Scorcher.6428

Refer to my comment above. Literally not what I'm talking about

This comment is why reading comprehension is important

Haven't seen any mention of this and not sure if it's due to any scaling bugs, but Open World enemy mob health in SotO get so ridiculously upscaled that they take far too much time to kill, particularly Veteran/Elite enemies. They can take something like10 times longer to kill than an Elite rift boss(regardless of scaling). It as if there is a far higher cap or no cap at all in the up-scaling This is VERY noticeable in Nayos during non-rift events and the meta event. Another particular place very it can get very annoying is during the Skywatch meta, Unlocking the Wizard's Tower, in all events around the Forge when all players are in close proximity but still split up enough not everyone is focusing the same enemies. Basically, killing the Coalescences and during the 3 platform phase. In the 1st 3 platform phase, the White Mantles (platform 3) often can take 2 to 3 times longer than both the others. On top of the ridonkulous amount of hp the mobs have, particularly the Vet and Elites, the jade constructs are throwing you to Narnia and/ or freezing you, with the addition of the agony you need to press the SAK for every few seconds or so. In the 2nd 3 platform phase you see it again on platform 1 against the Shadow enemies due the the sheer amount of barrier pumped out from the Shadow Monks. Amnytas meta doesn't suffer as badly, although sometimes the Spire Tentacles can take only 2-3% dmg when there are too many ppl nearby and it's just you hitting. This happens in Convergences too when everyone is in the same place. As a slight tangent, the 2 end bosses are incredibly boring and painful(mainly Sorrow) to kill due to how much health they have. They don't do anything different the entire fight and it's just 4 rounds of the same thing. Feels like it's just meant to eat your time. Ignaxious kind of suffers from this too. The only times when these events felt more bearable killing mobs was when there was a lower population. As reference I use almost a full(berserker's)power dps build in open world and I don't have the same issues in core, PoF or HoT, and only have experienced it sometimes in EoD(namely Gyala), but almost everywhere in SotO with high player population. I am aware that enemies of future expansions tend to get tankier due to power creep. But making them spongier with each future release isn't the way to go, especially in open world. Tbh, it is just anti player fun, hitting with your hardest skills/rotations and only doing like 5-10% damage on a measly Veteran. I really hope this is just an oversight with health scaling and not a design choice.

Some feedback. Honestly, the weapons play alright aside from some bugs(like teleport not going behind) and I like the gimmick of sending axes and having them home in on you or another player. These are some of the negatives imo. High init cost, can Specter even utilize this properly? Very narrow cleave if this was meant to fill the lack of ranged (condi) cleave A/D 3 seems like an improved version of Shadow Shot(making shadow shot kind of meh?) Yet another condi weapon Yet again no off hand No supporting capability Telekinetic Axes is a very bizarre flavour to grant to Thief? Seems like it doesn't fit Seeing gaps for other classes finally getting filled with these new weapons, like Warrior as a prime example, leaves a bit of a sour taste. Considering Thief still has gaps in decent ranged cleave(I'm still not sure if I would consider this a decent cleave weapon?) primarily for power now and a supporting off-hand to complement Sceptre. If they want to give Thief a bit of ranged cleave/pierce, just put it on pistol like so many have already asked for? (Ever since I heard about ricochet I feel sad I never got to experience it!) This class could really go for another weapon set to enable supporting game play, and could have EASILY been achieved by getting an off-hand weapon(also something many Thief enjoyers would have liked to see). Consider; with a new off-hand weapon, could still go with axe or maybe focus, we get Sceptre+ which would bolster support Thief gaming, the dual wield granting some boon/heal capabilities . Pistol+ for ranged condi cleave. Dagger+/Sword+ for 600/900 ranged power cleave/utility shenanigans. All of these combinations can fill many gaps Thief still has in their current kit. Anet could still go with the telekinetic axes if they really like it for Thief. If they went with OH Focus, it could be more shadow arts/magic related to suit the Thief flavour better. This is all my personal opinion as a Thief main, don't expect others to feel the same way. I just felt really deflated hearing we get MH Axe, then seeing yet another condi damage focused weapon, and very little to fill in any of what Thief lacks. TLDR; new off-hand would have given all playstyles and weapon sets way more gameplay options, while simultaneously filling out what Thief is missing. Therefore what we got feels like a let down.

Couldn't find anything on this when I searched the forums. The CO strike seems to have a number of bugs, nothing game breaking, but could be potentially more of an issue when the CM is released. Dagda becoming untargetable for a number of seconds early on in the fight. Orange AoE spread mechanic flashing for a split second and vanishing in the 1st phase of the fight "pizza attack" with the giant red AoE, the "slices" don't appear or appear late making it hard/impossible to avoid the debilitated debuff "pizza attack" happening early on in the fight before end of the 1st phase is reached random 'adds' spawning during the 1st phase, probably connected to the above "pizza attack" bugs Random 'obstruction' when using SAK 'Purifying Light' on Soul Feast from a very particular angle slightly beside Dagda's hit box Inconsistent spawn timing of Soul Feast and the 2 Purifying Light orbs. The can spawn together or 1st the orbs then later the SF or vice versa Some other things that probably aren't bugs but are hard to tell if intended or not. When phasing and "pizza attack" happens, you instantly start taking damage from the AoE. There is no warning other than the health threshold being reached. This is really unfriendly for melee classes. Solution: It would be nice if there was a very short invuln. phase and/or message telling you to run away in which you have a few seconds to react and move away. Similar to above, when Soul Feasts spawn there is no 'warning' as Zojja's voice line happens("pick those up", etc.) at the same time as it appears. When it spawns, who ever is unlucky to be standing on its spawn location will instantly gain at least 1 stack of both Infirmary and Residual Anxiety or more depending how fast one can react. This would be like if in Deimos the oil instantly expands with no warning AoE, or in Ankka strike, the hallucination spawns on top of the person in the group, or blue laser in Mai Trin Strike instantly drops on the targeted person. Solution: just give a few seconds forewarning so the affected person can leave the group, or initially spawn Soul Feast away from group. As listed on the wiki; Unlike most other 10-player instanced content, boons are not removed at the start of the encounter. However, profession and elite specialization mechanics, e.g. Life Force, will not automatically refill when starting the fight. Dagda's spin attack immediately spawns an AoE pool that damages players in it, before she shoots off the projectiles, with no forewarning. Everyone in melee range without aegis will almost instantly take at least 1 tick of damage The half arena attack 'rain of comets' again, happens instantly with no forewarning, forcing anyone in it to take damage immediately without any counterplay options. Any special attack currently happening when Dagda phases will persist while players are being pushed away. This is mainly an issue when she is using Shooting Stars as the targeted player must be fairly stationary at the back of the group to succeed the mechanic. Can also be an issue if Soul Feast spawns right before the phase and no one had a chance to pick up a Purifying Light orb. Note: In Temple of Febe this is not the case. Cerus ceases any special attack currently happening when his defiance bar appears. That's all I can think of off the top of my head, sorry in advance if I got anything wrong. Important to point out that some of the bugs are inconsistent and don't occur every time. I'm kinda concerned how the CM will play out if all these bugs persist. Really don't want to see a Kaineng Overlook 2.0

I'm not denying there are less new assets and that there is a lot of reuse/reskin in SotO. Although some examples you gave are reskins. Mummies are Risen humans, some forged are reskinned mordrem, and some mordrem are reskinned core Tyria models. I don't think that reuse necessarily detracts much from the quality. EoD is called an expansion but has loads of asset reskins. Like other people mentioned, many LW maps and metas are well liked and are probably better quality than some comparisons in the related expansion. Therefore the 'quality' across and between expansions and LWs aren't even necessarily consistent. You could even say that LWs are like a 'mini expansion' of it's relative expansion. SotO is mainly different that it's just one package of content now instead of the two. You said you know why it's not called LW. You know why Anet is charging us money. Unless you are trying to say you think the quality isn't worth your $25, I don't really get what your point is tbh.

Some of these points are just your opinion and/or more assertions though. I won't deny there was a lot of asset reuse. But, unless you or someone has a very comprehensive list of examples of asset reuse and reskins vs 'new' assets in each expac, and can prove that SotO has significantly more asset reuse/less variation, I'm not taking that argument at face value. Imo, 'mini expac' is a suitable enough label so far. If they drop the ball on the following updates for SotO, I'd most likely change my opinion though.

What do you use to determine the quality is lower? What are your comparisons between SotO vs LW vs Expac

They called it a 'mini expansion' from the start. Calling it 'Living World' is not accurate either. This is meant to be a completely different release model so it doesn't even make sense to use a previous model's naming convention imo. If you understand why Anet had to move away from giving content away for free, why does it matter if they used the word 'expansion'(they even preceded 'expansion' with 'mini' to make it more distinct)?

Felt the exact same way!! The prot is probably more useful, but the removal of alac seems completely unnecessary. Feels especially bad because the change is completely undocumented in the patch notes. I guess I'm just really disappointed 😔

Pretty much the title. Was this a random undocumented change or is this a bug following the 27th patch? I cannot find information mentioning this change anywhere. I see it's been replaced by protection though which is nice too I guess? Now thief has 0 access to alacrity in competitive. Idk if this is a good thing, bad, on purpose or whatever. I'm just very confused 😅

Are you serious? The community in this thread was the one who started hammering on about "compensation" in the first place. Rubi is just mirroring the language previously used. The tone and entitlement in this thread so over the top. If there was an eye roll react, most of the 'confused' reacts would probably be that instead. Just keep calm and wait until Anet releases more information on the 18th.

The assumption is they have to be all a matching set for it to work? That's not really how I interpreted what Anet's post said as they were talking about having more flexibility.

We really don't know much about how things will be implemented. So it's really weird how everyone is already asking for compensation...

Aren't you forgetting that now you don't need 6 of the same rune? You can have any combination of runes now. And on top of that choose any of the 6th rune 'wild card' effects via the relic. How is no one realising this?

While this is really generous, I don't think any compensation is needed. This new system will open up far more interesting build craft, not to mention making it easier for newer players to make better build choices. At least to me, that's compensation enough in itself. Even though I understand people's sense of invalidation or loss, I believe it's more of a perception issue than an actual problem in need of compensation. I have 6 legendary runes that was just finished up a month or so ago. And, I'm looking forward to interacting with collecting what I need for relics and playing the game to achieve it! I don't care if this is a hot take or what ever, I'm just throwing my opinion into the mix just like everyone else! Edit: Are people under the assumption that you need the same name rune and same name relic? Because from the way the post was worded, it sounded like that wasn't going to be the case. That we are getting more flexible options not less through decoupling the stats from the 'wild card' bonus effect(aka the current 6th rune set bonus). Either way, why would people ask for compensation already when we have basically no info on how the system will actually work?

0 boon duration and almost the full dps build, taking improv, one in the chamber and fire for effect(of course), just aa the golem and doing a 5x Steal Time combo(with mercy), you get a solid quickness buffer and ez 30k-ish dps. This isn't even close to playing optimally either! Be interesting to see SC or anyone come up with a proper rotation before it gets nerfed!

One in the Chamber is meant to grant a random stolen skill. Not even needing FFE trait means you can run Maleficent 7, and potentially a full dps build, while still being a subgroup's quickness provider. Edit: Also just noticed if you cast Steal Time from the Orginal Deadeye Mark, it doesn't grant quickness without FFE

Please, I beg you Anet, give Deception skills on Thief the same cooldown reduction treatment! Based on the design goals stated at the beginning on the Patch Note Preview, it's only fair Deception skills get it too. In last year's June 28th patch, the old balance lead removed the Deception cooldown reduction in Shadow Arts and DIDN'T bake in the shorter cooldowns for PvE. Right now Shadow Refuge has a massive 60 second cooldown where in PvE it's functionally not even as good as Glyph of the Stars(48seconds). The skill Shadowstep is 50 seconds whereas a comparable skill, Shift Signet(on Mechanist), is 25 seconds. Blinding Powder is 40 seconds, short invis duration, half a second stability, break stun. There is no reason to use it over Haste(24 seconds) unless you need stealth for something. These cooldowns are just too long utilise effectively and it feels bad to play with them(so most people don't). Doing this will be 1 step in the direction to making Shadow Arts a potential Heal Specter(a build that doesn't really work well at the moment) trait line option due to having more frequent access to a big group heal/revive with Shadow Refuge and more heals with Shadowstep as a utility. Also if Blinding Powder has a shorter cooldown, it can be used as a fast stealth to utilise Shadowsquall. Specter itself has no immediate +low cooldown stealth access other than with dagger 5.

This is some feedback for Specter support Starting with the June 28th patch in 2022. Shadow Arts' healing capabilities were significantly nerfed in last years June 28th balance patch. Merciful ambush had the revival boost removed. Even though it heals when entering and exiting stealth, Shadow Arts also had stealth access removed in the very same patch. ie. Heal skill no longer grants invis. But also stealth was indirectly nerfed through the removal of Hidden Thief's deception skill cd reduction. This nerfed blinding powder, hide in shadows and shadow refuge as stealth utility options in PvE. Not only that but this change nerfed any trait that would grant a benefit to stealthing allies (Panaku's Ambition and Cover of Shadows). Many traits for Thief and other classes when having utility cooldown reduction traits removed/reworked, now have those cooldown reductions baked into the skill iteself. eg. Thief signets, Trick skills, etc. Why are Deception skills an exception?(that rhymed hehe). Deception skill cooldown reduction was completely removed and received 0 compensation in PvE. Meaning shadow refuge and shadow step(with shadow saviour and traversing dusk) are not really an option with their long cooldowns. Do deception skills REALLY need such a long cd in PvE? Even Druid's glyph of the stars is only around 40 48 seconds nowadays and is effectively far stronger with stability worked in, in comparison to Thief's shadow refuge. Upcoming June 27th Patch Now the trait Shadestep is having the siphon rez removed through a trait rework. This was an incredibly fun ability to have making you something like a lesser heal scourge and was a fantastic supporting option at the cost of some dps loss. I wish there was an explanation for this or some reasoning behind it because it makes no sense. Not that what we get with the Shadestep rework is bad, but did the siphon rez really need to be deleted? I'm excited for the alacrity and scepter targeting changes, though comedically according to the patch notes Specter apparently no longer grants alac lol, but I'm really not sure what why Specter can't have nice trait synergy with Shadow Arts or even have more healing options. All we get is consume shadows. Honestly feels like since the EoD beta, healing options keep being taken away from Specter/Thief and it's a real shame. If someone from the balance team reads this, please take it into consideration. Outside of Specter, I'm super pumped to try Quickness Deadeye!

Imo the GoB exclusivity serves the main purpose of getting people who hit endgame(lvl80) and start a legendary to discover WvW. Therefore outside the initial reward track, subsequent GoBs should also be obtainable outside of needing to play WvW, whether that be via a vendor or whatever. If it works like that then the same should go for WvW and PvP exclusive peeps. They should be able to obtain a full armoury within their own game mode. That would make it fair. Currently the rewards in WvW, even with the newly announced WvW stuff coming, is just crappy for the time invested. Especially if you are there for literally one item. PvE people with limited time to play shouldn't necessarily be made to cross over to a PvP game mode that they dislike to obtain an exclusive item for what is almost a purely PvE collection. That being said, I am fine with the current GoB situation, but it seems a lot of people hate it which is understandable. It'd be nice if Anet would address this but I don't see a lot of people making noise about it. Perhaps most people have already resigned to how things are and/or aren't really bothered by it like me, idk

This has been an issue since Specter was introduced in beta and is incredibly frustrating . Every single well Specter casts blacks out every other AOE on the ground, especially if multiple are cast on top of each other. This causes many issues especially in group content such as not seeing a lethal boss attack, any upcoming AOE damage and also green AOE mechanics. This can easily cause groups to get wiped out during an encounter because no one can see where the attack will hit or late reactions which can be detrimental to success. As nice as unique effects are to see, they should never obstruct AOE mechanic visuals.

Long Thief PvE criticism of Shadow Arts Changes+Explanation As nice as the extra might on thrill of the crime is and the ally fury on unrelenting strikes is, I can't get around the non-sensical changes to Thief's Shadow Arts. Stealth is a huge part of what makes thief feel like thief. I understand it is oppressive and unfun to go up against in PvP/WvW. So on that front, the rework is positive! However, nuking stealth access from SA in PvE makes no sense, especially with the new traits. This on it's own IS a good direction to go with stealth in any game mode and like I said this current iteration, I think, works well for player vs player gameplay- just not in PvE. If you take away stealth access these changes MEAN NOTHING! Now, in PvE you need to take long cooldown utilities to go stealth (and only WvW/PvP got compensated with reduced deception skill cooldowns?) or take specific weapon sets with big initiative costs further reducing the versatility of thief. This won't make a support thief any more functional/viable. Yes there is the gm trait that restores initiative but if you want to support an ally, you would want to take the protection gm trait. One change I just can't wrap my head around is removing Deception CD reduction from SA in PvE with 0 compensation to the respective skill cooldowns. Unless you take those long cd utilities or blast a smoke field, you can't even utilise the ally supporting component of the new traits. To someone looking at the changes and reading the 'explanation', this just screams "we don't know what on earth we are doing with this class!" Or even worse, no one on the balance team cares. I don't want to think that but honestly after many questionable changes in previous patches before, I feel pushed to lean more and more in that direction. If Anet wanted to, they could add some stealth back to SA in PvE only or at the very least the deception cooldown reduction trait (or just lower the deception skill cooldowns in general like they did for other game modes). There seems to be no problem making big split game mode changes for other things. Most recent change that comes to mind is the change to the healing mantra on Firebrand granting aegis once again in PvP/WvW only. Yeah I get it, that's guardian and I'm trying to talk about this thief class that almost no one seems to like. (sorry for the sarcasm but I'm passionate about this class and now once again reminded about how little thought thief is given...) In conclusion Like most people that I have seen speak out about the changes/explanation for their most loved classes, I'm just so disappointed that my favourite class seems to have so little thought/care go into its balance, especially when it comes to PvE.

Yep bug still occurs Edit: I swear pun was not intended!!!

I don't know what you mean by shroud is great utility? To me it's very mediocre and clunky utility if you compare it to say firebrand tomes or even reaper shroud. and yes we finally got numbers for shadow force! yay!