[Make reaper's shroud optional for more build variaty!]

@Stand The Wall.6987 said:

@"Kodama.6453" said:Losing access to core shroud is one of the intended trade offs for reaper, they won't (and shouldn't) make it optional.

I don't understand why people say this, I've heard it said for other professions as well. especs are a mechanic change not a trade off, unless core is better for some reason (cough cough mes cough).

Trade-offs aren't necessarily imbalanced though.

For example, imagine you have a $1 bill. Then you trade with someone for 4 quarters.

The trade off in this example is you no longer have a $1 bill, but now you have 4 quarters instead. The monetary value is the same at $1, but the usage of each type of currency is different (With 4 quarters you can provide exact change more easily. Meanwhile certain vending machines only accept bills)

In regards to E-Specs, the "Trade off" becoming a negative value occurs because in some cases the E-Spec's didn't really change a mechanic at all, they just added something on top of it and thus to try and limit how much power creep the E-Spec was ANet have tried to slap in some negative aspects to balance things out.

I.e. Druid simply gets the Celestial Avatar mechanic ontop of base Ranger pets. So they get -20% pet stats to try and put them more in line. Soulbeast simply got the Merge mechanic added on top of base Ranger pets. So they added in the inability to swap pets in combat to try and put them more in line.

In some cases, though, E-Spec mechanics are still just flat out better than Core. Such as is the case of Reaper, Mirage, both Guardian E-Specs, both Engie E-Specs, both Elementalist E-Specs and both Thief E-Specs...

Due to either accessing most, if not all, of the core class mechanic or having one that is a direct upgrade. (Mirage has Core Mesmer shatters, Engie still gets their F1-F4 skills untouched and the F5 skills they get replaced by the E-Spec unique skill are garbage anyway, Elementalists still get all of their Attunements, Thieves get improved Steal skills, Guardians get improved Virtues, Reaper gets better Shroud)

[Make reaper's shroud optional for more build variaty!]

@Sigmoid.7082 said:You don't really need LF gain on the auto, it's has pretty decent range, just needs to cast a little faster.

No LF gain on the auto, when Reaper has a lot of focus on getting really strong by being in Shroud making you want to be in Shroud for as long as possible is a significant downside.

@Sigmoid.7082 said:Mobility is janky but that's mostly a necro problem. Besides the #2 skill is far more than mobility. Just needs a faster cast and travel time.

Oh yes, far more. It's also 2 stacks of bleed and a 3s chill. That's tons more relevant things than mobility! /s

It's really just the mobility and the Chill that the skill provides, with mobility being the biggest factor because it's the thing that Necro really needs in PvP (Meanwhile in PvE, the skill is pretty useless)

@Sigmoid.7082 said:Life transfer isn't that weak. If we're talking PvP it has the same coeff as soul spiral , it's just needs to cast faster.

Same power coefficient, but doesn't have the poison stacks on it, isn't a Whirl finisher and has a 50% longer cast time and can't be covered by Stab offered by Infusing Terror.

While in PvE, it has a lower power coefficient than Soul Spiral in addition to the above mentioned things.

Ergo, weak.

@Sigmoid.7082 said:Trained shackles is also pretty strong and the core shrouds kit can be specified to be either type of damage based on how the skills work.

It's strong if enemies can't move away from you to break the tethers and stop the damage. Which, given Necro's low mobility and Core Shrouds janky mobility skill, isn't that difficult.

In PvE it's weak unless you're Condi. Its usable due to only requiring a 0.25s cast but it's not amazing (Especially given it doesn't scale with Quickness as a result) if you're a power build, which you generally will be if running Reaper.

Core shroud's kit can't really be specified to either type, especially not when running Reaper since Reaper inherently has bad Condi support. Maybe if Dhuumfire didn't have a CD then it plus Core Shroud 1 would be useful for applying Condi's (Otherwise you're looking at literally just Tainted Shackles as your only Condi source unless you count a laughable 2 stacks of an 8s Bleed from skill 2 every 6-8 seconds as worthwhile Condi damage which means your Shroud is only good once per 25-30s in a Condi build)

Though, if Dhuumfire didn't have a CD, then Reaper Shroud would still be better as it attacks every 0.5s baseline rather than 1s baseline like with Core Shroud (Also, those autos also reduce the CD of Soul Spiral allowing you to stack that Poison too and/or get Whirl Finisher procs in Poison/Fire fields)

TL;DRCore Shroud sucks compared to Reaper Shroud.

[Would a digital/online collectible card game ( CCG ) be an option - as addition to GW2?]

As much as I like CCG/TCG's I'm not sure if it would be a viable thing for ANet to do with the Guild Wars franchise.

For physical TCG, it would have to compete with the likes of MTG, Yu-Gi-Oh, Final Fantasy, Star Realms and the Pokemans.For digital CCG/TCG it would have to compete with Hearthstone, MTG: Arena, Legends of Runeterra, Yu-Gi-Oh, Gwent and Star Realms.

Which makes it hard for such a thing to make a splash and draw in fans from outside of GW1/2 players. While dedicating resources specifically targetting the subsection of existing fans of the series who'd enjoy a card game probably wouldn't be the most lucrative.

From a lore standpoint, they have a plethora of notable characters that they could use as the basis of a card game. Not to mention they can also make Elder Dragon themed decks with Zhaitan's undead minions, Mordremoth's plants and vines, Jormag's icebrood and Sons of Svanir, Kralkatorrik's Branded, Primordus' Destroyers and S...ea dragon's whatever the heck they're minions are. Could even throw in some Human god themed decks too.

So it's not as if they don't have a basis that can fuel a card game. It's just a case of the resource cost to develop and maintain vs how likely it will be to succeed and make a profit.

[Make reaper's shroud optional for more build variaty!]

Core shroud is pretty bad though.

No life force gain on skill 1, jank mobility skill, Life Transfer is easily interrupted and really weak and Tainted Shackles is a rando Condi skill while the rest of core shroud's damage is power based (While if you wanted core shroud because of that condi skill for a Condi Reaper build, you wouldn't be running GS and so could justify going Condi Core anyway...)

At best you could try and get carried by Reaper's Onslaught. Only it wouldn't be as effective given that core shroud's auto attack is worse than Reaper. Even then, your gameplay wouldn't be great and would in fact be worse than Reaper (Since Reaper at least uses Soul Spiral for DPS which gets CDR from using auto attack chains, while core shroud would get max DPS by ignoring literally every skill and just spamming auto attack).

A better solution to the issue of "Boring shroud" gameplay would be looking for enhancements to Shroud interactivity (For both Core and Reaper), such as utility skills, better distribution of damage skills (I.e. Executioner's Scythe not sucking) and reduced number of ridiculous buffs while being in Shroud to facilitate more shifting in and out of shroud and less "Enter shroud, hit things for ~10 seconds, leave shroud, get max LF as fast as possible, repeat" (Or worse, with Perma-Shroud Reaper where you just sit in Shroud using auto attacks forever)

[The new player experience needs love]

Exploring the world of Tyria is in of itself, an objective for a new player.

Doing hearts and map completions is a goal to acheive for new players and is one of the primary draws that the initial release game had. The other is getting to level 80 so you unlock all your class skills and specs while gaining access to all the level 80 daily activities.

As far as crafting goes... It's more expensive to level up a craft from 1-400 than it is to buy a full set of level 80 Exotics of the market with perfect stats. This doesn't even include the expense that is actually crafting said exotics after reacing 400 crafting (Or the fact that a single crafting discipline cannot produce 1 full set of gear as Armour, Weapons and Jewelery all require different disciplines, with weapons being additionally split across multiple disciplines)

AND this is while factoring in leveling crafting via following a crafting website's optimized leveling guide to level you up at the lowest cost possible.

As such, I don't think pushing players towards crafting would be beneficial at all. Given that crafting in of itself is only really useful for obtaining Ascended gear and Legendaries (With Cooking and Artificing being useful to make your own consumables) both of which are only valuable while at level 80 and quite rich. Oh, and also getting big bags (Though, sell enough materials and you can get gold to buy some bags)

Imagine how impressed new players would be spending hours leveling crafting, spending all their resources (Gold and Karma) on getting recipes and vendor bought ingredients... Only to then recieve better gear from level up rewards or personal story for free anyway.

[adding already existing story instances, as new fractals and strike missions.]

Meanwhile, in game:

Story Mode path for dungeons - Tumbleweed

Also, the difficulty scaling is not particularly exciting. Since HoT last quest does in fact include a challenge mote to scale it to a 5 player instance, but it's not quite high tier Fractal content.

Beyond that? Well, my experience of many story instances beyond the first run through is tabbing out to troll the forums for like 20 minutes while the NPC's jabber on and on and on and on and on and on and 15 unskippable cutscenes occur... Then I tab back in, click speak on the next NPC and then tab out again while they jabber on and on and on and on and on some more...

Not quite what I'd consider worthy party content.

[Engie Utilities Buff Suggestions]

@Dawdler.8521 said:

@"Taril.8619" said:There are so few times where the full 13 condi conversion is neededYou've never played WvW, have you, lol?

In all of the game, WvW marks a small portion of the total.

Between PvE (All modes, OW, Dungeon, Fractals, Strikes and Raids), WvW and sPvP. The number of times in which 13 condi's are applied to players is few, with it being relegated nearly entirely to WvW.

Add in the fact that in WvW, since the mode is blob vs blob, you also receive the benefit that is multiple players AoE condi cleanses which can mitigate numerous condi's to make a full 13 condi stack even less pronounced. Will it happen? Yes. Can it happen regularly? Yes. Is it a large or even moderate portion of the entire game so much so that a utility that is explicitly just "Remove 13 condi's" is worthwhile? No. (The fact that no meta WvW builds even run the Elixir should provide evidence for this, especially when WvW builds vastly favour AoE effects such as Purge Gyro, Medkit for Cleansing Field and Elixir Gun for Fumigate - Not to mention the light fields to proc finishers for more AoE condi cleanse)

[Engie Utilities Buff Suggestions]

Preface: These are probably terrible suggestions and broken but whatever xD

Generic:

• Toolbelt skills no longer have cast times.Reason: Some toolbelt skills already have no cast time, while others have really short cast times which interrupt skills. Given that these effects are all coming from your toolbelt, they should have similar ease of use. (Possible exceptions: Bandage Self because that's the actual heal skill portion of Med Kit hence its 1s cast time. Though given the prominence of Healing Turret due to its power, maybe instant self heal could be what Med Kit needs to see more use). In addition, many toolbelt skills also have travel time due to using projectiles which can give enough of a delay to prevent WTFBurst from dropping an entire toolbelt on someone (If needed for balance reasons, increase travel times by a few miliseconds at point blank range)

Elixirs:

• Elixir H - Now also includes 2s Resistance. Both on the skill and its toolbelt action.Reason: - Healing Turret provides a lot between Regen, AoE healing, Blast finisher, lowered CD if you pick it up and Condi Cleanse. Elixir H having some Resistance alongside its Protection could make it more desirable in lieu of HT especially in an Elixir focused build with Alchemy and Concentration.

• Elixir B - Cooldown decreased to 30s. Duration increased to 15s.Reason: - In an age where Herald exists and can provide perma Regen, Swiftness, 25 Might, Fury and Protection to themselves and several allies with baseline Glint and no Concentration (While also still being able to use the Consume skills meaning they still get full Utility slots) ON TOP of their extra boon duration aura, Engie at the very least should be able to provide themselves with Perma-Boons when taking HGH and having a little extra Concentration with Elixir B. (With HGH the CD of EB would be 24s and the duration would be 18s base and 21s with the Concentration provided by Compounding Chemicals)

• Elixir U - Cooldown decreased to 30s. Duration increased to 10s.Reason: - Again, in an age where Firebrand and Chrono can apply perma-Quickness to multiple allies with relative ease, so should an Alchy Elixir Concentration Engie be able to provide high uptime of Quickness themselves. This duration/CD with HGH and high Boon duration could allow an Engie to have perma Quickness if they wish (Which might impact Scrapper DPS if they can justify the stat and spec usage over your typcial Berzerkers + Firearms/Explosive which is the go-to for DPS on Engie)

• Elixir C - Reworked. Now sprays the Elixir in a PBAoE converting Condi's into Boons for allies in the area. 5 Condi's converted, 5 targets max.

• Toss Elixir C - Reworked. Now converts Boons on enemies into Condi's. 2 Boons converted, 5 targets max.Reason: Elixir C is a little underwhelming due to its incredibly niche usage. There are so few times where the full 13 condi conversion is needed and it has limited utility because the team application is only a minimal part of the overall skill. Changing the base skill into something more party friendly and providing the toolbelt skill with a unique utility of boonstrip could make the skill more desirable. (Concerns could be adding more Condi cleanse to Scrapper in WvW, though, whether or not Scrappers would make use of it or if they feel they already had enough access to Condi cleanse is debatable)

• Elixir R - Also removes Chilled and Cripple.Reason: While Elixir R can be pretty good with its Endurance gain, adding another layer of movement impairing removal could make it see more use, though this suggestion is made cautiously given how nice the 100 Endurance gain is.

Kits

• Flamethrower - Flame Jet cast time and number of attacks reduced by 50% (5 attacks, 1s cast time)Reason: Flamethrower ironically sucks at applying Burning. Shorter cast time on Flame Jet means more opportunity to proc the Burning effect from the final hit. Making it comparable to Pistol auto's (With Chemical Rounds) in a Condi build (This change will make it do slightly higher DPS than pistol auto's while Pistol will provide longer range and be less impacted by interrupts or by enemies evading the last hit from Flame Jet)

• Bomb Kit - Bomb now has a 20% chance to be a Blast finisher.Reason: Bomb Kit is pretty much superceded by Grenade Kit in the majority of the game especially with its limited range. Having a unique effect of RNG Blast finishers could be an interesting way to spice the kit up especially for Scrappers. (BOB is supposedly being worked on alongside other long delay skills so I won't address that here)

Gadgets

• Slick Shoes - Now also provides Swiftness for 15s.Reason: Gotta go fast.

• Rocket Boots - Is now a ground target ability. Allowing you to choose where you land (Including allowing you to jump in place)Reason: Adds more flexibility, especially when trying to use the damage and Blast finisher. Also prevents annoying things like being screwed due to facing something like the edge of a cliff, while being Immobilized so you can't turn around to not fling yourself to your death...

• Utility Goggles - Detection Pulse now also applies Fury to allies in the area. Max targets 5.Reason: Ze goggles, zey do nothing! More seriously, provides a little more utility to the utility goggles, adds a thematic bonus of being able to crit more (Points out weak spots). Makes the toolbelt skill have a use in more situations.

Final Comments:

I've purposely left out Tool Kit, Elixir X and Turrets, because I feel they require a more involved rework/overhaul to make them more useful. With changing of their effects, abilities and more rather than just a few tweaks here and there.

Other skills that don't appear here are either fine, or should be improved enough by the generic change to toolbelt cast times that I feel they would be fine as is

[I wish it was possible to use Underwater skills on land]

By which I mean, instead of having Ground Target skills, they become centred around the enemy target/yourself (Depending on if they're offensive or defensive respectively)

Even more so if it were selectable on a per skill basis. So you can still have some skills as ground target effects if you wish (Due to their utility uses or to use against stealthed enemies)

Yes, I know there's an option to auto place Ground Target skills underneath your target, but that's not a perfect solution since there's things like some GT effects you don't want to put under your target (Such as Chrono Wells if you're after buffing ranged characters) as well as the jankiness that can come with LoS issues using Ground Targetting in general (Oh noes, a 1mm pebble is in the way! OBSTRUCTED) and of course the "All or nothing" nature of the option.

Also in a similar vein, it'd be nice if more GT skills were usable underwater via going along with the system already in place for some of them (Whereby they cast on target/self) to make Underwater combat less annoying af if your build happens to rely on them.

[Will Guild Wars 2 be the best MMO in future?]

@Orack.9756 said:

@AliamRationem.5172 said:

@Severo.7091 said:

@Orack.9756 said:

@"vesica tempestas.1563" said:Tbh eso is far superior to wow and is a better benchmark, the only thing that holds eso back is its terrible performance outwith open world. If this is fixed it would arguably be better than gw2 on all areas apprt from underwater play and a slightly better no sub model.

As a retired HL ESO player, I agree and disagree.

ESO have a true potential, but :

• Performance are horrible and get worse each patch
• Most content, especially Open world and dungeon are boringly easy and feel dead (no even, no hidden loc, no world event, etc..)
• The way you discover the lore feel very unnatural
• The fact that everything is so easy to get made the game boring fast for those like me who don't really care about housing. The last years of playing I was just spamming raid for for HM and some achievement.
• Gameplay feel way less dynamic (probably similar to gw2 in raid but in open world it's boring)

But :

• It got a very cool graphique design choice, very immersive
• Incredibly deep lore, really love it
• Housing (if you like it) is incredible, I've see some insane house
• You can be a Werewolf or Vampire in + of your class (with some advantage and drawback) if you like it

I think a mix of ESO and GW2 would be incredible ^^But, for now, I find GW2 pretty fun with lot of thing to do.And since for the moment I'm more into solo stuff or event farm, it is fun and way less boring than spamming the same 3-4 raid each day ~

After all : matter of taste !

ESO's combat was bloody awful. Everyone runs around stopped over. I truly despise that game. Whereas, GW2's combat is vibrant. I have never had an issue with combat graphics in this game.

I agree. I played ESO for a little bit and thought I was actually going to stick with it because the game seemed really fun and interesting. However, it quickly became apparent that their combat system is pretty weak compared to GW2. Floaty movement, poor hit detection/wonky combat animations, heavy reliance on charged attacks and cast/cancel animations, and insane lag in competitive play make ESO a game that looks quite excellent on the surface, but is actually straight garbage once you start digging into it!

Even worse is BnS! What a combat system that game has! That's one of the most important aspects of game play to me and BnS sure delivers! It feels more like a fighting game than an MMO and I sense there was a lot of depth there. The problem with BnS is that the rest of the game just seems like trash. You have a very generic storyline that as far as I can tell every character you create has to play through with pretty much no variation. I might have been able to stomach that, too, if you didn't end up dealing with issues like zoning into a PvP match to find the match has already started without you while you were lagging in...just not worth my time for such a low quality game. The extremely Asian art style didn't help matters for me!

If we speak only about combat system, my vote go with no doubt to the good old Dragon Nest.Every other aspect of the game was trash. But the game combat was a jewel with all these combo and fluidity, what a waste of potential :/

To be honest, BDO has some amazing combat.

It's just too bad it's ultra P2W with literally the worst ever equipment upgrade system ever invented as well as offering no combat content other than grinding OW enemies and occasionally griefing/being griefed by forcing PvP... Also, I'm not too fond of the whole "Use your basic weapon for like 60 levels and then awaken and get your new stronger weapon type that plays completely differently that you use for the rest of your time playing" thing.

(Other aspects of the game aren't that bad though. It's a very pretty game with an incredible character creation system and the trading activity is pretty cool. Also, I love how the mounts are actually real living things in the game, meaning when you jump off your horse and go kill stuff, you have to go back to where you left it in order to mount up again, you don't simply poof it underneath yourself at a whim)

[[Poll] Weapon for the next Engineer Elite Specialization]

@Kodama.6453 said:I don't get why so many people want a 2handed weapon....We already are extremely limited when it comes to weapon choices. Would be nice to get a little more options by giving us a 1handed weapon for both main- and offhand.Especially since the next elite spec should focus on conditions, which means that offhand pistol might be a great choice together with a new mainhand weapon.

Well, I guess it's due to the fact that a 2h weapon = 5 new skills. As opposed to a 1h weapon which is only 2 or 3 new skills.

Couple with the fact that given Engie's barely existing Core weapon sets, 1h weapons don't offer that much choice.

For example, if we got a new OH weapon like Torch (Could be likely if we think a Condi based E-Spec is coming), Focus or Warhorn then the options for pairing are... Pistol MH and... Pistol MH.

Even with a new MH weapon, there's still only 2 options to use in OH, Pistol and Shield.

Maybe if there was a dual weapon set that was given to Engie it would make things better, but outside of bringing in an asymettrical pair of E-Spec weapons for the first time, Engie is left with just Dagger/Dagger, Axe/Axe or Mace/Mace as options (Since Pistol/Pistol is already possible and Holo uses Sword MH so Sword/Sword is not possible) which is uncertain in their likelyhood of being chosen (Yet another E-Spec Condi Axe?) even IF dual weapon sets get used again as it's only Spellbreaker that has recieved one.

But even with a dual weapon set, there's still going to be very limited options with 2 MH choices and 3 OH ones and if we're still thinking a Condi based E-Spec then they'd be directly competing with Pistol/Pistol (I don't think Shield is really going exist as an option for a Condi OH given that Pistol already beats it due to how strong Blowtorch is)

On Topic:

I vote for Longbow. Since I like longbows IRL.

Could offer a lot of interesting design. Such as adding payloads to arrows (Like Timed Charge underwater), arrows with drills for arrowheads (To cause damage over time as it drills through enemies), attaching chains/cords to connect enemies hit by a piercing shot and electrocuting them based on their proximity, using explosive charges that detonate and fling shrapnel in a PBAoE or a directional cone...

Also, it could be interesting to get an actual ranged weapon for Engie. Given that all their current weapons and E-Spec weapons are all melee focused, even Rifle and Pistol want you to get up close for Blunderbuss/Jump Shot and Blowtorch.

[Will Guild Wars 2 be the best MMO in future?]

Well... I'll hop onto the train of "Bigger =/= Better" given that WoW is one of (If not still THE) biggest MMO out there, but is also one of the worst. Now, if we were talking about TBC/early WotLK era WoW... That was one of the best MMO's to have existed.

As far as GW2 goes...

Will it be the best? No. ANet just doesn't have the resources needed to put in all the content and polishing required to reach the pinnacle of MMO potential. Heck, they're already having to resort to adding in more Outfits as opposed to actual armour pieces because of issues with resources required.

Could it be the best? Sure it could. Especially given that right now, MMO's are in a rough spot, with major players in the MMO market falling down due to not really understanding the nature of why people play MMO's and why WoW was such a success in its early days (So you have things like WoW adding in horrible grinds, horrible timegated content and worse yet, a lot of their "Updates" have featured little to no actual content. FFXIV is literally just copy/pasting its formula it created 10 years ago with no evolution)

But again, the resources required to pull it off is probably above what ANet has access to. Especially with MMO players in general being disinclined to really get invested given how other MMO's have gone in recent times.

Meanwhile, we have some very large companies producing new MMO's which could make a notable impact on the genre. Bandai Namco are releasing Blue Protocol soon, which while a very Japanese MMO (What with Anime styling and being initially released in the East only, with a Western release in the pipeline given their hiring of Western Localization teams). Amazon, the mega-corporation is producing 2 MMO's, New World (Due to release in August) which is supposedly going to be a sort of Survival game like Day Z or Rust as well as an MMO, they're also producing an as yet unnamed LotR MMO (Yes, they already own LotR: Online, but they're making a 2nd LotR MMO to exist alongside it), there's a MTG MMO in the works too which will have the backing of Wizards of the Coast and their decades worth of MTG profits (Also being published by Perfect World Entertainment, whom also have what feels like 5 million other MMO titles, albeit mostly trashy Korean Grindfests), NCSoft themselves are also producing Project TL an ARPG/MMO mashup.

Many of these companies could have the resources needed to be able to create the new big hit MMO (Since, one of the major things is not only having a good launch with decent servers which don't implode when people have the audacity to play the game... But also to have that follow up end-game content in development for when people inevitably hit max level, since stagnating with no end-game content can really harm an MMO as it did for games like Rift), that is depending on how much they're willing to invest into the game.

MMO's are really resource intensive games. Given that they rely on a steady stream of content in order to maintain players. But they can also be really profitable, heck even with a fraction of its former population as well as overall mediocrity WoW still earns billions in net profit.

[Lion's Arch Diving Point]

You can still move while in the air.

So, hold W while you fall to land in the water.

[Your favorite content type in GW2?]

Toss up between Story and OW.

I think OW edges out, simply because it has slightly better replay value due to there being far more variety in available maps/events with different metas that can also utilize different mechanics.

Also, some characters in the Story suck... Which makes it sometimes excruciating to play through a story and listen to them whine for what feels like 4 whole eternities...

Dungeons... Ehh... Sometimes they're fun. Other times everyone is just skipping everything (It's also sometimes hard to find groups for particular routes, especially Story modes, because the idea is mostly to speedrun the quickest and easiest path)

WvW I haven't played in a while. Blob vs Blob combat doesn't really appeal to me and roaming from my experience is mostly just glass cannon builds trying to insta-gib other glass cannons.

PvP/Raids/Strikes I haven't really got around to properly playing yet. I've played a bit but not really invested much into it so it's hard to say.

[Elementalist or Necromancer]

DPS checks aren't so tight as to mandate running top tier FotM meta builds.

Heck, even min-max PvE sites like Snow Crows has builds on there for Necro.

Add in the fact that a "Lower tier" DPS played competently is significantly better than a FotM DPS played poorly as well as the fact that many higher DPS builds can also have limited utility compared to something like Necro (Which can easily provide some decent breakbar damage, boon strip, condi cleanse and even some party healing) which makes it much easier to be useful in PuGs that won't always be running the optimal group set ups.

Means really, you shouldn't have much of a problem playing Necro if that's what you find more fun. As it's only real downside is that it's not the "Best" when doing min-max'd Raids (Where perma-Quickness + Alacrity buff builds are common increasing other builds DPS more than Necro's) but these aren't necessary to do.

[Will there ever be new additions to Core classes?]

@Sobx.1758 said:Might as well rework half of the traits/skills that are unusable or barely ever used instead of providing new ones without having the old ones sorted out in the first place.

Which would still imply addressing core classes instead of focusing entirely on E-Specs.

Not that reworking existing weapons sets/utilities/traits is mutually exclusive from adding anything new. Heck, we've had 2 E-Specs for each class added while there are still plenty of awful Core weapon sets/utilities/traits.

@Sobx.1758 said:Which limits the number of combinations and makes the balancing that much easier, which still isn't perfect. I don't think anyone cares about "only usable after level 80", seeing how there's no reason to stay on lower level other than some bag opening bot, which doesn't need access to every spec and doesn't complete any content anyways so it won't accidentally level up. Not sure how that level 80 is important at all here.

Meanwhile, my opinion is that the limited number of combinations is also less interesting and the notion of "Harder to balance" not weighty enough.

New players care about "Only usable after level 80" (Even more so if a new player uses a level 80 boost they get with an expansion purchase, they only get to run around Silverwastes with Core specs to try out the class)

Players that don't have all 9 classes at level 80 and/or stacks of Tomes of Knowledge and thus might end up actually levelling a class up to 80 care.

@Sobx.1758 said:Cool. But why? They could also add 2 especs. But workload, balancing, ideas, yaddayaddayadda. We know nothing about the exact state of anet, saying "more more more" is easy, but it does nothing. Especs just seem way more interesting to me either way.

Why? More variety, more options. With also less required work (In the sense that E-Specs seem to have established themselves with a motif of being a new Spec + weapon + set of utilities, meaning any new E-Spec is likely going to be bound by requiring the full Spec + weapon + utilities combination. As opposed to simply adding say, 1 new line of Utilities to core and nothing else as a single update)

@Sobx.1758 said:It seems that by that logic, it also goes down the drain in regards of base specs, because there's pretty much always some cookie cutter, top tier, meta build that eats most other. You either care about playing the strongest and it just happens anyways (and will always happen) or you don't and you miss and match whatever you want anyways. Especs didn't magically do that, it was always here.

The difference is that before E-Specs, the difference between builds wasn't as large and for a lot of classes there was 2 primary DPS specs and then the third spec was your preferred flavour of utility.

With E-Specs, it's a case where it's 2 primary DPS specs and then an E-Spec because E-Spec > All.

Meaning that you've lost that option of your 3rd spec even when playing meta.

Beyond that, there's plenty of room for non-meta builds in places like OW content, Dungeons and low tier Fractals, casual WvW. But even here, the strengths of E-Specs can drown out any notion of playing some Core build you find interesting.

To say nothing about the aspect of E-Specs being that as we shift from E-Spec to E-Spec due to whatever is Flavour of the Expansion, it also can change how your classes play on a fundamental level, due to how many E-Specs are focused around altering class mechanics (Which you may or may not enjoy. For example, some people don't like how clunky Weaver can feel due to its need to re-attune twice to swap their Skills 4 and 5. Some people prefer Necro's Shroud mechanic over Scourge's Sand Shades and F1 skills etc)

Adding stuff to Core can mean that if people have a particular build with an E-Spec and class mechanics they like, they still get new things to play with within it as opposed to only new E-Specs which makes them have to choose between the build they like and the new stuff (If of course, the new E-Spec isn't powercreeping/their E-Spec getting nerfed)

@Sobx.1758 said:One way or another, that's my opinion about it. Especs seem much more interesting to me, they seem to be easier to balance and we know even those still cause issues.

Fair enough.

Personally, I like E-Specs. But more due to their class mechanic altering as opposed to them having the weapons and utilities tied to them.

I'd rather risk potential difficulty in balancing if it means more overall options to make builds (Including things like reworking existing weapon sets that suck and existing specs that have sucky traits or sucky layouts that offer no real choice on particular tiers)

I want more reasons to get additional build templates because of having multiple builds that are fun and different, as opposed to being able to make do with the baseline 3 because that's more than enough to handle the builds that E-Specs facilitate...

I want more options for weapons that entice me into making new Legendaries because the class(es) I like to play can now utilize said cool Legendaries in a number of builds (As opposed to some Legendaries which are hard to justify the effort required to craft them because like 1-2 classes use them in like 1 fringe build each...)

Whether or not such expansion is feasible, is up to ANet to judge. However, I'd like them to be considering it as a potential addition as opposed to only focusing on new E-Specs (Heck... Add a weapon to Core and release a set of E-Specs that are just the Specialization and don't come with a weapon for example)

[Will there ever be new additions to Core classes?]

@Sobx.1758 said:Yup, a worse espec that either is on the same level current core classes/specs are, which changes nearly nothing in the class' gameplay (as opposed to what especs are supposed to do)

Other than providing more options for builds because of having more tools available to the base class?

Unlike E-Specs which lock all of the stuff behind having 1 of your specs being the E-Spec and is only usable after level 80.

In addition to not necessarily always being a complete Weapon Type/Utility Type/Extra Utilities in existing types/Specialization. An update could simply add one thing, alongside an actual E-Spec.

@Sobx.1758 said:The additional weapon sets that mix with current especs (and potentially one more in the next expansion) is just a reason for more problems with balancing. What you proposed here looks to me like worse especs with potentially more balancing issues, but that's just me.

More potential balancing issues, yes. But that's the cost of gaining more options to make builds.

One of the annoying things (In my opinion) about E-Specs is all the limitations they have on them which stifle build potentials even before you add in the fact that in many cases they're simply powercreep over base specializations (Which is not how they were advertized by ANet).

A strength of GW2 has always been that freedom with builds, where you can choose specializations, choose traits in those specializations and choose different weapon types for different skills. But it all goes down the toilet if everything ends up being "Pick this E-Spec and the 2 base specs that complement it. Pick the E-Spec's weapon. Now be like literally everyone else playing your class"

[Will there ever be new additions to Core classes?]

@Sobx.1758 said:

@Taril.8619 said:They can even easily still monetize extra weapon sets/utilities/specializations for Core by locking them behind having a particular expansion, in exactly the same way that Revenant and E-Specs are.

Then that's pretty much just a worse espec, meh.

A worse E-Spec, that can be utilized in Core builds and alongside any other E-Spec?

[Will there ever be new additions to Core classes?]

@Arkantos.7460 said:

@Taril.8619 said:just it would be nice ...companys cant pay salaries or pay bills with just beeing nice ....

But they can by providing additional content to the game which gets people to play it.

They can even easily still monetize extra weapon sets/utilities/specializations for Core by locking them behind having a particular expansion, in exactly the same way that Revenant and E-Specs are.

[Should Anet Monetize Content]

There's a lot that goes into financial debates, most notably costs to develop (Since that directly affects your profit margins)

But other things too, such as marketing. Now, maybe it's just me, but in the ~8 years that the game has been alive. I haven't seen ANY marketing about it, about its expansion releases, its new living world stories, the addition of a new class, mounts, gliders and what have you. Only its initial launch do I recall actually seeing GW2's name being mentioned in video game news articles.

Which is a significant limitation to attracting players. Given that the result of which, I've only seen players being advised to go play GW2 as an off remark when discussing other much more widely marketed MMO's (Such as WoW, FFXIV and BDO). While, yes, this can work, especially given how such games have been not doing particularly amazingly as of late (XIV's Shadowbringers had a great opening, but some people have noted disatisfaction as time has gone on, especially in respect to Healers whom have had a mass exodus from the role and/or game entirely due to how poorly their changes went over)

As far as the actual monetization model that GW2 uses, it can work and it has sustained the game for many years which is more than can be said for other MMO titles (RIP City of Heroes/Villains, Warhammer Online, Wildstar and Star Wars: Galaxies) and cosmetic and QoL MTX is becoming a more prominent feature of MMO's (Including ones with subscriptions like WoW and FFXIV).

At the end of the day, it simply comes down to the same things as any MMO, which is having a consistent playerbase sticking around for consistent content releases and having some source of revenue from the playerbase (Be it subscriptions or MTX the main difference between these models ends up with MTX being able to make more money due to Whales who'll purchase large amounts of even ridiculously priced things because they have money to burn, while subscriptions offer a more stable and predictable income as you can quantify how many people will be paying money each month)

[How do you gear up leveling characters? (Not stats but equipment)]

I just use whatever drops plus level up rewards.

That's all I need when farming enemies 7-8 levels above me for power leveling.

Actually buying gear seems pointless until level 80 and even then, that's only if you're not aiming for HoT statlines (Since those items are still rather expensive because they're not common drops like core statline gear such as Berserker, Carrion, Cleric etc)

[Reaper or Scourge for open world]

Reaper for general purpose OW content and solo stuff.

Scourge for big Meta Events because better ranged damage to tag enemies and attack Elites/Champs/Legos without being glomped by AoE's that are scaled to large playercounts.

[Will there ever be new additions to Core classes?]

New classes? Probs not. Most new Class types can be done via E-Specs that convert existing classes into something different.

New weapons? As in new weapon types? Probs not, would be a lot of work given they'd need an entirely overhauled loot table to facilitate them as well as a notable inclusion of them (Creating new weapon types that only like 1-2 classes can even use and then only get like 2-3 skills for is a lot of effort for little gain, they'd end up needing to be something ubiquitous like Swords that many classes end up being able to use)

Existing weapon types becoming featured in classes that currently can't use them? Likely. Though, probably will end up locked behind E-Specs.

It's worth noting that weapon type expansion without introducing new types has a hard limit of how many times it can be done. For example, if each class gets 1 new weapon type every time (Say, for every E-Spec), then there will come a point where for example, Warrior will be able to use every weapon in the game and no longer be able to get a new weapon type expansion - I.e. They're only missing; Shortbow, Staff, Scepter, Focus, Pistol MH and Pistol OH at the moment.

[Where to get Diviner's exotic gear?]

In Verdant Brink you can get Airship Parts and trade with the Itzel for Bladed Armour boxes. Bladed Armour has choosable stats, including Diviners.

Also, the Airship Cargo you open to get Airship Parts has a chance to drop Bladed Armour boxes.

Though, that will only get you Helm, Shoulder, Gloves, Pants and Boots. Bladed Chest armour comes from reaching level 4 during the Nighttime meta for Verdant Brink.

Back items you can also get from HoT, the Order packs you get from the early quest with choosable stats can be upgraded to Exotic with items purchased from the 3 factions (Itzel, Nuhoch and Exalted)

For trinkets/rings there are a few selectable stat exotics, but to get full Diviners stats, you'd be looking at crafted stuff because of the jewel.

[Please change noglide and nomount zones for JPs]

No mount zones are already egregious as it is, often interrupting mounting for players whom are nowhere close to the JP (Due to how it seems to have been haphazardly painted across the map rather than applied specifically to the JP and the areas surrounding it)

As such, I'm against adding more in. Not to mention, most people just cheese them with Mesmer (Or Feef in a pinch) portals anyway so it's not as if such restrictions are actually making people do the JP more (If these things were stopped then I guess people would go to using Teleport to Friend)

@WorldofBay.8160 said:but apart from that: once you unlock gliding you can't unequip it. i currently have a character i want to get as far as possible without my masteries or anything elso from the rest of my account and i often glide by accident because holding the space just a tad too long opens the glider. so there is an issue that JPs without a proper noglide zone actually affect people that want to complete the JP the way it was intended just because their glider opens automatically.

This would be better fixed by adding in the function to allow Glider to be bound to a separate key and also have a toggle similar to Mounts to disable using Spacebar to activate.

Which would be nice anyway for the JP's where Gliding is used as part of it (LW3 JP's for example) where having access to Glide is important but sometimes can get in the way for small jumps.