mungozen.2379

If you don’t care about home instance nodes, then this is not of value either. I am grateful that homesteads are not required at all, and that the perks are so minimal that skipping them isn’t a loss. It’s great that a handful of players will invest into them and enjoy that content Maybe next expac they will have content I am interested in engaging in.

Your experiences are certainly different than others here. In PvE, LFG gets used for most Meta events, Daily and Weekly tasks, Festivals and just asking for help doing content. Ignoring the Comm tag, using LFG is a great tool that connects a lot of people to events. Even having people provide Taxi service to an active meta via LFG is an awesome reason to use it. LFG can and should be improved, but as it is, it is doing good work. Also, having the Comm tag is definitely a juiced up Mentor tag. Being able to find 50 of your closest strangers to come and do the content I want to do? I don't mean to talk down to anyone but, a lot of players just want to follow someone else's lead. I know I do half the time I play. But that is the thing in PvE, most events and metas aren't difficult, most people know what to do so you just gather them up and let them go do it. As for OP and the idea that 300g is too much and sharing the Comm tag should be okay. I don't care much for the idea. 300g is not insignificant, but it is easily attainable by a player who is invested in this game. I bet most people could clear out their bank mats storage and be well on their way to owning a Comm tag. Thinking about when I got my Comm tag 8 years ago, it was a bit of a right of passage. Earning the money, trekking thru WvW lands to find that Cat.... I really enjoyed being able to lead Metas and Events after earning the Tag. It was one of the few times in the game where I felt like I had leveled up. Grinding levels, HP and MP was kinda whatever, but earning the Comm tag was a game changer. Maybe it isn't the same game changer today, but I haven't seen anything compelling as to why to reduce the cost or share it with others.

I think it worth noting that PvE and PvP have differences. In PvE bosses have timed swings and could, theoretically in open world, hit the 1500 stacks of confusion. PvE mobs/bosses etc rarely have Condi cleanses, so odds are, a stack can run it's full duration. In PvP, players do have active cleanses and will likely never get more than 20-30 stacks of confusion, however, players attack a lot faster than mobs typically. If you look at Activation Time for skills, it is common for players to activate 3-5 skills every 2 seconds. Some Dagger chains have 4 attacks per second, and that isn't factoring in Quickness either. Taking a generic profession build in PvP/WvW and saying they will trigger Confusion 5 times every 2 seconds via attacks. Currently, that player would take (0.0975 * Condition Damage) + 49.5 damage per stack at level 80 for the attack triggers (plus base ticks handled with a different calc). With a single stack for 8 seconds, the current model has the player take about 20 triggers from Confusion plus 8 ticks, assuming they are activating skills 5 times every 2 seconds. With your model they would take 5 triggers plus 3 ticks. This is due to the confusion advancing to its final tick after 3 seconds. With my model they would take 1 trigger and possibly 1 tick (this tick depends on when the first tick is calculated, is it before or after the next attack from the affected target). However, if we used 8 stacks for 8 seconds as you suggested: With your model they would take 5 triggers plus 3 ticks. As above, the duration of Confusion has advanced to its final tick after about 3 seconds. With my model they would take 8 triggers plus 3-4 ticks. Similar to your take, the duration is consumed after about 3-4 seconds depending on where the target attacks fall. In combat we can be 'constantly' stacking confusion. With your model, it would be rare for any Confusion duration to exceed 3 or 4 seconds. Most applications of Confusion are around 5-6 seconds before Expertise. Given what we know about player potential attacks per second, Confusion would constantly be advanced and consumed. With my model, having oldest stacks consumed, we would see a steady stream of smaller triggers and be less likely to consume the whole stack. It smooths out the damage over time and reduces the spike potential, but still maintains the 'trigger on attack' theme. If we bump up the scenario and have our target receiving 10 stacks for 10 seconds every 6 seconds..... With your model, they will get 7 triggers plus 3 ticks. 3 seconds of no Confusion, and then repeat the cycle. With my model, they will get 10 triggers plus 3-4 ticks, then 2-3 seconds no confusion, then repeat. So, note here that the difference between the two is nominal at best. If I cared to spreadsheet some different scenarios we might find places where they differ more notably. I think it would be in comparing more real world scenarios where Confusion is being applied with varied durations at different times. I would guess both our models would have some downtime waiting for Confusion to refresh, with my model offering a small increase on duration. I am left wondering if any model actually 'fixes' Confusion and makes it balanced against different attack speeds. The most balanced way would be to apply an skill activation speed coefficient where the time between skill activation affects the damage trigger. Longer between triggers, more damage, faster between triggers, less.

GW2 Core is no longer as valuable as it once was and as such is given away for free. The same as HoT and PoF having reduced prices as they are not as valuable as they once were. The value is in how many people are playing the content. Right now, most people are playing Janthir Wilds, and that is where the 'value' is found. It is where Anet is putting their focus until next years release cycle. To that end, buying some or all of the expansion content will give you a lot of options for PvE things to do. Hundreds if not thousands of hours of gameplay. I'd also suggest that Anet/NCSoft is in a fine place to keep GW2 running for many years between the player base who do buy new content regularly and the stability they have given the developers and design team. The business is revenue driven and having people buying new content keeps them able to keep the servers on.

We do have the Mordrem Alpha mount which is based upon the mob of the same name. I agree that having more player mounts based upon in-game creatures would be interesting. Notable as well that we haven’t had a character/NPC with an iconic mount that in turn was made available in the Gem Shop. They have done so for armor/outfits and weapons in the past.

This has been going on since PoF. Homogenizing Boon providers was the biggest step, so all profs could provide Quick/Alac (but not equally, even today, hello Mirage). If Anet wanted to make boon applications similar why not go all in and actually make them the same? Then there would be less fuss about balance and more focus on what makes the different professions and eSpecs unique (which I hope would be playstyle and mechanics). I strongly disagree that all professions should be able to do all things or that it makes for good game design. I believe that the effectiveness of the Role should be relatively equal across builds, but not all Professions or eSpecs should be able to fulfill all Roles. I think it is more interesting game design to have some Professions focused on specific playstyles and ignore others. As long as there are enough options for Heal Support, DPS Support, and a variety of Condi and Power pure DPS, we don't need to dilute the Profession and eSpec themes. Thinking of WoW, they list their classes as DPS, Heal, Tank. Paladin, Shaman and Monk can fulfill all three roles, while Mage, Hunter, Warlock and Rogue can only DPS. Is WoW a badly designed game because not all classes can fulfill each role? If a profession is capable of fulfilling a role, I think it should be equally capable to other professions fulfilling that same role. How they execute it can be different and play into the profession themes and mechanics.

Anet making money isn't a good enough reason to suggest something. Player excitement and engagement is. Monetizing social movements for profit is probably bad. Why would you be excited about having Pronoun Titles added to the game? Why should other players be excited about this suggestion?

If you go back to May 2021 when Anet buffed Celestial (to include Concentration and Expertise) the general opinion of Celestial was that it was bad. That the changes wouldn't move the needle on Celestial being good enough to outperform 4 stat gearing. Players generally didn't realize the power of Hybrid builds yet. This change back to no Concentration and Expertise effectively removes Celestial from WvW since Hybrid builds needed those stats for Condi and Boon application. It should mean we see players gearing more for a specific role (Power, Condi, Support) which has it's positives, but removes an entire playstyle. That Anet couldn't find a way to balance Celestial builds is a shame, but they probably want simple and quick solutions to the problems game development has. And this change is that, quick and easy for them. What I think is interesting is that they decided to remove 2 of 9 stats on Celestial rather than adjust the entire stat cost down and leave Concentration and Expertise included. They could remove the same number of stat points across all stats on Celestial gear and see the impact that has. It would probably keep Celestial builds available but drop their performance against 4 stat combos.

Whats this about deer robots?

Consider the other professions using the same armor weight. Are you likely to want to pick up Necro and Mesmer, then Light. Are you likely to want to pick up Warrior and Guardian, then Heavy. As mentioned above, but worded differently, whichever Prof between Ele and Rev you make more build changes, swap more Runes and/or armor stats with, would probably benefit from using Legendary Armor.

An Otter plush skimmer skin. They fluffy irl also inflatable skinmie is a solid idea

I ummm..... /checks notes.... didn't ask for anything Homestead related. But hey, that's cool!

Combo - Guild Wars 2 Wiki (GW2W) Start with the above link.... At one point (HoT and earlier), you would find players using Blast Finishers on Fire Fields to pump up Might before a Champ or Legendary World Boss. Today, there is so much happening that we can't really control what Finishers other players will use, but we can control the Fields we put down for ourselves. As an Ele I can put down a Water Field and know that players will get some healing, or as a Mesmer I can put down a Light Field for players to remove a Condi. It is possible Combos have more value in 5-10 player groups, be it PvP or PvE but, I think it is an archaic mechanic that exists but isn't relied upon much anymore.

Confusion is based upon Dot + Activation, and the general issue has been that the faster a target activates skills, the more damage they take from Confusion. Confusion has been adjusted both up and down in the past due to how it interacts with different Raid Bosses. A slow attacking boss makes confusion bad, a fast one makes confusion amazing. Yet holistically, the intent of any damaging condition is to apply full value over time. If Bleed or Burn run their full duration, then the damage component is going to be a predictable value (base skill + modifiers). The affected target can only interact with the Condi by cleansing it or transmuting it. Confusion however, has variable damage over time based upon how the target activates skills. This creates a lack of predictability when looking at the value of Condition damage and tells us why it has been changed so much. Confusion has always been some form of Dot + Activation, and I think it would be a lot cleaner and more predictable if the Skill Activation consumed the stacks of Confusion and applied the remaining damage. Example: Player applies 1 stack of Confusion, say 5 seconds and 200 dmg. It would tick for 40 dmg a second for 5 seconds if the target didn't activate any skills. If they activated a skill after 2 seconds, they would have had 2 dots at 40 dmg and an activation for the remaining 120 dmg. If they activated a skill after 3 seconds they would have had 3 dots at 40 dmg and an activation of 80 dmg. In the above example, the application of Confusion applies the expected damage regardless of skill activation timing. This is predictable and easier to balance around than what we have existing. At the same time, it maintains the 'dmg on skill activation' theme of Confusion. I would not have Confusion deal damage on cleanse or transmute, only Dot and Skill Activation. I could see this form of Confusion being managed in two ways; Consume All Stacks, or Consume Oldest Stack. By consuming all stacks, it weighs the damage more to skill activation, while consuming the single oldest stack, would weigh it more towards the Dot. The first option would mean Confusion stacks are being applied and consumed very quickly, removing the opportunity for cleanses. At this moment I think the latter, consuming the oldest stack, is potentially better for PvP and WvW as it allows for cleansing interplay.

I agree with this thought. The opportunity cost for adding more play options dilutes the build potentials. We have Power, Condi, Hybrid, Sustain, Heal, Alac and Quick as build archetypes. A single trait line usually supports two of those options, while some try to support three (or even more, hello Chrono). Before adding healing, quick or alac to pure DPS eSpecs, I would much rather see existing Heal+Boon and DPS+Boon solidified and outliers cleaned up.