade build, I've resorted to running Celestial stats with Speed Runes and double Sigil of Agility for the perma Swiftness uptime. But this can be used by profession) So while I love the build, and it's even mentioned in the OP that talents are predictable, I just wish some more care was taken in the design of these things. /end rant

I think Siege Turtle would be an awesome addition to a stale WvW scene. There obviously would have to be some restrictions in place to not make it just an on-demand catapult. Some possible ideas to make it feasible in WvW: Make it so the Turtle can only do damage to Structural Vulnerability targets. Can add it to walls if needed via a catapult trait. This way other siege blueprints would be needed. Any player wanting to spawn their Turtle needs to build up a supply first and can only be used once and upon kill, your use of Turtle is done until you get enough supply again; you can call it a "stocked" blueprint. (Example: a player can choose to "stock" a Turtle use at the supply depot for 30 supply or whatever it is. Then player can spawn the Turtle when they desire but cannot use it again until they have another "stocked" up Turtle use. Being killed or destroyed removes their charge. This may lead to a bunch of drained supply depots all over the map, but players would learn) While it's call "Siege" Turtle, maybe make it only available to hit players and NPC's. This will give more damage options against zergs and defenders. Speed is key - an arrow cart should be able to take it down with ease as it shouldn't be able to outmaneuver the arrow carts AoE's. Give Warclaw a counter Siege Turtle ability? Maybe the Warclaw skill 3 would be able to be used on Turtles a well to cause damage. Visions of Star Wars where an AT-AT gets corralled by X-Wings with harpoon guns and topples over come to my head. (very low chance something like this happens, but its sounds fun) Anyway, we know elite specializations will bring a new meta, but Turtles may still be fun :)

Regarding gameplay: Will there be another major profession balance patch? Or are the current traits and weapon skills the versions we'll see for EoD Launch? This is my biggest concern as the "big" May balance patch didn't really do anything to address the any bad traits in the game, including the 300 sec CD traits in competitive modes. Also, some lesser used weapons need to be updated.

Imo, I think staff is part of the issue, but not because of it's mechanics. The only ability on Necro staff that got adjusted with the Feb '20 nerf patch was Staff 1 auto (and Staff 5 fear lost it's damage as well, but most CC's lost damage.) Staff 2,3,and 4 were not changed at all during that patch. How does this happen? Mark of Blood a 5 sec CD when most weapon 2 skills are around 8 sec CD now, Chillblains giving 4 sec of Chill every 16 sec and Putrid Mark transfers Condis and still has a 1.32 modifier - none of it changed. Staff wasn't the only thing not touched though: Vampiric Aura, Spinal Shivers (really big offender imo with 5 sec of chill and crazy damage scaling), Soul Battery (maybe needs a reduction to 10-15%, or reduce some life force percentage gains on weapons). While there's other reasons, targeting these unchanged things may be a good starting point.

I'm very late to this thread, but I wanted to dump some thoughts on WvW from my perspective. 1. Rewards It's been discussed many times, but I tend to play PvP more than WvW because the reward structure in PvP accommodates my time commitments better. This example is taken from another thread, but I like it. It's unfortunate that if I spend 10 hours in WvW over 5 week will get me less rewards than if all 10 hours were spent in 1 week. in PvP, I can play when time allows and still work toward the last chest rewards over 2 months. In WvW, it's play as much as you can in 1 week and repeat. The other thing I don't like is that I lose the Commitment Pip if I decide to take a week vacation which then increases time for the following week I need to get to max chest. Solution: My ideal solution would be to go toward a WvW season like they do in PvP. So each 2 month season you can play when you can and still get toward the max repeatable chests. Obviously, chest rewards/pips/etc acquisition would have to be adjusted. Then after the 2 month season, Anet can change Alliance/Server populations and start a new season a couple weeks later. In between the seasons, they have special WvW events and call them like "Mist Anomalies" where we can have the no downstate event, extra reward boosts, and experiment with potential WvW changes to see if they would work long term (ideas could be: No target cap anomaly - where all healing and damage abilities have no target caps, Increased siege damage anomaly, increased base movement speed anomaly, etc.) Anet can be creative here between seasons and see what the community enjoys. Then every 2 months, we have a new anomaly between seasons, we have a new anomaly. Anomalies that make the game mode better could be put into the game permanently. Second part to my solution would be to remove the last veteran pip for reaching rank 10000 and move it to a new single pip that you receive for Staying in T6 participation. Why would this help? It gives new players more changes to get much needed pips, it gives the same amount of pips for all veterans, it may help alleviate semi-AFK players hanging on to T3 for the pips, and this pip mark can be used for future rewards (more on that later). 2. Middle of Maps This is from a mainly roamer perspective, but I'd appreciate some work done on the Ruins areas of the maps. It's such a passive thing to accomplish by standing in ruins to gain Bloodlust. While the Ruins benefits and concept is great, is there anyway we can make them move desirable and consistent to fight over? This would have to be a fine balance of roamers and not so strong that zergs will come in and compete for these areas. Solution: I think just fleshing out the areas for more skirmishes would be fine. Maybe add a couple guards on the points to give a sense of your attacking something, maybe add a small amount of supply to each ruin that replenishes very slowly so siege can be deployed/built in the ruins area without massive running around. Really, I'm not sure the best approach but I'd love if the center of maps were a little more fun and interactive. 3. Sandbox Randomness I really enjoy the random events in Open World that pop up around me when traversing a map. I think WvW could use a little more of that. Escorting Dolyaks and Veteran Creatures are nice little events, but there are more possibilities for sure. Solution: Small random events off the well traversed paths could lead to make dueling, skirmishes, and rewards for adventurous players. Events like "Missing Dolyak" could be fun. A "stray" supply Dolyak could wander off into the wilderness and get slain by wolves. Players would have to kill the wolves and perform a lengthy channel to receive the loot( a long channel is key as it gives counter play to someone coming in to take it as damage stops the channel and invulnerable abilities don't last long enough. The other event I would love would be a map wide marked "bounty" something that randomly pops up and is marked for kill (the veteran creature sort of fills this niche, but it isn't very exciting to fight over). Could be a veteran or champion but rewards are given out for the kill. I like the idea of giving out a small XP, Magic Find, etc. bonus to the following skirmish if you won and a little less for 2nd place. Anything like that may help player attention if you give rewards for winning. From my point of view, I think also rewarding skirmish wins with Grandmaster Mark Shards and/or Memories of Battle could be great. Create a vendor for only GM Shards (not box of Grandmaster Marks because then you can craft them outside of WvW), Legendary Spikes, Emblems, etc. that can give special armor/weapon skins, siege skins, WvW specific outfits, etc. This will give incentive for players to win, veterans have a place to dump shards, and gives new players access to more ascended crafting materials. Also, a slight increase in Memories of Battle may help alleviate the higher price WvW'ers have to pay vs PvP'ers. Players can only get rewards for Skirmishes if they achieve a certain number of a newly created T6 pip (see above) and their Alliance/Server wins. Anyway, sorry for the wall of text. I just saw this thread and need to purge my brain of random thoughts.

Love your vids. Great content for any aspiring Mesmer PvP player. @JazzXman.7018 Question about your amulet: Is there a specific reason you run Sage amulet over something like Carrion or Wizard? I'm curious because your not using Inspiration trait line (which has other sources of healing) and your really only sources of healing are from Regen and False Oasis. Any input is appreciated. Thanks.

@Shao.7236 Do you use Rev hammer in any situation outside of WvW zerging? @Yasai.3549 created a Hammer rework thread a few months ago that focused on making Hammer more available for dueling yet still retain its zerg strength. I have to agree that it's poor for dueling and Rev is the only profession that lacks a ranged duelist weapon for core. I've had an itch to necro that thread since I think hammer does need a semi rework if it's the only core ranged weapon for Rev. Anyway, just wanted to know if you've ever had success using Hammer for WvW roaming or even - dare I say, sPvP. Any input is welcome. Thanks.

Following up on this now that patch as come: There is indeed 2 staff traits on the major Chaos line. IMO, this is unacceptable. This needs to be changed as it's really bad design. Also, Chaotic Transference (Chaos Armor grants protection when cast) only gives Protection on Staff 4. Chaos armor does not instantly grant Protection, tested this with Phase Retreat in Chaos Storm. I was hopeful, but I think we all knew it was going to be like this...

Was waiting to judge until patch dropped, but the mantra changes are terrible. Bloated CD's, Mantra of Pain isn't spam-able anymore, Mantra of distraction has same CD for charge and between casts. I don't have exact value, but Restorative Mantra trait coefficient was also nerfed ( was 1.0 previously) Really sad as I was hoping a heal/support Chrono would be viable in sPvP with the Mantra changes; something similar to Healbreaker. But not with these CD's and coefficients for the mantras. On top of that, the Chaos traitline has 2 (!!!!!!) traits on major line for the staff with Chaotic Potency and Chaotic Transference. T E R R I B L E design. Ugh.... so disappointed. Hopefully we can get a balance patch after they get data from PvP mini season and WvW XP event.

I was waiting to pass judgement to see the numbers, but yeah, they didn't change the heal value. So 3 charges of a 200 hp heal with another 500 hp heal from the block talent if you take it. What a joke. I'm hoping - H O P I N G - they take the PvP mini season and the WvW XP event to re-evaluate all the changes. So many things are not in a good state for PvP because of all the PvE changes.

Purity of Purpose should be #1 on ANet's most wanted list to change. Skill is busted and defines alot of the WvW meta. In fact, Alchemy trait line in general is plain broken OP for PvP modes. Engineers have relied on it so long, it's time to adjust it and remove the crutch. This is where I was really disappointed after I read the upcoming patch notes. I got my hopes up for expecting all of the poor performing trait lines being brought up to date and many new builds arising because of it. Firearms, Inventions, and Tools will have to wait longer :/

In regards to Core Engineer, I made a suggestion last year back in June about ways to buff Core Engi to be on par with Scrapper and Holosmith. You can find that thread HERE. Anyway, the main mechanic that Core Engi has over Scrapper and Holosmith is the Elite Toolbelt skill. The problem is that Scrapper and Holosmith F5 are straight up buffs compared to the elite toolbelt skills. Med Kit Drop on supply crate can be useful, Moa can turn a fight around, but those effects and bonuses are felt few and far between. With that said, I think the best way to bring Core Engi up to the level of the Elite Specs is to give it a free slotted Uility Kit in the F5 ability. This has multiple benefits if this were changed: Core Engi would have their F5 ability/kit available for use as much as the Elite Specs Elite Specs cannot have a free kit as they have their own unique F5 ability. This is the tradeoff that ANet is pushing on Elite Specs Gives Core Engi more types of weapon use as they are severely lacking in weapon diversity (one of the worst, if not the worst, in the game) Selecting a kit to put in the F5 slot has a tradeoff in the fact you cannot use the Toolbelt skill (ex. Healing Mist on Elixir Gun) Anet already has the tech for a drop down menu in the class mechanic skills already coded for Revenant. You can select your legends on the fly, so should work on kits for Engineer I would love to see this. Make it happen Anet!

I mainly play PvP/WvW, so from this perspective, I'm just confused/disappointed in these changes. Some thoughts: Mantras I get the reasoning why they are doing the no cast time build up change, but overall, I think this is negative effect. Unless Mantra of Pain has like a 5 sec CD for each charge, this is probably a nerf. For PvP, the cast time was a key part of counterplay, especially for Mantra of Distraction. Now enemies won't be able to interrupt the Mesmer cast time for these Mantras and overall, dumbs down the game in the name of simplicity. Staff Nice change to Chaos Armor for consistency and lower CD. Alacrity on Staff Ambush for Mirage is so weird. This seems like they intended this to be PvE oriented but will actually be quite powerful in PvP imo; especially in WvW when one dodge isn't really that much of a problem because of food and concentration (for Vigor uptime) which can be stacked through the roof in WvW. Mirages will be spitting out Clones with Phase Retreat with Alacrity. Chaos On paper this looks OK, but if I'm reading this right, it looks like they put 2 staff talents on the same tier. Chaotic Dampening: This trait has been reworked and renamed Chaotic Potency. Chaotic Potency: Gain condition damage. Gain additional condition damage while wielding a staff. Recharge of staff skills is reduced. Chaotic Transference: This trait has been reworked. Chaos Armor grants 3 seconds of protection. Gain regeneration for 5 seconds with a 15-second cooldown when gaining protection. Has this ever happened before? So if you go Chaos, on the major trait lines you have a choice between 2 staff talents. IMO, this is terrible design. I'm wondering if there is a typo on one of them and maybe they meant Chaotic Interruption to be changed instead. I'll miss the current Chaotic Transference has it really brought value to Rune of Undead. Also, I would love if the Chaos Armor talent for protection was changed to Chaos Aura for protection. This would be so awesome. Leap and Blast finishers in Ethereal fields give Chaos Aura and this could reward good players for using them for themselves or the team at critical moments. Overall, I'm disappointed in a PvP context. Hopefully they'll make some changes before launch to poor performing talents and skills/utility skills. Anyway, you'll find me rolling Celestial gear in WvW roaming now that it's broken.

Agreed. In the main patch notes thread, I made a suggestion that conversions should be Retaliation -> New Resistance; Old Resistance -> New Resolution. They're messing with some very delicate balance from Resistance as it's core to some functions (Mallyx Legend, Rune of the Revenant, Resistance Runes, etc.) I'm worried that Radiance Guardian is just going to be busted in PvP. They have loads of Retaliation which translates to loads of new Resolution. Combined with the fact they can product Light Aura on demand (10% less condi d amage AND Resolution on hit) and have some of the best condi cleanse in the game. This just sounds broken. Also, How will Light Aura stack with Resolution? Just doesn't make sense to me. I Think Light Aura giving new Resistance would be better as it lets some classes with Light Fields and leaps be more mobile (Guardian, Holo) instead of straight up condi defense.