[Which pets are you guys enjoying the most right now?]

White Moa has been added to my Druid due to the frost aura. For my open world Untamed build I am now running Hyenas since I love having three of them even though it only lasts for a few seconds.

[mech rifle feels like...]

It's a disaster. At least all the Mech haters got what they wanted ...

[Pure OW PvE idea for legendary armor]

You can get the WvW armour by camp flipping which is basically a "pure PvE" experience. The process is tedious but that's the trade off for not wanting to get into raids I suppose

[Infusions should also be purchased with currencies instead of only being a rare drop]

8 hours ago, captrowdy.9561 said:

Absolutely not brah. We Don’t need anymore sparkles running around. It’s not like where farming stuff and it being up to RNG for the best inslot weapon or something. It adds to the excitement farming something hoping you’ll get lucky. 

Does anyone really farm stuff for the chance of getting lucky? In my 3k hours of playtime I have never seen a single precursor or infusion drop. When they added the infusion to make DE more appealing I just thought to myself "I don't freaking care". Adding stuff that I will never see myself does nothing to make me excited. I'm all for adding ways to slowly but surely obtain these "super rare drops" (outside of farming gold which is the most boring way of obtain stuff ...)

[Recharging TP to Friend Recharge is too long (gripes about other CD's as well)]

2 hours ago, Mariyuuna.6508 said:

The cooldown is per-character, so you can teleport dozens of times in an hour.

Yes, but you can only do this initially since the cooldown timer actually doesn't reset unless you are actively logged in with the character. I bought the item yesterday mostly because I want to get as many "convenience" items as I can but this one seems really lackluster. They should either lower the cooldown or make the cooldown reset even when you are not logged in. I feel like they are limiting this item way too much in order to prevent people who are botting/scripting from abusing it.

[ARC DPS (and all damage meters) are ruining the game]

I don't run a snowcrows meta build myself on my main (I am playing Power Soulbeast with Sword/Axe) yet I often find myself being top dps (instanced content and open world). Not once has anyone told me to switch to the Axe/Axe snowcrows build so arcdps existing definitely doesn't force you into anything. I recently geared my condi Specter and when I hit the golem I ended up at like 18k dps which is almost half of what is possible according to the benchmark. After some more research and practice I managed to get to 28k. That is one of the benefits of arcdps: to show you where you can improve.

 

The other big advantage is that you can use it as an indicator as to whether it is worth sticking with a party or not. I have not once confronted anyone about their poor performance but I will ditch the party if arcdps is showing me that there are dps players competing with the healers' dps.

 

Quote

if ANET really wanted to make end game more viable for all players - they would not allow any DPS meters - and this would improve end game for most players

The absence of arcdps doesn't suddenly make endgame more viable for all players. In fact, the opposite will happen. If players don't have a tool to identify people who are slacking off they will just raise the barrier of entry to minimize the chances of people slacking off. That means higher requirements for joining content e.g. more LI, KP, UFE, etc. which basically means it will be a lot more difficult for new players to get into endgame content.

[Can we scale back wvw legendary armor requirements?]

I just finished getting Conflux and I agree that the entire skirmish ticket system needs a major overhaul.

[Twitch drops showed our play base]

I personally dislike Twitch and the only reason I am currently "watching" (it's running in my browser on mute) any GW2 streams are the drops. If the drops were to stay they'd need to be of similar quality as the ones right now as I am not going to open a GW2 stream just to get a repair canister or a revive orb.

[Feedback on World Boss changes from July 19 update]

I definitely agree on Shadow Behemoth. The fight itself isn't too different except they increased its health way too much and now the fight feels like a massive drag with no increase in rewards. The boss fight went from "oh it's up, might aswell join it for a quick fight" to "I won't bother with this".

 

Jungle Wurm is a nice overhaul and teaches new players about CC.

 

Fire Elemental was also okay but it felt a bit hectic at times with all the AOE fields.

 

I haven't tried Shaman yet so I can't comment on it.

[August 23, Ranger changes, Updated]

Nerfing Iboga is such a slap in the face when Mechanist exists. They should have buffed all the other pets to Iboga level, not the other way around ...

 

It's nice to finally have access to some stability on Druid but putting it on a glyph is very limiting considering you always need to run 3 spirits for alac uptime ... They should have put the stability on CA 5 and/or Spirit of Nature. Spirits being immune to CC is a welcome change although spirits still need some more love. Them being stationary really hurts their usability in many PvE scenarios.

 

Only took them half a year to fix the EoD pets ...

[The LFG system is bad]

Definitely agree that the LFG tool needs a lot of improvements. Simply remembering the tab you were last looking at would go a long way to improve the experience and should be relatively easy to implement I think. It's such a hassle to navigate to the specific tab everytime you close the LFG window.

[Untamed - Fervent Force nerf suggestion]

I really don't see the need for a Fervent Force nerf. It's the one thing that makes Untamed actually stand out since the Unleash mechanic is incredibly lackluster. Nerf Fervent Force and you basically have like a second core ranger spec

[Spirit of Nature should pulse Stability]

On 7/7/2022 at 2:37 PM, Strider.7849 said:

I wouldn't mind is Celestial avatar #5 was group stability. 

That definitely should be a thing

[Soulbeast/Druid Alacrity Feedback - CMs & T4s point of view]

I think it is relatively easy to maintain 100% alac uptime in most fights (haven't tried raids or cm strikes yet) but the process really isn't fun. You basically spam your sprits off cooldown for the alac without any thought. The active effect doesn't even matter when doing it (outside of maybe alac untime using storm spirit for Fervent Force) since you only do it for the alac. That's the stuff that happens when giving boons is an afterthought instead of being ingrained in the spec design. Like, I found playing HAM really boring but at least giving alac felt natural and you were able to use your utility skills depending on the situation. With druid it just feels like I am playing without any utility skills. At best you can use the water spirit to free up a space but that still feels lackluster and you lose a ton of condition cleanse

[Opinions on upcoming "Cuddly Cat" Jade Bot Skin?]

I am very liberal when it comes to purchasing skins for stuff even when I won't use it much but a Jade Bot skin seems incredibly pointless. If it weren't for the occasional downed healing skill/personal waypoint I wouldn't even notice that I have a Jade Bot.

[Feedback: Floating Garden Skiff Skin]

I have bought it because I am a sucker for ancient Japan and the cherry blossom tree instantly caught my eye. I also didn't like the Winged Reverie skin I got out of the BLC since the sails take up too much space so I was looking for a new skiff skin anyway. After spending the day with the new skiff skin I'd say I really, really like it. The falling leaves even change their color depending on the dye you choose for the tree. I agree that the tree leaning towards one side feels very weird but it's not really an issue overall I'd say.

[Untamed can give 100% alac completely naked.]

46 minutes ago, UmbraNoctis.1907 said:

The problem with this type of build will be, that is is reliant on landing melee cc nonstop. Boss goes invuln, or you are forced to move due to mechanics? There goes your alac uptime as well as your dmg. In many fights it will be straight impractical. And even in an optimal (golem like) fight it is weaker than mech in pretty much every regard (except cc i guess) - and that's what it ultimatively has to compete with.

Yeah, aligns with my experience unfortunately. Alac uptime dropped hard when I tried it in the Aetherblade Hideout strike due to the constant phasing. I might just give in and gear a Mech after all 😕

 

Btw: Fervent Force does not work on the Icebrood Construct in the Shiverpeaks Pass strike resulting in an absolutely awful experience with Untamed. I wouldn't be surprised if that wasn't playtested ...

[Untamed can give 100% alac completely naked.]

Interesting, tried this out and it was super easy to maintain 100% alac with full berserker's gear and 2 spirits (used Water and Storm).

[Follow up to the June 28 Balance Update Preview]

"Fall patch" is exactly why I don't want to see this patch going live. I don't want to play the next 3 months with these changes and I am not so sure the next patch is something to look forward to after seeing this patch ... 

[The Infinite Fishing Lure]

As for the opening post: I agree. There should be more visual clarity between the infinite lure and the regular ones.

As to my opinion on the infinite lure in general: I bought it but I am not fully convinced the value is there since baits still exist so you will have to keep going to merchants anyway. It's nice to have but 10€ seems a bit much for something that is a lot more niche than infinite gather tools which cost about the same. The value of the lure would increase if they release something similar for baits but then it just emphasizes that the lure on its own is kind of overpriced.

Should they decide to release infinite lures with some sort of glyph-effect in the future I am probably done with purchasing gems though. I am still sour about that happening with infinite gathering tools and I am not going to get fooled twice.

[When and how much do you tip?]

When I was doing Aurora, I tipped the Mesmer who did CoT + Tokens 5g and then on my second mandatory CoT run I tipped the Mesmer 2g. Both of them didn't ask for tips when offering the teleports. Other than that I usually don't tip for jumping puzzles (which I try to do on my own most of the time anyway). I tip people a few silvers (~40s) when they let me harvest their full home instance. Tipping should be 100% optional imo and I avoid any people who are asking for tips.

[Has EoD replaced a main or entered your rotation ?]

Well, I used to run core ranger in open world, now I exclusively play Untamed in open world. Still running Soulbeast in instanced content though.

[Rating EoD after 2 months!]

1.  maps: Echovald is actually the only EoD map I actively play on. I got my commander's tag recently and have been running gangwar daily since. I really like the map. I also like Seitung Province but rarely play on it. I haven't been in DE since I got my turtle and I don't see myself going there unless they overhaul the meta event. New Keineng is simply terrible and probably my least favourite map in the game right now.
2.  specs: all over the place and it really shouldn't take so long to balance these out ...
3. strikes: very good and a step up in terms of fights and rewards compared to IBS
4. fishing: the mini game is okay and you can actually make decent gold with fishing. What I don't like is that you have to commit to fishing when you are fishing. You cannot leave your skiff or you will lose your catching streak. I often see people asking for help for certain events/HPs but I can't help them or I will lose my stacks. This system feels very anti-MMO. Another issue is the lack of a tackle box. Also screw Dawn/Dusk fishing ...
5. Jade-Bot: it's a decent addition that allows for a little bit of customization. I really enjoy using the scavenger hunt for magic trophies which seems to add quite a bit of extra material over time. Why isn't the Jade-Bot account bound though? Feels very weird.
6. research papers: they really screwed this one up big times. Constantly patching out cheap item options is simply screwing over people who didn't make use of those items early on. It also leads to a lack of clarity as to which items can be salvaged and which can't. On top of that you have to manuall salvage items one by one. Big oof.
7. story: can't say much about it since I skip most of the story in this game but the story missions (outside of that one very long elevator ride in the research facility) were solid overall.

 

In summary, the expansion isn't terrible but it's not even close to the other two expansions in terms of content and polish. It really needs a couple of patches to improve the experience.

[The Skyscale Quest Line Is WAY Too Grindy, And Insulting [Merged]]

I enjoyed doing the Skyscale collection. The only tedious part was collecting the map currencies back in the day but new players don't have to undergo that grind thanks to the "Seasons of the Dragons" achievement. You get to visit a ton of different places and do all kinds of content (jumping puzzles, collecting items, events, ...). 

[Is there any purpose to Fishing...?]

I pretty much only do the daily catch for the ambergris so I can slowly reduced the cost of a potential Aurene legendary. As someone already said, the ambergris is basically worth as much as your daily 2g and can sometimes be a lot quicker to obtain aswell.