[Alacrity / Quickness Monopoly]

@Infusion.7149 said:I don't understand the campaign to give quickness to reaper or other classes.

Because people want variety in the boon support roles, when they have to play the quickness giver role in fractals they want more choice than just quickbrand

[Alacrity / Quickness Monopoly]

In the Core game at release, everyone could do everything, and its what made the game.

no nercro no ranger

@Hannelore.8153 said:

Ever since Eilte specs were introduced, they've been reducing what a single class can do, ironically by adding more to other classes. This happens because you end up with exclusive boons or other damage/support mechanics added to the game which appear like additional content, but instead cheapen that class and make other classes undesirable, or completely incapable of the role.

You're about 5 years too late on this take, most of that has been patched out.> @Astralporing.1957 said:

@Laila Lightness.8742 said:Remove boon share everyone has to upkeep their own boons

If support builds are a too complicated concept to be allowed to exist, why don't we just delete the boons off the game then, and just let everyone stack dps? I am sure that will make the game more interesting.Oh wait, i forgot, you wanted to heavily nerf dps as well.So i guess we should go back to bearbows spamming 1 and 4.Yes, that should be fun. Especially when people will eventually notice that everything got nerfed so hard it's not even possible to do the content anymore.

I'm like 90% certain that person is a troll.

[Alacrity / Quickness Monopoly]

The main reason why this is happening is that there is litteraly only one alternative and thats chrono. Chrono is very strong in 10 man content where the fights last long enough for chrono dps to happen. So with the current design of classes the best we can get is making one or both of those specs interchangeable with a similar chrono spec.

The biggest solution would be to give other classes ways of group buffing quickness or alac but i don't see anet giving any of the existing elite specs the ability to do so when we have an expansion and 9 new elite specs on the horizon.

Realistically we are probably going to have to wait for chrono changes that make it a viable fractal boon support that is, very importantly, on par with the current existing boon support and/or new elite specs that can do that.

[Stats for Weaver Sword+Dagger/Staff focusing on Fire+Earth?]

If you like fire and earth grieving and vipers would be a stat choice I'd recommend looking at. Sword/dagger could go either way for condi or power damage but staff is pretty power heavy, so grieving could be a decent mix. Throw is balthazar or flame legion runes and you got a pretty serviceable open world build.

[Quickbrand: Power or Condi?]

Power quickbrand is too niche a build for me to recommend. Condi quickbrand is just better.

[Instead Of Nerfing Firebrand We Buff Other Professions]

@Cyninja.2954 said:

@Astralporing.1957 said:

@Cyninja.2954 said:What is going to happen is exactly the same for Firebrigade as it was for chrono+druid. IF a new support duo does gets introduced, and that support duo is equal in performance to Firebrigade, there will be no reason for players to switch. As such you can be sure to expect heavy nerfs to Firebrigade once EoD launches. At least to the level of where chrono+druid is now.That's a problem with support duos (and, in general, more strict group compositions). They lock the meta too much. You can't simply exchange one element, you need to exchange the whole setup at the same time. This prevents easy switch.If at the PoF launch FB was able to be slotted instead of chrono, and renegade instead of druid, (with the chrono+druid, chrono +rene, FB + druid and FB + rene being all working options, even if not necessarily of exactly the same quality) there wouldn't have been such an inertia to the switch. This (again)

has

been pointed out by quite a number of people even before PoF. But people were too busy being angry at Chrono to notice that being able to concentrate a lot of support options in one build instead of splitting them among many is better, because it allows for a potentially far less restrictive group setup.

Oh I fully agree. It was very funny to watch all those dps players who were angry at chronos demanding they get nerfed, somehow expecting that would free up spots for other classes (a very common misconception back then, one that even with a ton of advice from more experienced players took ages to overcome. I am still amazed how few players understood that nerfing chrono would never have gotten their damage dealer of choice easier access into raids).

There is another problem though: the problem with absolutely interchangeable classes is that the "best" class will mostly get chosen.

There are 2 possible approaches to this:

• make classes interchangeable on a single class basis, in this case simply expanding the choice of how many classes can provide a certain boon or boonsor
• make support setups interchangeable with differing benefits maybe suitable to different game modes. As we have it now with 2 core support setups.

Both have benefits and detriments.

Having interchangeable classes makes group setup more flexible, but at the cost of making only the most efficient class desirable (made even more problematic if unrelated issues slip in like ease of play or other utilities) and eventually making multiple classes far more "similar".

Having interchangeable setups makes group compositions more rigid, but allows for actual meaningful difference in classes. This is far harder to balance and poses the risk of making certain classes far less desirable in specific roles (see most "healer" besides druid as first healer in setups). At the same time this allows for specific setups to to excel at different content.

I am unsure what I personally would prefer. I guess this would depend on if we get another set of elites and if here is additional support options with them added. Being a multi class player myself, my primary concern is game play fun and a lot of interesting combinations, not a specific class being primarily important. We will have to wait and see.

The thing is having interchange classes works. We see it work for both the dps role, where people are very accepting of a wide variety of classes on most bosses. And we also see it work with quickness, both quickbrand and stm chrono are treated interchangeably and most groups for most bosses will accept either.

[Instead Of Nerfing Firebrand We Buff Other Professions]

@Cyninja.2954 said:

@Asum.4960 said:

@Astralporing.1957 said:

@Asum.4960 said:Chrono was a problem way before the late Chaos Chrono, and Chrono + Druid where the only viable support choices across all of endgame/coordinated group content for ~4 years, way overshadowing Firebrand and Renegade then and now.The game was getting incredibly stale and something needed to change.No. Chrono was

not

the problem. The problem was in

lack of alternatives

. But when some players were pointing out, that the solution would be to allow for existence of other true support builds that could take its place, most people were too busy shouting "nerf Chrono" to listen. And thus we're back again to the same spot, just with different classes at the stage.

Now we are in a different situation though, and unlike Chrono, which actively kept other Quickness and Alacrity providers (FB and Ren) completely irrelevant bc it was so insanely good and the whole package aloneNo, it kept other Quickness and Alacrity providers irrelevant because, first, up to PoF, there

weren't

any other quickness and Alacrity providers, and later, because FB and Ren builds weren't true full support builds, but hybrid ones (dps/support and/or heal/support), so you needed two of them to replace one chrono, and even then they weren't originally all that good at that.In order to make the switch, in addition to nerfing Chrono over and over again, Anet had to

buff FB and Ren first

. Which is why we're now in a thread asking for FB nerf.

right now there aren't any other Specs that can fill the roles of Quickness or Alacrity providers that are being kept down by either Chrono, Firebrand or Renegade.No other options exist. Nerfing either of those specs won't change that.That is completely true. Nerfing doesn't add options, it only removes them. Exactly the same as it was during the Chrono era.

As far as I can recall the only buff FB ever got was a range increase on the Mantras shortly after it's release in 2017, so people don't have to stack as tightly, everything else has been nerfs.As for Renegade, it was the Target Cap increase for Orders from Above from Righteous Rebel, which enabled it for Raids as 10 man Alacrity bot, but didn't change anything for Fractals.

(please do correct me if I'm wrong there though)

Read up on skills bedsides Mantra of Potence. For example on Firebrand, the trait Liberator's Vow received multiple buffs. As did other not quickness related skills/traits. Firebrand+Renegade was superior to druid+chrono on release of PoF (starting November of that year to be exact when OfA was buffed for easy perma alacrity). This was mentioned by myself and others on the forums. It took 3-6 months for "regular" players to adapt, and multiple buffs to both Firebrand and Renegade as well as nerfs to chrono to "encourage" players to switch. I explain why this is the case further on, and why 2 equally strong composition does not make the new composition get adopted.

The same applies to Renegade. Read through some of the trait changes beyond Order from Above (and even that was buffed from 1 second to 1.5 seconds per interval, which makes permanent alacrity possible in the first place). The class was significantly buffed multiple times.

@Asum.4960 said:That leaves us with 2 years of Chrono post PoF actively barring alternative Quickness and Alacrity providing supports, which did not, and could not change until Chrono was nerfed - because Firebrand and Renegade both would have to be powercrept to all hell to compete with it.I mean, how would you have buffed Firebrand and or Renegade to possibly compete with both Quickness and Alacrity, focus pulls, boon strip, blink portal skips, tanking, solo CC, and on and on and on in one package?Chrono, both for PvE and PvP was imo the single most damaging and unhealthy thing ever added to GW2 in how utterly broken it was, even more so with it taking Anet 4 years to fix, out of which 2 years saw alternatives come to the game which could never hope to compete.

Players took a long time to adapt to a new meta. Mostly because chrono+druid was familiar and "worked". Firebrand and Renegade were superior almost out the gate on PoF launch, if not shortly after. You don't change a working system unless you have to.

As such it took a complete nerf of chrono+druid BELOW Firebrigade levels to even force a switch in meta. Easily explained in the fact that if a new composition appears which is as good as the old one, there is no reason to change. Why learn and gear new classes and setups when they are equivalent to the old composition? That does not mean that from a pure balance perspective, chrono was in no way gating Firebrand or Renegade. It simply means there was no incentive to switch away from chrono due to balance unrelated reasons.

We are now in a situation where Firebrand+Renegade is superior in 5 man groups, and only outperformed in 10 man content due to the insane utility and might generation (and Spotter) of druid. Ironically it used to be the chrono which carried the druid in the comp, now it basically turned. Outside of 10 player content, chrono+druid is strictly inferior to Firebrigade and has been for a long time.

@Asum.4960 said:That was the situation then. Now we are in the situation where there simply is no Quickness and Alacrity alternatives to Firebrand, Renegade and Chrono. The reason they are the only boon supports people want is.. well, they are the only ones that exist, similar to the HoT days when there was just Chrono, and it would have been silly to nerf Chrono then.

If new ones are added and shown to simply not able to compete with Firebrand, Renegade and Chrono, then nerf away, supports across the board way overperform anyway (although that concerns especially some of the ones who don't have Quickness/Alacrity, like Tempest, which are just held down by the simply fact that they don't have Quickness/Alacrity).

Until those alternatives exist further nerfing FB, Chrono or Renegade is utterly pointless though.

What is going to happen is exactly the same for Firebrigade as it was for chrono+druid. IF a new support duo does gets introduced, and that support duo is equal in performance to Firebrigade, there will be no reason for players to switch. As such you can be sure to expect heavy nerfs to Firebrigade once EoD launches. At least to the level of where chrono+druid is now.

The biggest changes that made firebrgade meta was the release of diviners armour in Jan 2019 with thunderhead. Before that alacrigade as it currently is did not exist. Before that you had to run a heal ren to get the alacrity to run a quickbrand.

[What legendary armor is the best for a Raider?]

Honestly whatever class you tank on is where it will be most useful if you dont ever tank than I would say its not even that useful.

[Superior Rune of Strength Vs. Superior Rune of the Berserker]

Streghth is better with berserker gear.

[Confused by MetaBattle Firebrand gear]

The actual reason is that condi firebrand only cares about burning duration so they can get a ton of it from the Balthazar rune. If you look at here https://snowcrows.com/raids/builds/guardian/firebrand/condition/ that is just the meta firebrand gear where they replaced the viper with trailblazers and the grieving + sinister with dire.

[Scrapper tank in raids?]

https://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Scrapper_-_Support_Healer

I would take this as a base and add toughness and survivability as desired.

[HFB Fractals progression]

My advice would be to swap the mace for an axe because fury uptime.

I'm very much a supporter of running minstrels in fractals but it has the issue of preventing you from using it in raids where toughness tanking is a thing.

If you already have a set of exotic harrier gear then you could just use that in raid fights where toughness is an issue and if so then i would recommend the minstrel gear although if you'd prefer the convenience of one set of gear that you could take everywhere then i would recommend harrier. It's not that big a difference between them.

[Tired about fractal lfg Alacren (perma alacrity)]

DH benchmarks lower than reaper. How is guard OP?

https://snowcrows.com/raids/builds/guardian/dragonhunter/power/ 33khttps://snowcrows.com/raids/builds/necromancer/reaper/power/ 34k

DH has much higher burst than reaper. Which leads to a lot higher damage in fights where the phase or fight is short.

[So, the new fractal: Sunqua Peak [Feedback]]

I love the final fight, its hectic but with a predictable, and importantly, learnable pattern that makes it so much fun to avoid damage.

The cc bar feels abnormaly large and i don't think i like that.

[I need Soulbeast DPS help]

Make sure you are using longbow 4 to get twice as vicious buff during your longbow sic em.

[Mastery points needed for strike missions?]

You actually don't need any mastery to do them, you still get the special action attack during cc bars even if you don't have the essence manipulation mastery. Although you don't get most of the rewards if you don't have them cause you cant open the chests

[First ascended set to go for as a revenant]

I'd say diviners (power, concentration major, precision, ferocity minor) stats would be best. In pve Rev is primarily used for its alacrity and it uses that stat type and in solo open world stuff the boon duration is very useful because as a rev you have access to a lot of sources of many boons.

[Is the new fractal really only getting a 3rd of a cm?]

https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/iowcui/ascend_sunqua_peak_on_september_15/g4ha4u7/

[Making Builds: For the team, or despite them?]

Personally I'd gear myself for optimal scenarios and use traits, skills, and food to compensate for unoptimized pugs.

For example golden fried dumplings can provide might.

Seize the moment on chrono gives quickness etc

[Herald Dps PVE!]

@choon.6308 said:

@DzT.8127 said:

@choon.6308 said:Power Glint with s/s is in a great place atm. You probably just never figured out the right way to play it. You either don't use Glint or your gear is lacking in crit chance, wrong traits etc. I consistently outdps many many accepted meta class specs. But I hope they command you your wish, I don't mind being even more op :)

im using berserker gear and i got 100% crit with the Rolling Mists trait. The dps is just nowwhere near Dragonhunter/Weaver/Holosmith.. and ye i was not using dragon stance. but dwarf stance with Assasin stance. ill try dragon with Assasin.

There you go, using Shiro or dwarf in Herald results in garbage dps. Like I said and this applies to literally any class and spec, practice makes perfect. Figure out your traits, skills and work on your rotation. When I was a newbie herald, I wasn't even using the consume skills on Glint, I look back at how noob that was :) Herald dps is amazing imo, I got people constantly asking me my build etc.

Your going to have to provide a log or at least any credible info for me to believe this.

[How much DPS is "enough"?]

Honestly, more than the banner slave, quickbrand/stm chrono is what i aim for.

[I wish support classes were better balanced for end game content]

The issue is that the healers are too unique. While most dps can be swapped out 1 to 1 swapping out a druid requires that you swap the healer, the squad might source, and bring a soulbeast for spirits.

Similar thing for healbrand in fractals.

Druid is actually easy to replace when you have a different might source such as a boon thief just bring a soulbeast as well and you're fine.

Similar thing for healbrand in fractals.

A lot of groups aren't going to do that so you have the rigid support meta.

[Big Decision Time: Dagger or Axe? - Soul Beast Condi]

@Sedlina.1097 said:solo gameplay - daggerorganized group gameplay - axein general they are fairly even.the dagger can pull ahead if you actually take your time to go through the 1 chain without interrupting it for other skillshowever axe is still tossing out projectile finishers and with the amount of fire fields in organised settings it pulls ahead

edit: before the kitten derps who don't understand math people start to rant againyou need to pull off 3 full dagger 1 chains - without interrupting said chains - between two double arcs to break even with axe mainhand on condition damage ticks - everything above is a bonus

prove it then. All the benchmarks claim dagger got them better numbers. beat them using axe. And before you mention combo fields I should inform you that Condi southeast has perma fire field while on x/torch from bonfire.