Taril.8619

Noice, no nerfs! B)

Alternatively, go the other way and make them a bit more usable. Not to the point of being "Good" or "Great" options, given that they're intentionally not that so Race doesn't play a part in Meta builds, but to a point where they're somewhat usable. For example, lowering the CD of many of them (Especially Elites) to a more reasonable level. They don't need to be too good in order to be somewhat useable given the state of certain classes utilities, for example;Thief has pretty trash utilities for PvE, pretty much everything is just about being annoying af in PvP/WvW thus they could use some Racial skills occasionallyCore Mesmer has mediocre PvE utilities (Many being fight specific niche skills) and bad PvE Elites (Time Warp being okay if you don't have a perma-Quickness character such as a Boon Chrono)Power Necro relies on Flesh Golem only, which can be not so great in certain circumstances (Places like WvW or some bosses that do a lot of AoE damage)Renegade has the awkwardness that is their Energy system that promotes using only the most effective energy spenders, meaning it's often you only use a handful of skills while others sit untouched because they're not worth the Energy cost (For example, the Elite on Mallyx as a Power build)Power Soulbeast has few good options, due to many of Ranger's skills being Condition focused, Stances suck, Commands suck when merged and Signets are mediocre when merged...Engineer gets Toolbelt skills for Racial Utilities which increases their worth Alternatively remove all usefulness and make them fully flavorful.Permanent golem for Asura, permanent morph for Norns, permanent warband members for Charrs.Hmm... Now I'm imagining what if each race had unique mount skins they could use in lieu of a number of available mounts: Hound of Balthazar for Human.Charr Tank for Charr.Animal Forms for Norn.Power Suit for Asura.Druid Spirit for Sylvari. That could be pretty cool xD

Gaining damage from grinding out a weapon = not a good idea. I get where you're coming from, use a weapon, get better at using a weapon, deal more damage. But the reality is that you're "Forcing" a grind before people can start playing their build effectively. Not even going to mention how people often use 2 weapon sets and maybe even have additional weapon sets they swap in for particular activites... That's a whole lot of grinding out kills in order to be as effective as say... Engineer who just grabs his Rifle and maxes out his kills and is done for 99% of his gameplay. As far as the Sigils go... The targets in PvE that are worth having sigils to increase damage against, have Defiance bars that make CC skills less important. Especially when it's about co-ordinating multiple people's CC skills to break the bar. 6% crit damage is pretty underpowered compared to 5% damage increase, 7% chance to crit (For 200%+ damage) or the 3-10% damage increase sigils (Night and enemy type ones) I'm all for more interesting Sigils, but honestly, as it stands, the majority of currently existing Sigils are already outclassed by the select few; 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) Meaning all the Flanking Strike sigils, most On Crit sigils, On Kill sigils (Outside of Bloodlust/Corruption in OW builds), most On Weapon Swap sigils and all On Interrupt sigils (Aside from I think a Warrior build might use Severance because it runs Mace/Mace which has a lot of stuns in its kit) just aren't used because they're not very good compared to the above mentioned sigils that are just flat out more effective for builds. That's quite a lot of potentially interesting sigils that don't matter because of poor balance. Adding in new sigils is likely just going to add to the pile of unused sigils unless they're powercreep and can outperform the above mentioned ones and thus themselves become non-interesting since they'll be the only one(s) to be used.

Legendary Gathering Tools could be interesting. However, the "Advantages" should just stick to being easily sharable with Legendary Armoury and maybe flexibility in swapping Glyphs. That way, store bought tools are still equally viable and thus can still make a profit. While someone can instead opt for the grind to get a Legendary set that offers some more convienience by way of being more easily shared and can use the best glyph for their particular gathering run.

So, outside of a small handful of actually useful pets (Mostly Expansion ones...) a lot of pets are pure Trashy McTrasherson. As such, here's my attempt at boofing pets: BirbsI think this family is fine as is. Perhaps make the birbs actual Quickening Screech have a 12s CD to match the Merged version of the skill to provide better Swiftness uptime. CanineCrippling Leap (Merged) power coeficient increased by 40%Brutal Charge (Merged) range increased to 800Chilling Howl cast time reduced to 0.75sRegenerate cast time reduced to 0.75sHowl of the Pack cast time reduced to 0.75sIntimidating Howl cast time reduced to 0.75sTerrifying Howl cast time reduced to 0.75s Merged canines should now be able to compete with the likes of Smokescales, with Crippling Leap having comparable damage to Smoke Assault (Minus the Might stacks and Evasion) and having more utility from increased range on the knockdown in comparison.Pets howl skills, now activate within your lifetime so might actually do something. DevourerTail Lash replaced by Pound Ground (Fires Knock Down projectiles)Devourer Retreat replaced by Tunnel (Knockdown upon resurfacing)Twin Darts chance to poison increased to 25% Overall, Devourer skills should now feel more useful. They can themselves provide CC from range, which is where they auto attack from and their Retreat skill now has some CC potential for possible skilled play while Merged. Meanwhile, their auto attacks now more consistently provide Poison. These new skills are taken from existing Devourer enemies. DrakeBite (Merged) power coeficient and healing increased by 50% but CD increased to 15sTail Swipe (Merged) damage coeficient increased by 50%Frost Breath cast time reduced to 1sInsect Swarm cast time reduced to 1sSonic Shriek cast time reduced to 1sLightning Breath cast time reduced to 1sFire Breath cast time reduced to 1s Merged skills should now have enough impact to warrant their use over just auto attacking with a GS, especially if you can cleave targets. Breath attacks should now have an impact before the enemy dies of old age. FelineBite (Merged) power coeficient increased by 150% (50% in WvW/PvP)Stalk now grants access to Rake skill (Auto attack replacement) which deals 1.5x Slash damage and applies 5 stacks of Vulnerability for 5 seconds.Mighty Roar cast time reduced to 0.75sRending Pounce cast time reduced to 0.75sBlinding Roar cast time reduced to 0.75sIcy Pounce cast time reduced to 0.75sFurious Pounce cast time reduced to 0.75s Bite now actually will do the "Severe" damage it states it does (Rather than doing less than half of what Maul does... But on twice the cooldown and only vs one target and without the AoO proc). Meanwhile pet actives are now more useful with Stalk actually doing something and other skills having usable cast times (Especially Mighty Roar, LMAO at a 3 whole seconds of cast time for a mere 5 might stacks) IbogaBite replaced by Spine Shot dealing similar damage but being ranged. Overall Iboga is a decent pet. It's only downside is it randomly having a melee auto attack when it's too squishy to really go into melee range and would really work better as a ranged pet. PorcineI don't really know what to do with these... Really, their skills are all fine... Except the F2 for the actual pet, Forage sucks. Like, real bad. The fact that you have to run over to the pet and pick up the item and have it replace your skills and then it's a pretty anemic effect most of the time (One of the trash items you can find lying around in various OW areas). It's even worse that literally ALL the pigs have Forage as their F2 (Each providing different trash items) so it's much harder to create alternatives as it would need to be 4 new individual skills especially since pigs aren't a very diverse family since there are no Veteran, Elite or Champion pigs to take skills from they're all just trash mobs with pretty much the same 3 skills... SpodersVenom durations decreased to 20sWeakening Venom cooldown reduced to 20sDeadly Venom cooldown reduced to 20sParalyzing Venom cooldown reduced to 30s Simply an improvement of the uptime on their venoms, allowing for that spike of power more frequently. UrsineBite (Merged) power coeficient increased by 50% healing is now a flat 834 (2x the current baseline value with no healing power)Rending Maul cast time reduced to 0.75sEnfeebling Roar cast time reduced to 0.75s and cooldown reduced to 20sPoison Cloud cast time reduced to 0.75s and cooldown reduced to 25sIcy Roar cast time reduced to 0.75s and cooldown reduced to 30s Bite is now more on par with other merged skills, especially the newly buffed Drake Bite, while removing the healing scaling so it can't be abused by Bunker builds that have high healing power. Pet F2's are now on par with other pets skills (Namely, the Canines and their Howls) Now I think that's about it for the pets that are underperforming. Bristleback, Rock Gazelle, Jacaranda, Moa and Wyverns are all in a pretty decent spot (Albeit Moa is lacking on support builds that can really utilize them and their extra healing... Since it's not as if Druid is short on heals)

Trahearne himself, wasn't too bad. His voice was very monotonous and he lacked a lot of well... Anything. But being bland isn't bad, it's just bland. There's plenty of people in real life who are just bland and that's fine. He even has a reason for being bland, what with being a bit of a social outcast spending time studying rather than socializing. My only qualm with him, personally, was when he started calling all the new Sylvari the "Secondborn" because that's not very nice, since it can be interpreted as them being inferior... Really, outside of that, he's just at the mercy of the poor writing. He should have shown up to the story for non-Sylvari earlier than when the arc was shifting to his Wyld Hunt. Given his frienship with the Order mentors, it would have made sense for him to show up during the Order quests. He should not have become the leader of the Pact. Instead, someone with actual military experience should have led, while Trahearne should have been an advisor (Perhaps he could become a leader later in the storyline after a unplanned catastrophe happens and the leader dies and Trahearne ends up being calm and reasonable in the crisis and actually leads the survivors to safety thus gaining their trust in his ability to make decisions about tactics - While being supported by the 3 Order representatives whom can provide him with military based plans) putting him in a similar position to our PC, not at the helm of a military operation that you have no experience in, but still playing an important role. After the fall of Zhaitan, he should have left the Pact and gone and done something else. Such as researching Scarlet and later Mordremoth. Maybe joining an Order such as the Vigil so he can learn how to actually use his fancy magical sword properly. Anything really, especially if it gives him reason to pop up now and then throughout our journeys as we share information and catch up (You know, more than popping up like twice during LW2 and being like "Hello, I am here." as his entire dialogue across the entire story) But alas, that didn't happen. So instead, we get a Trahearne who pops up out of nowhere for 4/5 Races PS. Who then gets a fancy magical sword for reasons only really known by Sylvari players whom have the lore of Saladbowl shown throughout their earlier PS quests. Then randomly becomes the leader of a military organization shortly after literally every military personnel scoffed at him trying to provide military advice. Then he basically poofs into the aether until he reappears just to get stabbed in the face by his fancy magical sword.

That's not really an engineer advantage. The tool belt is the engineer's profession mechanic, like the necromancer shroud, guardian virtues, or warrior bursts. Yes. And Revenant's profession mechanic is having the dual Legend system allowing them to have 10 utility skills. But, Engie's skills are available all the time and don't come with a janky Energy mechanic, unlike with Rev.

It's because like 90% of Engie's entire class hasn't been updated ever and is thus left being a relic of release GW2 where there was a number of differences compared to current designs. Such as, but not limited to; Engie turrets being a pile of crap and only useful for their toolbelt skills (And then, only Rifle and Flame turrets) - Meanwhile, Renegade has essentially turrets that scale with their stats and can crit and can innately buff allies (While Engie needs a trait to make their turrets provide boons). The only upside to Engie turrets is that they can last forever (But really, no. Because they're only "Useful" during their overcharge and then you're better off blowing them up).Also, the ironic thing is, having turrets scale off personal stats would have also addressed the issue that caused them to get nerfed ages ago. Which was due to Bunker builds doing reasonable damage because they'd just plop down turrets that deal damage independent of their stats. Having them scale off personal stats would have worked to make Bunker build turrets tickle machines without gimping any other usage of turrets. Full Divine Alchemy Engie with HGH cannot even get 100% uptime on their SELF ONLY boons that are applied by using an entire Utility slot that does nothing else but provide them with self boons - Meanwhile, several other classes can provide 100% boon uptimes for themselves and up to 10 people nearby (Heck, Herald can provide perma Regen, Swiftness, Fury, 25 Might and Protection to 10 players... While in full Zerker gear with 0 Concentration) whilst also incidentally providing other effects. Engie still has pretty poor burst condi application. Meanwhile, you've got other classes able to drop down 20+ stacks of Bleeding or Torment in no time at all. (The consolation is that Engie applies a reasonable amount of Burning which is a strong condition but still, bursting out like 7 stacks of it and then being like "Welp, time to wait 15s for Blowtorch again and 50s for Incendiary Ammo so I can deal damage again...") The only thing I can think of that Engie has some sort of upper hand with, is when looking at how Revenant's thing is having 10 utility skills due to the dual Legend system. Meanwhile, Engie's been rocking 10 utilities forever because of Toolbelt skills... (Though, this too is mitigated by the fact that a lot of the time it's a choice between a good toolbelt skill OR a good utility skill... But hey, at least they can use all 10 skills unlike Rev who's able to use like 2 skills because each one costs like their entire energy bar while also trying to maintain their upkeep skill(s))

Also, should do the same thing while gliding. Instead of standing around like a lemon, potentially getting murderized by random enemies that happen to be nearby...

One of the issues is the fine line between reducing stat options by simply removing that stat from available gear and reducing stat options by making builds that would use those stats not worthwhile. An alternative solution can be something like adding in more counterplay to specific builds. Especially if it ends up forming a Rock, Paper, Scissors type scenario where each build type has its own strength it can use to best another build type, but it then comes at a weakness to different build type (Ideally, you'd avoid hard counters so that someone who plays well still has a chance of beating the build type they're weak against) For example, if there was a new condition that was more heavily dedicated to countering healing and had some sort of mechanic to make it more difficult to cleanse (Such as "Can only have 1 stack cleansed at a time") you'd open up Condi builds to be able to tear through defensive Bunker builds (Especially if the healing counter was based on Condi damage stats, so Power Burst builds wouldn't be able to utilize it so well). Meanwhile, a Bunker's inherent sustain would make them ideally suited to taking out glassy Burst builds that neither will burst them down nor have the sustain to whittle them over time. But the Burst build would be able to shred the Condi build before they can build up their Condi's to a good level (Well... In theory, in reality there's tons of builds that can crap out 20+ stacks of Condi's in the blink of an eye... Which would likely need to be addressed to round out this particular scenario) Of course, due to the flexibility of gearing, one can then also adjust how far they go towards their particular strength for a better match against their weakness (I.e. A burst build using Marauder/Valkyrie stats instead of Berzerker)

Dagger really is awkward. Literally, the only reason to run any Daggers at all on Necro are to get more self healing in OW content with Dagger MH, or while you're leveling up as Condi before you can get Torch from Scourge... Dagger OH is closest to being functional. It'd only take a few tweaks to become a decent Condi off-hand: Deathly Swarm - Simply add a few stacks of Torment on it in addition to its other effects. Like 2-4ish would seem okay.Enfeebling Blood - It needs to be faster so it will actually land sometime this century. It would also benefit from additional Bleed stacks so it can do a somewhat reasonable amount of damage. Say, 5-10 stacks of Bleed (Given its 25s CD) Dagger MH needs some more work though. It can't really decide if it wants to be a Power weapon (Due to the power scaling on skills 1 and 2) or a Condi weapon (Due to the boon to condi on skill 3 and bleeding affinity on skill 2) and unlike some other classes weapons, ends up being non-viable as either, let alone actually decent as a hybrid weapon (See: Basically all Ele weapons that can be Power or Condi and SB's dagger MH can be Power or Condi) It'd need to really try and pick a direction to go in and be reworked around that, or have much better facilitation of being a hybrid weapon. If it was going to become a proper hybrid (As opposed to opting for one build type) then something like: Necrotic Slash - Also applies 2x 3s Bleed stacksNecrotic Stab - Also applies 4s TormentNecrotic Bite - Also applies 4s Bleed and 4s Torment Life Siphon - Now applies 2s Bleed per tickDamage bonus now based on if a target has Torment Dark Pact - Power coefficient increased by 100%Now also applies 4x 10s Torment stacks to target Dagger will not outperform GS just from some auto attack buffs. Given that GS (Also Axe) in Reaper is powerful because of dropping its high damage CD's (Death Spiral and Nightfall for GS and Ghastly Claws for Axe) while waiting on Shroud's CD the burst Life Force generated by DS and GC also works well for quickly getting back into Shroud. As opposed to using its auto's for long periods of time (In fact, GS's sustained damage leans on sub-50% life Gravedigger spam which doesn't auto attack at all)

Interesting that you'd give Thief a "Duelist" E-Spec, when Mesmer literally has a core spec called "Dueling" and summons Phantasmal Duelists with Pistol... Also, interesting that you'd put Swashbuckler on Mesmer, I'd have thought it'd be more thematic for Thief for an E-Spec that comes with a shield (With the E-Spec skin being that of a buckler, a favourite of Pirates), what with pirates using dirty tricks and pillaging loot (Aka: Stealing. Just with added destruction of property and/or murder) As an aside, a few thoughts I've had about new E-Specs for some classes, not necessarily for 3rd Xpac but just in general: Ranger: Primalist - Attunes to the very essence of nature, granting an affinity for the elements themselves. Loses the ability to have an animal companion, but instead gains the ability to summon a permenent elemental companion. Has an affinity for granting boons to allies based on the element they control. Weapon is Scepter and Focus combo (Purely because only Scepter would leave them with a lack of good OH's and only Focus would leave them with a lack of good MH's). Utilities are Conjures, allowing them to create "Banners" that provide AoE stat boosts, but can also be picked up and used as a conventional weapon with decent skill sets.Idea is for Ranger to get a Boonshare build, to supplement as a non-heal support. Ranger: Desperado - Focuses on marksmanship training to become a deadly shot and lives life as a bandit lord. Animal companions are replaced by a number of bandit NPC's that work for you. Spec provides more focus on ranged combat. Weapon is a Rifle. Utilities are Tricks allowing for the use of underhanded tactics to keep enemies at bay to set up for their deadly shots.Idea is to get some more support for Ranged combat. Since Ranger doesn't have much as it is (Most builds are melee focused with Longbow and Shortbow generally being sub-par weapons in competitive play) Thief: Bard - Learns about the power locked in ancient music, allowing them to harness magic words of power. Steal skill instead becomes a "Verse" which grants them a "Chorus" skill depending on the class of the target, with the effect of Chorus' being to provide boons to the Bard and their allies. Weapon is a Warhorn. Utilities are Glamours with allow them to provide a number of support effects.Idea is to give Thief an actual support build (Or really, anything that isn't raw DPS since that's all they've really been given so far) allowing them to more consistently provide boons to allies. In b4 "But muh Mesmer Bard" - Typically, Bards belong to the Rogue class archetype in games. Also, Mesmer already has Chrono for boonspam so having a Bard (Typically a supportive class) on top seems unnecessary. Engineer: Machinist - Develops new technology that provides in combat support. F5 skill activates a sci-fi HUD that swaps their Toolbelt skills for a new selection. Offering things like Alacrity/Quickness boons, vulnerability debuffs or personal stat boosts. Each skill consumes Battery power and upon running out the HUD deactivates and goes on CD. Weapon is Longbow. Utilities are Stations which function similarly to Spirits, providing AoE buffs at the cost of Battery power (Health) and can be activated to provide additional effects.Idea is to give Engie an actual ranged weapon option. While also providing some flexibility such as allowing them to fill in as a Alacrigade or Quickbrand or simply be a pure damage dealer. Also, as Holosmith provides an F5 that replaces your weapon skills. Why not have the reverse and have an F5 that replaces your toolkit skills? Engineer: Augsmith - Develops technology designed to supplement and improve physical capabilities and thus they have a mechanical exoskeleton. All Toolbelt skills are replaced by new ones which are based on their Exoskeleton. For example, F1 activates the head part of the exoskeleton providing Fury and bonus Ferocity, F2 activates the arms of the Exoskeleton allowing for a strong punch that does high damage and knocks foes back as well as Might stacks. F3 activates the legs of the exoskeleton, providing Swiftness and Quickness. F4 activates the feet of the exoskeleton, allowing a rocket powered leap and fiery landing while providing Stability. While F5 activates the core of the exoskeleton overcharging the powecore providing Retaliation, Alacrity and Barrier. Weapon is a Greatsword. Utilites are Augments that function like Stances but have a restriction of only one being active at a time (Due to the power supply being limited) however, they provide a larger benefit than standard Stances (Also to make up for the lack of Toolbelt skills) with more of their effects being non-boon related boosts.Idea is basically, people like Deus Ex (Also Cyberpunk 2077 is highly anticipated). So why not make Engie have an E-Spec around a similar theme?

PvE builds you say?Reaper: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PSwAEd3lFwOYVsL2IOSXlNbA-zRIYRU/XGRUVVkq2eQCj/Wi4MC-eScourge: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PSwAs+/lNw0YgsKGJWsX1PVA-zRJYmRLfhEXBkbI0RCo5BJI2CvFePrA-e Reaper will generally deal more DPS than Scourge, but Scourge can scale better with party buffs (I.e. When there's someone providing perma-Quickness, one of the main strengths of Reaper, its perma-Quickness while in Shroud, is nullified, also given that a majority of Reapers DPS is from auto attacks in Shroud, perma-Alacrity buffs also offer less bonus as does getting Might/Fury buffs since Reaper provides its own 25 stacks of Might and some Fury uptime) As far as other classes that deal good damage and are low complexity, Guardian and specifically Firebrand is reknown for being high DPS but simple to play.

I think Firearms is in a good spot as it is. Since, it has flexibility making it useful for both Power and Condi builds. Power builds have High Caliber, No Scope and Modified Ammunition. Condi builds have Chemical Rounds, Thermal Vision and Incendiary Powder. At best, maybe Sanguine Array and Juggernaut could be changed into something more supportive to go alongside Pinpoint Distribution's aura. But otherwise the spec is in a good spot in terms of what it can offer. Meanwhile... Inventions is there being kind of weird with no real focus other seemingly being a collection of bad traits with a few okay support ones. While Tools is one tricking around spamming Static Charge (Typically with Rifle Turret and Personal Battering Ram toolbelt skills due to their low CD's)... When your entire specialization is basically just an Adept trait, something's probably wrong. Both of these should see reworks before Firearms, which while maybe not the most exciting is functional and versatile, unlike Inventions and Tools (Also, to a lesser extent, Alchemy, though at least Alchemy gets used in 2 types of builds. There's the personal buff version with HGH and there's the WvW mega-cleanse version using Purity of Purpose alongside Scrapper's mass cleansing from finishers)

Yeah, but that's only possible if you can log into the game. Cries in EU Servers

So, while pets have other, more pressing issues (Namely, that they suck. That they're imbalanced to a point where only a fraction of them are even worth using and are further segregated because of the stats they offer to Soulbeasts) it crossed my mind that there are a number of creatures that cannot currently be pets that seem like they could work. Things like: BatsPlated Behemoths (Not sure exactly what family they belong to though)Oozes (Maybe? They're weird but maybe they are still impressionable enough to be tamable in their early life?)Cave BeastsCrabsGriffons (They are hunted by Norn and a favoured pet of Ogres. Would make some sense for us to tame some ourselves. Can even include the sub-species of Colocal to provide a different skill set within the family due to its inability to fly)Raptors (Another pet favoured by Ogres. Could be funny if your "Pet" was possible to be a group of several Pocket Raptors!)Skales/Skelks (Domesticated by that group in one of the Ascalon zones)Vampire BeastsWind RidersWurms (In before "But muh Norn Racial!" but given that racials aren't relevant in the game, at least let my Norn Ranger tame a Wurm!)Some of these seem like they could be interesting pets in of themselves, if not offering something cool for Soulbeast builds (Shadowsteps from Skales/Skelks? iframes from Oozes? Ranged knockdown from Wurms?)

LB/LB Ranger can be decent and from my experience is quite popular (So much Barrage spam...) Marksmanship for Lead the Wind. Skirmishing for Quick Draw. Gameplay focuses around swapping weapons and using Barrage on CD for good AoE damage. For when there is non-massive meta battling, you can spam Rapid Fire instead to tear through smaller numbers of enemies (Given that it will pierce) Of course, as a Ranger, you'll innately have the capacity to solo Champs too, because you just throw a bear pet at them to tank while you shoot them. Even better if you remain Core and also go Beastmastery for 3rd spec, since then you can swap between 2 bears whom have improved stats (Also, you can access Resounding Timbre and Natural Healing to provide your pet with sustain between healing skills)

I think it would be cool to have additional options on how to sheathe weapons. Such as sheathing 1h swords on the back like a 2h weapon. With the current 2h placement being reversible for an extra slot (I.e. Left shoulder to right hip (Which is used by hammers right?)) Or sheathing certain weapons on the small of the back, such as daggers, pistols and maybe even axes/maces. In addition, it could be cool if you could display both your equipped weapon sets at the same time, using these additional sheathing locations to prevent stacking of similar weapon types. Of course, care would need to be taken to ensure that items provide enough space to not clip horribly (Such as having GS + Sword/Shield all on the back) without singular items seemingly "Floating" too far from the character model. With the final main issue would be is someone was crazy had had 2 different shields equipped... In which case... I don't know? Maybe an additional sheathing option to remain holding a shield?

I'm not advocating any system. I'm merely pointing out that this idea of a "Karma grind" you have idealized as the end-all-be-all of playing GW2 in a way that is one dimensional, actually has interactions with multiple systems. Which would require again, an entire overhaul of the crafting system, since it's designed around the Discovery system. Which the game does tell you about when you talk to the crafting trainers. Also, in many cases, the game does teach players what drops are for. Many of the rare, account bound, items state on them "Used to craft Exotic/Ascended/Legendary equipment" It depends on what events you're doing. HoT map events provide currency for the local faction vendors. PoF map events provide Trade token things. LW map events provide currencies for that map. Central Tyria you get more crafting materials (By way of Map Reward tracks), but you also obtain gear, which can be useful if you're not just buying Exotics off the TP. Not to mention Karma and experience (Though, once at level 80 and capped on masteries I admit that experience does only become Spirit Shards which are pointless outside Legendary crafting) A few things to note here: 1) The entirety of the game is literally about doing things because they're fun. That is the nature of horizontal progression (As opposed to vertical progression of most other MMO's, wherein your objective is to get the ever improving available gear). It is a core feature of the game that does lead to some players losing interest because they run out of things they find enjoyable (After doing all the LW stories, getting all the masteries, doing all the world bosses several times, doing fractals, raids, strikes, WvW, PvP etc... They get to a point where they're just doing stuff they've already done countless times before) 2) The game does teach players about crafting. Also, it'd take some sort of brain dead idiot to not be able to figure out what all these crafting materialsthey keep getting are for in a game that has crafting in it. Sure, they might not know the recipes but they should have an idea that the items are there to craft with. If it's a case of not knowing which ones are valuable... Well, one can easily check TP prices... Typically rare and highly prized materials will sell for more, while common and easily obtained materials will sell for less (I.e. Ecto's sell for ~20s each. Meanwhile Milling Stones don't sell on the TP because everyone gets like a million of them by accident...) I literally mentioned that the game points out all the different pieces of content. No wiki required. Like, it LITERALLY puts a big old sign in front of your face saying "LOOK HERE AT WHAT YOU CAN NOW DO!" to the point of being annoying when I'm leveling a new character and keep needing to close the damn pop up box every level where it tells me about some "New" thing I already know about and have participated in... Other rewards feel meaningless for a new player? Elite specs mean nothing to a new player? What? Map completion rewards offer gear. Which, if you're right and no-one wants to just buy stuff off the TP or from Karma vendors, is somewhat valuable (With high level zones giving guaranteed Exotics). Transmutation Charges are also valuable for new players, given that a primary reward offered by certain systems are skins and so being able to actually use said skins is a good incentive. Meanwhile, E-Specs are one of the highlights of the Expansions. Like a big part of marketing of the expansions is to access the new E-Specs. It's likely that one of the reasons a new player even started playing the game is because they heard about a cool E-Spec. Yes? Due to there being fewer maps in expansions than in Central Tyria? Also, due to the fact that PoF takes place in a DESERT and thus there is a smaller percentage of populated areas that make sense to have hearts (Heck, we have a heart for Choya...) If hearts were unpopular as you suggest, they wouldn't have added repeatable hearts in the LW maps. Nor would they have brought back hearts to the main expansion after HoT which featured no hearts. Again, this is false. As I've mentioned. The game points out a number of activites available. Also, heart completion is not mandatory even in the case that a player doesn't see the giant pop up telling them about things because they'll definitely see the events pop up and know that they can do events for experience in lieu of hearts. It's interesting though, that you're becoming so adamant about new players only seeing hearts after posters had to tell you that hearts were an objective that players had. It seems as though you really have no clue about what new players actually see. Fun fact: I returned to the game after leaving pre-HoT only a few weeks back. So I entered the game as a "Newbie" quite recently and rolled up a brand new Revenant and level up from 1-80 doing events and hearts and map completions, while finding out about stuff like the new WvW and PvP reward tracks, Legendary crafting (While it existed before, it was unclear on how to proceed outside consulting the wiki. These days it's very straight forward since the masteries direct you towards the dude in LA who sells the collections and then you simply look at the collections to find out where to get each item required to get the recipe). I wandered by a Raid entrance because it was a weird symbol on my map and was told about raids In ESO, you are not requried to craft. You can, if you want to, but you don't have to. Even those daily crafts aren't necessary if you're actually crafting, they just offer a minimal investment of crafting in order to level up. Also, if you bother to actually speak with any of the crafting trainers that are stood next to the crafting stations, they literally tell you all about crafting. How to craft, how to discover recipes, what each crafting discipline can make etc. That's a different problem entirely. The fact is, players are notified of the existence of dungeons. The poor population of Story Mode runs doesn't stop that and heck, in a few more levels those players can hop into an exploration mode run which aren't infrequent. Again, it depends on which events you're doing. Also, if a player is given crafting items... They can decide themselves if they want to try crafting or just sell the items and get gold to fund whatever they want (Buying items from TP, trading gold for gems etc) Do I think putting someone in WvW is a good idea? It matters not. The fact is, players are told about the WvW game mode and they can try it at their leisure. Also, not all of WvW is people ganking newbies, there's a lot of other things that happen there as well, such as running around doing some PvE objectives to work on the reward tracks and familiarize oneself with how the mode works Because he sees someone running around with a shiny, glowing weapon that makes them glow and leave shiny footfalls and goes "I want that!"? Like literally everyone else who has obtained a Legendary? If this isn't their first ever MMO, they they'd know that dungeons are often dead content and PvE communities shift towards raids which is usually the more interesting form of instanced content. Also, one could also open up the LFG window and have a look at people recruiting for raids. Since that's a thing that players get told about too.

Karma grind? You mean, interacting with systems in the game that provide karma? Such as doing daily achievements (For Central Tyria and LW maps), doing Fractals, doing Raids or engaging in content inside a LW map that offers Karmic Retribution? As opposed to what? Crafting? Which is, go to a website, find out what you need to craft then go stand in a town pushing the "Craft" button over and over until you have enough skill to push a button that says "Here, have the item you actually care about"? Unless you're trying to argue that the obtaining of materials (Through, running around using gathering tools for ore/lumber/plants or for trophies, sitting in the middle of a bunch of trash enemies farming them for hours on end) is more "Interactive"? Which would require a complete and total overhaul of the games crafting system to actually be engaging gamplay, before your suggestion of increasing the focus on crafting would actually make any sort of improvement to gameplay engagement. The way the game itself is structured, it's all about finding what you as an individual finds engaging. If new players come in, try out the games systems (Leveling up, doing some map completions, dabbling in some crafting, maybe do a dungeon, some WvW and a bit of PvP) and doesn't like it, well it's possible that the game just isn't for them. Not everyone will like the same things. If it's a case of new players simply aren't trying certain activities, then by all means, implement some more pointers to alert players of these activities as well as maybe improving the reward for some currently pretty barren activities (Such as Story Dungeons. Something as simple as a Daily Story Dungeon achivement reward could be enough to populate these) But don't force anyone into a particular activity. That's not how you retain new players, that's how you get new players to leave when they're forced to do stuff they don't like. It's one of the reasons why PvP in this game auto-levels you to 80 and lets you pick up whatever gear you want from the vendor, so that PvP fans, don't have to wade through 80 levels of PvE and then grind PvE content to get the gear they need to do PvP. Which is honestly, one of the best core systems for PvP in any MMO ever. It allows anyone to participate and be on an equal footing to everyone else (As opposed to something like WoW where due to how grindy gear acquisition is, especially for current season stuff that is futher locked behind weekly caps, it means that unless you start PvPing literally the first available point in the expansion, you'll forever be behind on gear) Uhh... Not really. Exploration literally is encouraged in the game. That's why you get rewards for map completions. That's why the content guide will literally point you towards exploring the current map if there's not an event nearby and you aren't tracking a story quest. In fact, with the Elite Specializations, they have also come with collections for their weapons in which one of the points is "Get a map completion in [Current Expansion Zone] as X Class" which ends up with you obtaining an Ascended quality weapon. Hearts can be fun. It's like questing. Only, not mandatory. Hearts removed from expansions? PoF is full of hearts. In fact, mount acquisition is tied to completing hearts. Then of course the LW maps have REPEATABLE HEARTS. Meaning every day, it gets reset and you can do the heart again for more rewards (Also, to access the vendor again) Making heart completion mandatory isn't a good thing. Making anything mandatory isn't a good thing. Luckily, at the moment, nothing in GW2 is mandatory. For the most part, it does. At around level 5-6, every character working through their starter zone winds up at a town/camp that is full of crafters where they can learn to craft. Characters also get given a set of gathering tools as a level up reward. Every 10 levels, you get a mail sent to you telling you about a new dungeon. The content guide will literally point you towards events that are happening. With some things like World Bosses and Bloodstone Crazed monsters being announced zone wide with a zone wide marker on the minimap. WvW gets announced as a level up reward at level 31 (60 for F2P accounts) There's an entire line of Mastery points dedicated to crafting Legendaries and running Fractals. Raids get announced if you go near an entrance portal (I think they're also mentioned upon hitting level 80 too) What content isn't shown to players?

You're aware that Chrono's weapon is a Shield right? Power Soulbeast also does use dagger. Typical build is GS + D/A As far as other spec weapons, some builds do use them. Elementalist:Scepter/Warhorn is used in PvESword/Dagger is used in PvE Warrior:Condi Zerker uses Sword/Torch and LBAxe/Dagger + Mace/Axe is used in PvEGS + Dagger/Shield is used in PvP Ranger:As mentioned, GS + Dagger/Axe is used in PvEAxe/Warhorn + Staff is also used in PvE Necromancer:GS + Axe/Focus is used for ReaperScepter/Torch + Torch is used in PvE for Condi Scourge Guardian:Condibrand uses Scepter/Torch + Axe in PvEHealbrand uses Axe/Shield + Staff in PvESymbolbrand uses Axe/Shield + Scepter/Focus in PvP Thief:Rifle + D/D is used in PvEStaff is also used in PvE Engineer:Rifle + Sword/Pistol is used in PvEHammer is used in WvWSword/Shield is used in PvP Mesmer:Axe/Pistol + Torch is used in PvESword/Sword + Shield is used in PvESword/Focus + Shield is used in WvWAxe/Pistol + Sword Torch is used in PvP Revenant:Mace/Axe + Shortbow is used in PvEMace/Axe + Sword/Shield is used in PvP for Condi Herald Specialization weapons are not universally used, but some do have their uses. Which is good, since it means they're not outright powercreep over core weapons. It's really just sucky that DH's LB just doesn't see any play, making it the only E-Spec weapon that never gets used in any game mode.

On EU, I was playing just fine (Logged in a few hours ago though) but just started getting spammed with "LOG IN SERVERS ARE DOWN LOG IN SERVERS ARE DOWNLOGINSEVERSAREDOWNLOGINSERVERSAREDOWN!" what felt like 4000 times per minute... Seems to be some sort of server malfunction across both regions.

Given that buying stuff off the TP is literally the best way to obtain items, yes. Otherwise, you're going to spent hours and hours and hours working with RNG. Be it getting RNG Exotics from drops or getting crafting materials (Trophies required to make stat components, Ectoplasms for Exotic gear etc) and spending far, far, far more gold that you would simply buying the items you need off the TP allowing you to simply care about playing the game. Since that's the thing. Crafting is literally just an end-game thing. It's not worthwhile to pursue it for any reason other than Legendaries or Ascended gear. It's far easier to obtain Exotics through just purchasing off the TP and in the case of HoT stat lines, participating in HoT events (Which are far easier when you have a set of Exotic gear with not trash stats) It's only a very minor part of the game. There are a plethora of other parts of the game outside of crafting. OW (Where you can get achievements, rare skins, transmutation charges to use said rare skins and participate in events and world bosses), Dungeons, Fractals, Strikes, Raids, WvW and PvP. None of these other systems are being bypassed simply by getting a starter set of gear via purchasing off the TP. Heck, a new player might even use a level 80 boost at some point and get a free set of Exotics and some 15 slot bags. Does that mean they skipped a majority of the games systems? Or does it mean that they can instead focus on enjoying the games systems because collecting loot is an incredibly minor part of this game which defines itself as not being a gear treadmill type game. Different strokes for different folks honestly. I played ESO quite a lot and crafting was never a thing I really did. I was never incentivised to do it. Anything I needed, I could just buy because I had a huge stack of gold from... "Borrowing" items from civilian NPC's... With crafting really only being worthwhile if you happened to want gear with one of the few crafting exclusive set bonuses (Otherwise you can just farm a particular zone or dungeon to get the stuff you need and eventually get the highest rarity and be done with gearing) As a result, I only did crafting after getting all my characters set up, just because why not just do the daily crafting orders for something to do... Gotta spend my truckload of gold somewhere... Hearts can be fun. Map completion can be fun. You can also get items for collections from Heart vendors, as well as some unique skins. The objective here is fun. GW2 is all about finding what you consider fun and doing it. You don't need to farm gold (The game literally gives it to you, 2g per day from daily PvE bag for doing like 4 events and taking a Mesmer portal at a JP. Plus whatever you eke out from selling loot on the TP such as like 20s per Ecto which can be easily obtained from salvaging the stacks of 250+ Unidentified Items you get from doing basically anything in the OW) especially since most Exotic gear on the TP is dirt cheap, we're talking like 30s-2g a piece (With only really Berserker gear being 2g because it's BiS for DPS most other stats are 1g max) As such, Crafting is something not everyone finds fun. Ergo, forcing people into it is probably not a good idea. Hearts and Map completion is something not everyone finds fun. But it's not forced on anyone. If someone wishes, they can skip that and just level up doing PS/Events/mob farming (The latter being extremely efficient with boosters. I.e. With a Birthday Booster and a Killstreak Booster I can level a character 1-80 in about 3 hours) and then start doing level 80 content such as LW (If available), events, instanced content or ust hop into WvW/PvP (Heck a level 2 character can simply hop into sPvP and skip literally the majority of the game and only play sPvP if they wanted)

Tendril Torchers is made annoying by how hidden like half of the tendrils actually are... Once you know where they all are, it's all a matter of running the right route. Shooting Gallery seems ridiculously easy these days. I got an easy gold on it with time to spare on my second attempt (My first attempt it took me a minute to realize that you can run about while shooting... Even THEN after a full minute of trying to hit 1 target, I nearly got gold too) Though others can be annoying, like Scrap Rifle Field Test (Which is even worse because you get a benefit for having Condi gear). The Ley-Line Run is also pretty tight on the timer. A Fungus Among Us is also quite awkward but that's mostly because of how jank the Mushrum is to use.

One option is use projectile hate. I.e. Poison Cloud Another option is to break it, ideally during the big long cast to interrupt it and put it on CD (So, keep its Defiance bar low, but not broken until it casts) The third option is to simply tank it. Using stuff like Blood Magic + tons of minions, Dagger MH skill 2, Spectral Armour, Wells + Siphoning Wells GM trait in Blood Magic, using Rise! or even dipping into Death Magic and getting some Death's Carapace stacks for extra toughness. The final option it to try and just burst it down before it can do much. I.e. Drop Well of Suffering + Nightfall > Death Spiral > Reaper Shroud > Infusing Terror > Terrify (Detonate the IT shield to apply Fear and Chill) > Soul Spiral > auto attack until shroud drops > Death Spiral > Grave Digger spam until its dead.