Taril.8619

June 2, 2020

@Ovalkvadratcylinder.9365 said:
@Justine.6351 said:
@Mini Crinny.6190 said:
@Justine.6351 said:
@Mini Crinny.6190 said:
https://imgur.com/wyIDNSV
@Justine.6351
This was just now
12 revs

I'm impressed.Now you go and play hammer Rev for the month of June and get back to us here. If you go so far as to post your own vids of hammer Rev play in WvW, in a substantial way, I will finally shut the kitten up about it and admit I am a salty boy crying cause their class got nerfed.

I can't personally do that myself, i've never got the hang of recording videos and i have deleted arcdps due to crashing in wvw, I am sure there are rev players who do record or stream in wvw

All i'm saying is Hammer rev is fine, doesn't need nerfs, doesn't need buffs

I watched a kek rev and he seemed to have a lot of revs in squad so I will have to accept what you are saying regardless if I don't like it. Facts are facts I suppose.

But why wouldnt you like the fact that alot of players do play rev? isnt that the whole premis of this thread?

Because it defeats their stance that "Rev sucks in WvW because Hammer sucks"

Also, the premis of this thread is flawed "Revenant is the least played profession, here's how to buff them" implies that the only reason for Rev's low play rate is because they're UP.

If not, then it's not a particularly smart move to make something OP just to get people playing it.

In reality, the 2 least popular classes are not popular because they're simply not as fun to play - Not because they're UP (Rev sees a lot of play in PvP and PvE and apparently isn't absent in WvW (Meanwhile you look on Vabbi for Thief or Ranger WvW builds and you get an error message :p ) and Engie also sees some play in PvP, PvE and is very popular in WvW) but because their kits are clunky, utilities are boring and weapons limited (That said, Ele also has few weapons, though it at least has some variety in weapon skills. Condi builds use Fire and Earth, Power builds use Air and Fire... Water... Exists)

Meanwhile the top 2 most popular classes, Guardian and Warrior, are the opposite. Both have a number of weapon options, both have pretty smooth class mechanics (Berserker is a little iffy but Core and Spellbreaker are fine), both have nice utilities that are fun to use.

This is further evidenced by the fact that there are MORE Revs than there are Engies, but Rev has the lower playtime. Which is suggestive that people made Revs, played it, but didn't like it (Also, that some sub-section of the Engie rollers are die hard Engie mains)

June 2, 2020

@RaidsAreEasyAF.8652 said:
@"Taril.8619" said:Another thing to note is that Condi builds don't really have ramp up. Which is one of the reasons why it's so popular in PvP, a game mode that focuses heavily on bursting down players.
There are lots of Condi builds these days that can easily and quickly apply 20+ stacks of Condi's in a burst. Then their sustained damage is auto attacks that apply some weak Condi's but can also proc Condi's on crits (Earth Sigils, minor traits that apply Bleed on crit etc)
Meaning that in reality, Condi and Power builds already play similarly. Both are reliant on their skill CD rotations to apply the majority of their damage. Both lose similar DPS from lost uptime (The main difference is that any DPS tracking systems will note a Power builds DPS drop immediately, while a Condi's DPS drop will only really be noticed after the time that their auto attack applied condi's would have lasted, passes)
Since, it's not as if Condi builds need to slowly get up to high stacks of Condi's and then maintain that high stack by refreshing their duration, which would be a cause of ramp up in damage. It's simply a matter of using skills that apply many Condi's to get high stacks and re-using those skills as they come off CD meaning that the stack size doesn't really matter as ultimately it comes down to X skill does Y damage per usage just like a Power build. The only difference is Y happens over a period of time (Which doesn't matter in boss fights that last long enough for the Condi's to run their full duration, with minor damage losses towards the end of a fight)
Any perceived "Ramp Up" is just DPS tracking noticing the time taken for the first few skills to deal their full damage, which is irrelevant outside of times where target switching is required (Such as fighting trash mobs in Fractals)

I dont agree with you entirely. Classes like Firebrand dont really have a rampup due to the nature of burning. Short duration, high damage.That is different for Renegade though. Renegade needs some time to get to its full damage potential.

Not really, especially with how quickly Renegade can burst out plenty of Torment stacks with ease. Even more so when you consider Citadel Bombardment and Searing Fissure for bunches of short duration burns.

Not to mention my whole point about how "Ramp Up" is percieved and not actual. I.e. Hitting someone with Temporal Rift is 4 stacks of 12s Torment worth of damage upon the skills usage. The fact that it'll take 12 second for the full damage to be applied isn't really "Ramp Up" and is inconsequential towards DPS against bosses.

Again, if Condi's actually had ramp up, it'd take them time before they actually started dealing damage with attacks and it would not be so favourable in PvP due to the game mode relying heavily on bursting people down quickly (As well as having lots of Condi Cleanse to mitigate Condi durations) - Even more so it's notable that Condi Herald is one of the strongest PvP builds due to Rev's natural ability to dump a truckload of Torment stacks onto someone to burst them down. It's also worth noting that for this, Viper stats are not used so PvP Condi builds don't also have a ton of Power and Precision to enhance the damage of the initial Condi applying attacks.

I.e. "Ramp Up" would be needing to stack your Torment up to 20 before your attacks dealt full damage (By refreshing the 20 stacks of Torment or otherwise dealing bonus damage), it's not really the need to wait a few seconds for your skill that you've already used to finish dealing damage (Otherwise you can call things like Power Weaver as needing "Ramp Up" as their burning stacks tick over.

Against bosses, the duration of Conditions to deal their full damage only really affects DPS towards the end, as the boss dying will clip the end off remaining Conditions and thus reduce the overall damage of several skills.

June 2, 2020

@RaidsAreEasyAF.8652 said:
@"LadyKitty.6120" said:If power damage is made to ramp up at same speed as most condis, that'd essentially make condi a superior choice as both would take as long to ramp-up but condis would keep ticking while power would hit a wall the moment it gets interrupted.

Thats not how Condi DPS works. If you stop attacking on a Condi class, your DPS will be lower. You wont hit 0 DPS like power builds would, but you have to rampup again. Having to stop attacking is just as bad for condi as it is for power.

Another thing to note is that Condi builds don't really have ramp up. Which is one of the reasons why it's so popular in PvP, a game mode that focuses heavily on bursting down players.

There are lots of Condi builds these days that can easily and quickly apply 20+ stacks of Condi's in a burst. Then their sustained damage is auto attacks that apply some weak Condi's but can also proc Condi's on crits (Earth Sigils, minor traits that apply Bleed on crit etc)

Meaning that in reality, Condi and Power builds already play similarly. Both are reliant on their skill CD rotations to apply the majority of their damage. Both lose similar DPS from lost uptime (The main difference is that any DPS tracking systems will note a Power builds DPS drop immediately, while a Condi's DPS drop will only really be noticed after the time that their auto attack applied condi's would have lasted, passes)

Since, it's not as if Condi builds need to slowly get up to high stacks of Condi's and then maintain that high stack by refreshing their duration, which would be a cause of ramp up in damage. It's simply a matter of using skills that apply many Condi's to get high stacks and re-using those skills as they come off CD meaning that the stack size doesn't really matter as ultimately it comes down to X skill does Y damage per usage just like a Power build. The only difference is Y happens over a period of time (Which doesn't matter in boss fights that last long enough for the Condi's to run their full duration, with minor damage losses towards the end of a fight)

Any perceived "Ramp Up" is just DPS tracking noticing the time taken for the first few skills to deal their full damage, which is irrelevant outside of times where target switching is required (Such as fighting trash mobs in Fractals)

June 1, 2020

I'd say something like this.

Should give you plenty of survivability and damage to level up, do HP's, participate in open world events and the like, while being fairly cheap to put together.

After which you can transition into E-Spec builds such as Power Reaper using Berserker gear or Condi Scourge builds using Viper gear.

June 1, 2020

@Sajuuk Khar.1509 said:
@"Genesis.8572" said:Are we playing the same game? Living World Season 2 and Heart of Thorns were fairly Sylvari-focused. Sylvari PCs got special dialogue in the expansion. I even recall forum posters criticizing how the Orr storyline was too focused on Sylvari and not enough on humans who were setting foot in their "Holy Lands."Pretty much.-LWS2 and HoT were the Sylvari story focus.-Icebrood Saga is the Norn/Charr story focus.-The Primordus LW/Saga/expansion/whatever they do for it will be the Asura story focus.-Elona and Cantha are, OFC, Human story focus.

LW2 was Human/Sylvari with a hint of Charr (Humans had their time to shine with a lot of lore into the inner workings of the Ministry as well as the stuff with Belinda and the Zephyrites, Sylvari because Aerin and Scarlet and Charr because of the whole Uncle Trombone jumps into the Mists thing as well as the early running around Iron Marches killing plants...)

HoT was pretty much entirely Sylvari focus.

LW3 was Human/Asura focus. Asura because of a lot to do with Taimi and Rata Novus. Human because the entire arc of Caudecus/Lazarus (Shining Blade) and of course the introduction of Balthazar, not to mention things like Siren's Landing having all the old Orr rulers on it as Hearts with shrines to Human gods as objectives.

PoF was entirely Human focused.

LW4 is Human/Charr focused with a hint of Asura (Human because its more Humans being attacked by a Plague that only kills Humans, Charr because of the Sandswept Isles and the Olmakhan and the dash of Asura is due to the Inquest/Rata Primus and Awakened Inquest stuff)

IBS is Norn/Charr focused, though without that much to do with Norn if you consider how they've been ignored in literally all content in the game until now with slight exception of Eir's memorial at the start of LW3... (Even the "Norn" zone in LW3 ended up being more about Kodan/Quaggan and a bit of Grawl than Norn with the only Norn stuff being getting the Thaw Elixir Recipe from the Sons of Svanir and Braham's mission to crack Jormag's Tooth)

Even LW1 was Sylvari/Asura themed due to Scarlet and Primordus being the prominent threats. While the Orr arc felt a lot like Sylvari/Charr focus due to being centred around Trahearne and then Charr military forces (Copters, Cannons, Tanks...) with Humans jumping in right at the end with the Glory of Tyria airship helmed by Logan...

June 1, 2020

@Konig Des Todes.2086 said:
@"Taril.8619" said:The primary thing I'd change, would be Trahearne not becoming Pact Marshal. Instead, another character is written and developed that can take the position, allowing Trahearne to be better developed as he doesn't have to be "The Pact Marshal" and can have more focus on him developing his skills beyond his book learnin's.

I don't see how there's really any difference in terms of the story narrative or the reason why people dislike Trahearne becoming Pact Marshal. The reason why Trahearne is "a bad character" to most would be the fact Trahearne appears out of nowhere for most (aka non-sylvari) players. A different character doing the same thing would just redirect the hate and make Trahearne's role weird in regards to being partnered with the PC after the mentor's deaths.

1) Since the "Pact Marshal" role is mostly insignificant in the grand scheme of things, it lets this new person get to be boring and just do the military decision making.

While also taking some of the focus off of the PS suddenly revolving around Trahearne, as he could be on par with the PC in terms of development rather than having to take much more focus because he has to become the Pact Marshal and do his Wyld Hunt.

Trahearne had a lot more potential development beyond "Is Pact Marshal". He is one of the 12 Firstborn Sylvari. He was granted the legendary Caladbolg. He spent most of his life studying Orr. All of this could have been expanded on as he got combat experience from following you through Orr. But instead, his entire character ended up being boiled down to "Pact Marshal" where he inexplicably gains the respect and experience needed to lead a military force through Orr.

This is further reinforced when after the PS his only appearances are to show up and be all "Hello, I am Pact Marshal" - During the Silverwastes content that's pretty much the extent of his character (He tells you to light the beacon at one point too! Wow, much development!) as well as the couple of times he pops up during the meeting of the city leaders where you go talk to him just so he can say he's representing the Pact by being there.

In HoT he doesn't show up at all until you put a sword through his face...

2) Trahearne appearing out of nowhere is only part of the reason why he's disliked. The other part is how the Personal Story shifts over to Trahearne which is exacerbated by their need to write him becoming Pact Marshal along with detailing his Wyld Hunt which is the reason that he even shows up in the first place (I.e. He was at Claw Island because he knew an attack was imminent based on his research into Orr and Zhaitan)

Without him becoming Pact Marshal, there would be much less need to focus so much onto him because they'd only need to flesh out the details of his Wyld Hunt and the rest of the time they could develop more of the PC's side of things, with Trahearne assisting the PC in finding a way to defeat Zhaitan.

3) Why would Trahearne's role become weird if he was partnered with the PC but not Pact Marshal? His presence is more easily justified if he's not the Pact Marshal. Since from a military standpoint, sending the number 1 and 2 of your entire military organization (The Pact Marshal and the Commander) into the same battle is so incredibly dumb it's unreal (This includes that time where they both go onto an airship with 1 other person, then fly out into the middle of the ocean to run experiments on the Eye of Zhaitan...)

Meanwhile, Trahearne would be a huge asset working with the Pact due to his knowledge of Orr and Zhaitan, so being an advisor to the Pact Marshal would make a lot of sense. Then, because he has no formal combat experience, partnering him up with the PC who's made it that far by being really good at smashing things would also make a lot of sense, so the PC can protect him while he offers his insight into the land and the minions being faced.

May 31, 2020

The primary thing I'd change, would be Trahearne not becoming Pact Marshal. Instead, another character is written and developed that can take the position, allowing Trahearne to be better developed as he doesn't have to be "The Pact Marshal" and can have more focus on him developing his skills beyond his book learnin's.

I.e. He accompanies the PC throughout missions to learn about combat, while providing us with key information about Orr and Zhaitan's minions.

With the culmination being that after we cleanse the source of Orr together, where it's us assisting Trahearne in his Wyld Hunt, we then face down Zhaitan together, where it's Trahearne assisting us in our "Wyld Hunt" (Not some BS stand around shooting a cannon while everyone else gorms out being utterly useless) - Using what he learned as he accompanied us as well as Caladbolg which he was given for a reason.

The knock on effect this would have, is it would set Trahearne up for a much less horrible iteration in the original PS, which could then continue on into LW2 where he is more involved (Due to having finished his Wyld Hunt, he would have the freedom to follow other pursuits) and then wouldn't necessarily need to be killed off in HoT due to being portrayed horribly in prior stories...

The secondary thing I'd change, would be Eir's death. As trading one of the few well written characters and fewer still Norn characters for the awful character that is Braham is not a good trade (Meanwhile, we still have Logan and Zojja alive and well even if Zojja doesn't really particpate in much at all despite being so concerned about Taimi upon her rescue... Oh and Rytlock Trombone gets to be a main character so it's not really that it was about dismantling Destiny's Edge)

Even if Eir didn't become part of Dragon's Watch like Rytlock, having her around and continuing her character development would have been far better than the crap which is Emo Braham being emo and awful. In fact, if Braham died in her stead, it would have perfectly continued her development, what with only having recently come to terms with the guilt over Snaff's death, being faced with the death of her son that she again only recently started to bond with would have been a turning point where she'd have to try and deal with that guilt too (It'd also make more sense for her to go off trying to earn some glory by trying to take down Jormag on her own - She missed out on raising her son because she went to create her legend, so reverting back to that to deal with his death would be natural. More so than Braham mourning the death of his mother he only recently stopped resenting, barely, and then going full on crazy as if his very reason to live was taken away while being super mad at the PC...)

Incidentally, Braham's death would have also created reason to develop Rox's character more. As she'd be greiving too. Maybe she'd try and get into a Warband (Potentially some sketchy one), possibly even get tempted by the Flame Legion to which we could end up going to help save her from such decisions and help her deal with her grief.

All this could have then put more focus onto the development of Dragon's Watch and the characters within, as opposed to the development of Dragon's Babysitting and a bunch of stuff about Humans and their stupid useless gods that apparently don't give a crap about them.

May 31, 2020

Rev's low play rate can be attributed to several things:

1) It requires HoT, meaning that F2P and Core players literally cannot play the class.2) The Legend system is not particularly interesting if you don't know the lore of GW to care about who any of the Legends actually are (You'll learn about Glint and a bit about Ventari during GW2, but Kalla? Shiro? Jalis? Mallyx?)3) They have few weapons available to them, meaning there's less options to try out in order to find a fun pairing of weaponsets4) The energy system can be wierd and offputting, especially if you find that one of the optimal ways to play Rev is to auto attack a ton because you never have Energy to do anything5) The Legend system can also feel really jank due to how you can often end up spending literally half your gameplay not having access to your build due to needing to swap to another legend which likely won't perform the same function to regain energy (I.e. Trying to heal, but you swap out of Ventari the only healer Legend. Or doing Conditions but swapping out of Mallyx the primary condi Legend)

Though, even with all this, the fact that Rev is barely behind Engie in terms of play rate, when Engie doesn't have most of these aspects (Engie does have the low number of weapon options, even with their kits due to how bad most kits are and the "Good" ones are pretty much only used for like 1-2 attacks at most) suggests that Engie probably needs help sooner than Rev, i.e. Engie needs bringing into 2020 rather than being stuck in 2012

May 31, 2020

The only reference I've noted in LW4 to PoF completion, is at one point Joko mentions if you chose his banners for Amnoon or not.

If you haven't done the quest that lets you pick which banners to use in Amnoon, the game acts as if you didn't opt for Joko's army.

May 31, 2020

@mizaru.1385 said:ok, seems like collision is not the way to go. I've edited the post and the title to reflect. Ways to make the gameplay more interesting and stacking less of a need would be a good topic for the devs to think about.

Well... The most straightforward way to reduce stacking (Outside the necessity that is 99% of combat being melee focused) would be to reduce the availability of small radius AoE effects.

This can be done by either increasing AoE radii to the point where people can be positioned wherever and still receive the benefit, or by outright removing certain AoE effects (Which in of itself can be done via outright removal, or via converting certain effects into offensive only ones, such as Symbols, Wells, Fields etc)

Beyond that, there would then need to be more support for ranged combat. More effects that boost power while being some distance away (Traits, Sigils, Runes etc), more support skills that can be used at range, more attacks that aren't dumb multi-projectile cones etc.

In addition, you could add in more support for positional bonuses, especially kits that utilize multiple positional bonuses. Right now, we have Thief's Backstab and Ranger's Shortbow having Rear bonuses and some garbage Sigils providing Flank bonuses. Could utilize more things so that moving around a target provides more optimal output I.e. Rear bonuses, Flank bonuses, Frontal bonuses. Potentially having skills that provide different effects depending on the positional.Though, this sort of stuff is harder to accomodate in GW2 due to the way that aggro works (Or doesn't, in the case of OW where it often feels like anyone can get targeted at any point for no reason)

There's also the possibility of adding in enemies/attacks that deal more damage the more targets are hit (Either scaling damage per target in its area, or some form of AoE that causes targets hit to also do a secondary AoE hit around them). The trick with this would be to try and balance it so that it couldn't just be tanked via mass Boon/Heal spam in an area... (Which is part of the problem, there's greater availability of AoE healing and AoE Protection/Aegis application these days, thanks to certain E-Specs farting out boons/combos as their shtick)

May 31, 2020

@Sznurek.8791 said:
@"Yasai.3549" said:All Anerf Devs know for balance is nerf nerf nerf, because it's easiest, and quickest to apply.Actually I generally support nerf instead of buff policy.Remember how terrible the game was before the giant damage nerf happened.But yeah mesmer is kinds kitten currently, warrior and ranger are in bad situation too.Still while they should start sometimes buffing some of the specs(as mentioned above mesmer and druid for example) I still think in most cases nerfing is much better than buffing.

It's not always a case of buffing or nerfing though.

Sometimes what is required, is the rework of a particular mechanic because it fundamentally cannot function in a balanced state.

For example with Rangers, it's the pet mechanic as a whole alongside Soulbeast. Soulbeast makes pets good by having a low cooldown full revive/heal that also prevents them from having any downtime of their "Pet" (Since it's either available and hitting things, or they're Merged). But balancing around Soulbeast makes pets utterly useless for non Soulbeast builds, such as Core Ranger, Druid and presumably any future Ranger E-Specs (Unless they all end up getting a "Merge" mechanic)

In this instance, it's not really a case of nerfing Soulbeast or buffing Pets, since either option ends in failure where some build ends up on the short end of the stick.

It's similar to the rework of Mesmer Phantasms from their past iteration where they took up a Clone spot (Thus you could maintain 3 permenant Phantasms at the cost of not being able to Shatter since Phantasms would shatter) to the way they work now where they're Phantasms for one attack and then turn into Clones, which fits more into the gameplay set up by the core class mechanic of shattering.

The problem is, it's far too easy to simply change a few skill coefficients for a buff/nerf and call it a day, all the while not really doing much except annoying the playerbase, while reworks require a lot more resources.

May 31, 2020

@AliamRationem.5172 said:Why use corruption? The stacks remain as long as you don't go down or leave the map. So this is actually an excellent boost for open world play as it adds a significant amount of condition damage!

If you want to be really spicy, you can have a weapon with Corruption on and once you get the 25 stacks, you swap it out for a different weapon with another Sigil on, for example Geomancy.

Can easily do this by simply having an additional weapon equipped as your second weapon set and swapping out of combat.

@SunTzu.4513 said:Omg, that's what i was searching for! I always thought ele looks so much fun and the principle of attunment swapping seems also pleasing to me but evrytime i try to get into it i give it up because i felt waaaaay to squishy even while i was leveling up. Would this build work also to leveling up an elementalist? Everybody says fresh air is the way to level but i like the fire and earth kit on dagger mainhand much more than air. If i mainly circle between fire and earth any gear with + to condition damage should work right? So i can take some defstats as secondary? Wich traitline would you go for instead of weaver to farm HP in HoT and PoF?

IMO Condi builds are the best way to level up. Since Conditions don't care about Glancing Blows you can kill enemies that are up to 9 level higher than you with relative ease which can net you TONS of exp with a Kill Streak booster active.

As far as 3rd spec to use while farming HP's, I'd probably say Water or Earth. Water will provide you with extra sustain and condi cleanse if you feel a little squishy. Earth will provide more damage through stronger Bleeds (You can also pick up Written in Stone and use Signet of Earth alongside Signet of Fire with both getting reduced cooldowns so you can use them more often for more Bleed/Burn application)

May 31, 2020

Ranged builds suck.

Enforcing more player collision so that people HAVE to play ranged builds because they literally cannot enter melee range due to collision won't make them suck any less, they'd just be mandatory in order to obtain any rewards via contribution (It's already mostly like that for OW content anyway, where if you don't have good ranged attacks to tag mobs, you'll find that every event enemy is insta-deleted by the 50 people who did have range)

The issue with ranged builds is that there is such little support for them and their weapons. While instead, everything is focused towards improving melee, including many "Ranged" weapons (Warrior LB wants to be up close to hit with all 3 shots of Fan of Flames. Guardian Scepter wants to be up close to stand in the Symbol while it hits enemies. Engie Rifle wants to be up close to maximize Blunderbuss and Jump Shot damage as well as Pistols wanting to be close for Blowtorch. Ranger Axe wants to be close to hit with all 5 projectiles of Splitblade and Shortbow wants to be close to hit with all 5 projectiles of Poison Volley, Thief Pistol/Dagger combo wants to get close to use Shadow Strike to enable Repeater usage... Heck even Mesmer gets benefit from being in melee with GS due to being able to have Mirror Blade bounce to them and grant them Might instead of their Clone/Ally even with an auto attack that benefits from range)

This doesn't even touch on the fact that a lot of the support for a build, including secondary weapon sets, will themselves be melee focused to boot (For example, a Ranger wanting to use Longbow will swap to... A melee weapon? Outside of a LB + LB Quick Draw build)

If you want to see more Ranged builds, there would need to be more benefits for being ranged (That also need to outweigh the benefit of stacking in melee and getting stacked with AoE boons and fields and finishers and AoE healing, otherwise said "Ranged" builds will still end up stacking in melee). Of course, being careful about the flip side where if ranged becomes too good, you start just getting everyone stacking at range...

But yeah, start with making range have actual support that makes it not trash (As of right now, all that exists is the autos on Ranger LB and Mesmer GS and Ranger's Farsighted and Lead the Wind traits) as well as including more ranged weapons that don't have skills that are optimized by being in melee.

Try to make the builds themselves not suck so that people are more inclined to actually use them as opposed to trying to do something like add janky collision to force people into these sucky builds.

May 31, 2020

Spoiler: They're not actually Charr, they're 3 Dwarves stood on top of each other and wearing a large coat.

May 31, 2020

So, as I'm running my Ele through LW2, I have a lot of time on my hands while I'm afking through a bunch of unskippable dialogue/cutscenes. As such, I thought about some changes to traits:

Fire

Conjurer Aura effect replaced. Now deals AoE damage and Burn when a Conjured you summon is equipped (Both the one you give yourself and the one you put down, even if an Ally picks it up)
Smothering Auras replaced by Mighty Auras: Applying an Aura grants Might to allies (Max targets 5)
Pyromancer's Training skill cooldown effect replaced. Now causes you to gain Condition Damage based on 7% of your Power.

Air

Zephyr's Speed reworked to grant 25% movement speed at all times, grants 3s of Superspeed upon attuning to Air.
One with Air reworked to now reduce the duration of movement impairing effects by 20%, increased to 33% while in Air.
Ferocious Winds replaced by Buffeting Gales: Vulnerability you apply lasts 33% longer and you deal 10% more damage to vulnerable enemies.
Inscription reworked to now grant Eye of the Storm (Stacking, 5s buff for 150 precision) upon activating a Signet and Signets have 20% reduced cooldown.
Aeromancer's Training skill cooldown effect replaced. Now causes you to gain Ferocity based on 7% of your Precision.
Fresh Air reworked to provide 250 Precision and Ferocity for 5s upon attuning to Air

Earth

Stone Flesh reworked to reduce damage taken by 7% from Bleeding foes
Earthen Blast now also applies 1 stack of Bleed for 10s in addition to its other effects.
Strength of Stone stat gain effect replaced by 20% increased Bleed damage
Earthen Blessing reworked to reduce the duration of disables against you by 33% and to grant 15 endurance when disabled
Geomancer's Training skill cooldown effect replaced. Now causes you to gain Expertise based on 10% of your Vitality
Diamond Skin now also triggers Earthen Blast when it activates
Written in Stone reworked to now cause Cantrips to apply Immobilize and 2 stacks of 10s Bleed in an area on use and Cantrips have 20% reduced cooldown.
Stone Heart now also provides Tectonic Shift when crit outside of Earth with a 15s cooldown

Water

Soothing Mist reworked to provide a more consistent effect. Now heals for 80 + (0.1 * Healing power) with an interval of 1s while attuned to Water (As opposed to applying a 10s buff every 3s that does the same healing while attuned to Water)
Piercing Shards replaced by Frostbite Chill you apply lasts 20% longer and deal 20% more damage to chilled enemies
Glacial Burst new lesser Master trait, damages and chills (1s) nearby enemies when attuning to Water
Cleansing Wave replaced by Healing Ripple which combines both traits
Soothing Disruption replaced by Glyphic Auras which causes Glyphs to grant you an aura based on your attunement (Fire = Fire Aura, Water = Frost Aura, Air = Shocking Aura, Earth = Magnetic Aura) and reduces the cooldown of Glyphs
Aquamancer's Training replaced by Hydromancer's Training: Increases healing done to other allies by 15% and causes you to gain Healing Power based on 5% of your Power and 5% of your Condition Damage
Cleansing Water removed and has its effect added to Soothing Power in addition to its other effects
Heart of Ice new Grandmaster trait, causes critical hits against chilled enemies to deal bonus damage and sends out ice shards that damage and bleed nearby foes (Main target also gets Bleed) 5s CD (8s PvP/WvW)

Arcane

Arcane Prowess Might duration is now 12s
Arcane Precision reworked to now cause critical hits to cast Arcane Blast on the target (10s CD)
Elemental Lockdown also grants a stack of Arcane Power
Arcane Ressurection replaced by Elemental Surge
Elemental Enchantment reworked to now cause Critical hits to reduce the remaining cooldown of Attunements by 1s and causes attuning to reduce remaining cooldowns of weapon skills for other attunements by 5s
Bountiful Power now also grants 250 Concentration
Attunement Mastery new Grandmaster trait, causes you to cast Arcane Wave when attuning (20s CD)

May 30, 2020

Firstly, these aren't "Quality of Life" changes. They're buffs. Straight up.

Secondly, ICD on Chilling Darkness isn't redundant since one of the 4 sources of Blind that Necro has, is a pulsing well that ticks every second.

As far as what I'd like to see for Necro...

QoL changes:

Minions no longer being unsummoned upon changing zones
While gliding, minions are temporarily removed and come back after landing (Same as Ranger pet)
Lich Form skill 1 auto attacks by default
Minions that are unsummoned by going into water (While not having the minion skill equipped in your underwater set) no longer go on cooldown.

Buffs/Changes

Minion skills cast times reduced to 1s
Chilling Scythe cast time reduced to 0.75s
Gravedigger cast time reduced to 1s
Grasping Darkness activation time reduced
Feast of Corruption replaced by Devouring Darkness
Blood Curse, Rending Curse and Putrid Curse Bleed durations increased to 6s
Lingering Curse now increases Condition Damage by 200 and converts 3% of your Precision and Condition Damage into Expertise instead of buffing Scepter.
Reaper now has 2 Shroud skills; Reaper's Shroud replaces your weapon skills with Reaper skills, but does not replace your health pool with Life Force. Dread Shroud replaces your health pool with Life Force but does not replace your skills (Certain Life Force/Health gain effects are changed while in this Shroud) causing a separation of the Offensive and Defensive properties of Shroud to allow for better balance (Also, to provide a different Shroud mechanic to Core)

May 30, 2020

Ranger for Longbow and Thief for Rifle. Warrior Rifle is also possible, but not amazing.

Revenant can use Shortbow somewhat effectively in PvE, though it will want to fight in melee often due to being Condition based and thus wanting to use Mallyx Elite skill which applies Torment in an area around you...

Warrior's Longbow wants you to be in melee to use it (To land Fan of Fire), Engineer's Rifle wants you to be in melee to use it (Blunderbuss and Jump Shot), Guardian Longbow just sucks, Thief Shortbow sucks for actual damage (It's more about utility, especially in PvP, via teleports from Infiltrator's Arrow and Poison from Choking Gas)

That is the extent of Bow/Rifle users in the game... There is ironically, more ranged builds that DON'T use bows/rifles than there are ranged builds that use them...

So if you're wanting actual ranged builds, I'd recommend;

Scepter Elementalist (Can use Staff in WvW)Scepter NecromancerPistol/Pistol ThiefGreatsword MesmerScepter Guardian (Though, your second weapon set will likely be melee based)Scepter Mesmer (I.e. Condition Core or Chronomancer)

May 29, 2020

@mindcircus.1506 said:
@"Taril.8619" said:Accuracy (7% crit)Force (5% damage)Bursting (5% Condi damage)Malice (5% Condi duration)Concentration (10% Boon duration)Agony (20% Bleeding duration)Demons (20% Torment duration)Smouldering (20% Burning duration)Night (3% damage, 10% at Night)Slaying (3% damage, 10% vs specific enemy types)Earth (6s Bleed on crit, 2s CD)Torment (2x 5s AoE Torment on crit, 5s CD)Geomancy (8s AoE Bleed on weapon swap, 9s CD)Doom (3x 8s Poison on weapon swap, 9s CD)
Everything else is not very good. Outside of PvP where Cleansing (Remove 3 conditions on weapon swap, 9s CD) and Energy (Restore 50% endurance on weapon swap, 9s CD) are used (With Energy also being used by PvE Mirage given how dodging is part of their DPS)Energy is used in many builds in WvW. Transference is used a number of meta builds. Chilling has massive value on OW PvE Reaper and Rev builds. Geomancy goes in and out of meta with Condi Soulbeast....The list of things you are ignoring is pretty extensive and completely undermines the point you are looking to make.

I mentioned Energy being used (Not I didn't specify sPvP, but PvP in general which includes WvW)

Transference sure, I forgot that one for healing builds.

Chilling I don't see in any builds. OW or not. At best, I see a couple of fringe builds that run Hydromancy but the majority run Force/Accuracy or Bursting/Earth.

Geomancy I have mentioned and more than Condi Soulbeast uses it (PvE Condi Weaver, PvE Condi Ren and Condi Zerker use it)

So, the "List" of things I'm ignoring, was Transference, which I forgot to put down. All of 1 sigil.

The rest aren't used. Period.

May 28, 2020

@Teratus.2859 said:
@Taril.8619 said:
@Teratus.2859 said:
@Kulvar.1239 said:
@Teratus.2859 said:
@Kulvar.1239 said:
@Teratus.2859 said:
@Kulvar.1239 said:
@Teratus.2859 said:
@Kulvar.1239 said:
@Teratus.2859 said:
@Kulvar.1239 said:
@Teratus.2859 said:
@Kulvar.1239 said:
@Teratus.2859 said:/snip

Please no. It would be terrible.Having golems and norn morphs that hit like Mesmer clones but last indefinitely would be far more enjoyable.

That would make them utterly useless and destroy what little use they currently have in game now.

They're not meant to have any use and I hope that never change.So making them last endlessly would make them fun to use outside fight situation at least.

I'd rather have them be on some level useful without forcing class sacrifices.A number of them have ties to lore or deep rooted racial/cultural traits Like the Norn's transformations.. making them utterly useless would be severely degrading to the race itself.

How exactly would that be degrading ? They're all useless, meant to be useless as to never become META. Making them everlasting yet irrelevant wouldn't be criminally insulting to fictional races, and actually stick to the lore better. Golems don't have a few seconds function expectancy.

And I just thought about it, Charr elite could summon the 3 warband members of the character (creation choice + 2 recruited members during personal story).

Because they're not useless now, they're just not as usefull as class skills for balance/mechanical reasons.That doesn't change things such as Asura are more dangerous when piloting Golems or that Norns are at their most powerful when transformed.This is even being touched on in the Icebrood Saga story as well.

To have Norn players most powerful transformation be reduced to something as weak as a Mesmer clone would be really degrading to the race..But at the same time Anet can't exactly make these skills as powerful as they rightfully should be either because of balance issues and diminishing class specific skills.If they however could rework them into something that doesn't require class skill sacrifices and limit them only to areas of the game where they wouldn't cause any racial preference in groups etc (no raids, no fractals etc) then these skills could be done a lot of justice and actually give each race something special and unique while still remaining gimmicky and offering limited use due to very heavy CD.

How would it be degrading ? You keep saying that, but never justify it.

I did explain it.You would be taking quite literally the most powerful racial aspect of the Norn and making it as patheticly inept as a baby Quaggen..It would be like going Super Saiyan in DBZ but rather than having your power boosted to massive levels you'd become Raditz instead.Hence degrading.. these forms are supposed to be something that grants the Norn huge power by lore not something akin to a combat Tonic gives you a 99% stat reduction penalty for using them.

Norn is not a class, so it's not an issue.

Racial skills replacing class skills to use goes against your statement there.. The race may not be a class but their skills do conflict with them.Hence why I'd rather see them converted into limited use bonus F skills that do not effect your class at all and actually make each race feel somewhat special and unique to play, which atm in Gw2 Races do not feel special and unique to play..In fact if you took away or made racial skills entirely useless as you have expressed favour for above then entire concept of having multiple playable races in Gw2 would be completely redundant..In that case Anet would have been better of scrapping multiple playable races early in Gw2's development and just forced everyone to be a Human again like in Gw1..I can imagine how Gw2 players would not be happy had they done that.. and would be furious if they changed the game now just to take away their Sylvari, Charr, Norn and Asuras.. hell I would be too.

Why do you want races to impact gameplay ? Races are not redundant as they let people play fun things. Hulky beast Charrs, small bouncy Asura, colorful glowing Sylvari.

This is a very common thing in most MMO's that feature multiple races, there's almost always a mechanical or gameplay element to distinguish each race.. but in Gw2 there isnt.

Actually, it's not all that common. Especially after the failure that was WoW's racial traits that lead to things like Undead (Later Human) being the objectively best race to play for PvP and Troll (Sometimes Orc) being objectively the best race to play for PvE due to them having racials that were more powerful in that content than others (UD/Human having CC cleanse effect with Human's one literally being a free PvP trinket cleanse allowing them to wear an extra stat boosting trinket. Troll/Orc having an attack+cast speed/attack+spell power buff which allowed them to stack an extra CD during raid burst phases for much higher DPS)

Beyond that, MMO's have erred away from introducing any sort of "Racial Bonuses" so as to avoid things like 99% of the population playing a particular race due to the advantage that is provided by the racial bonus. Though, that still doesn't stop Human being by far the most played race in GW2...

Though, Bli$$ard goes one step further with their egregious racial bonuses, via having paid for race changes costing extortionate prices ($25) as well as occasionally buffing/nerfing racial skills or adding in new races with ridiculously OP racial skills...

FF14 is also a large modern MMO which has slight stat differences between races.

It doesn't. At least not any more.

Every race is literally identical stats and gameplay. The only difference is appearance (With the 2 newest races, Viera and Hrothgar, having limitations on what head gear they can show)

Meaning that so far the list of MMO's with racial discrepancies are: WoW and ESO. Maybe you could argue some Eastern MMO's such as B&S which have race locked classes (But usually just 1 race gets a couple of different classes)

Which is not very common.

With my suggestion about racial skills being reworked into F6+ skills you would get them on Revenant without having to sacrifice any class skills.I think that's largely the main problem with Racial skills and their balance in game, having to sacrifice class skills to use them puts them in direct conflict with Gw2's professions and causes all the balance issues that result in racial skills being so underwhelming.
If Anet made them f6+ skills then they could balance them as needed, disable them in content like WvW, PvP, Fractals, Strikes and Raids to avoid racial bias vs balance issues and actually make them somewhat viable while giving each race that unique flavour and make them feel different from one another as they deserve to be.

The issue with Racial Skills and their balance in game has nothing to do with them competing for class skills, it's all about IF one race had a racial skill that was seen as objectively better for a particular piece of content (And was viable to use, meaning it could compete with class skills) then people would feel "Forced" to play that race in order to have access to that superior skill.

The fact that all Racial skills are unanimously worse than class skills is not a failure in balancing them against class skills, but an intentional design to prevent them from ever being useful enough to actually slot them, which prevents any of them from being notable enough to dictate what race people play.

Turning them into F skills doesn't circumvent the issue of Racial Skill balance, in fact, it exacerbates it since now even if said skills still mostly sucked, if even ONE skill was sort of worth using, people would be at an advantage playing that race especially since those racial skills wouldn't be competing for the (Superior) class skills.

If doing so and disabling them in basically all content that isn't OW, doesn't really change anything since you can meme about in OW content and slot the current trash Racial skills anyway. Meanwhile, in a large portion of the in-game content, you'd still end up with gameplay that feels all the same because them being disabled is no different than them being trash and thus never used.

Now, there's the other option, of simply giving every race the same skill, but with different thematic effects. For example, if everyone got a summon skill and it just looked different per race (Humans summon Hound of Balthazar, Sylvari summon Fern Hound or Druid Spirit, Asura summon a Golem, Charr summon a Warband member, Norn summon a Frost Wurm) or everyone got a single target nuke skill that just looked different (Humans have one of their gods smite a foe, Sylvari get vines to slap something, Asura zap it with some technology, Charr shoot it with a Charrzooka, Norn get Owls to attack the target). But the end result of such a thing is still the same gameplay across each race, even if it does have slight animation differences.

Which leads to the crux of the issue. We can either get racial skills that mean something and can be used. Or we can maintain racial balance so everyone can continue playing Human without worry (Given that Human is by far and away the most popular race).

Personally, I'd prefer the former. But as I'm not the type of person who makes characters based on min/maxing, I'm biased towards creating a system that could be imbalanced for players looking to eke out any advantage possible because it would have little effect on me.

Many other players might disagree and would feel "Forced" to play X race to get an extra 0.1% DPS in PvE or to get access to a niche skill for PvP, or feel super salty when X race wrecks them in WvW using a unique racial skill.

May 28, 2020

@Methuselah.4376 said:
@Mikhael.2391 said:The main problem with necro weapons is the dam stupid cast times. all staff marks should be instant as the CDs are long for besides staff2 and its not really that damaging. also utilities like flesh wurm etc etc. Anything beyond 1/2s is too much. that's why the class pales in comparison to others and is the most uncomfortable one to play. Hell even nerf damage more as long as we could rely on the instant casts and would be nowhere near OP.

Do NOT touch the damage Reaper has. Just no. I agree that casting times are long and if they were reduced, the floor will rise. But nerfing dps on a spec that already struggles with dps is like beating a horse when it's down.

Nerf Reapers damage more... Would end up making them heal enemies with their attacks xD

May 28, 2020

Female Norn Thief.

Why? Because I was playing around ages ago with different classes and what not. Thief was the one I preferred, due to its faster playstyle because of its initiative system instead of normal cooldowns. I also enjoyed the stealth aspect which allowed me to sneak up on targets as well as get out of a bad fight.

As such, it's my oldest character.

However, I don't play it so much anymore. Since it's received so many nerfs over the years it's a mere shadow of its former self. Stealth has practically 0 duration anymore, everything costs way too much initiative making the class much slower, the little sustain that the class had has been nerfed too so it's also a pile of squish (Outside of spamming Black Powder for constant blinds which is less than thrilling gameplay, especially with the aforementioned increased initiative costs)

So I end up playing other characters instead. Such as Necro when I just want to faceroll through content because Reaper is super survivable even with full Zerker gear while dishing out tons of damage and able to face tank Champions with ease. Or Ranger if I just want to burst for like a billion damage because Soulbeast is absolutely ridiculous.

I tried to play some Mesmer too, as it was always a class I thought looked fun to play at high level (Just, leveling up as one used to suck)... But it seems that too also has been nerfed to heck and just feels crummy to play as well.

So yeah. I'd love to go back to playing my Thief, but it just feels so bad to play as it these days. With limited gameplay variation too, where PvP it's all P/D Repeater spam because Condi's are stupid and PvE it's all Rifle DE where your rotation is simply just TRB x3 > Death's Judgment ad infinitum (Even more so in OW because getting close to basically anything to use any melee weapons feels like suicide 99% of the time)...

May 28, 2020

@Teratus.2859 said:
@Kulvar.1239 said:
@Teratus.2859 said:
@Kulvar.1239 said:
@Teratus.2859 said:
@Kulvar.1239 said:
@Teratus.2859 said:
@Kulvar.1239 said:
@Teratus.2859 said:
@Kulvar.1239 said:
@Teratus.2859 said:
@Kulvar.1239 said:
@Teratus.2859 said:/snip