[Is it possible to gift Secrets of the Obscure to someone else?]

1 minute ago, SoftFootpaws.9134 said:

please see my original post though, i edited it to add that you can't use keys on steam accounts, as they go through valve and not arenanet!

Oh that's ok, neither of us play the game on Steam anyways. Thanks for being thorough though ❤️

[Is it possible to gift Secrets of the Obscure to someone else?]

Just now, SoftFootpaws.9134 said:

yes, it has nothing to do with your ability to buy the expansion as its sold as a product and not applied to your account in any way.

Sweet! Thank you so much for the info!

[Is it possible to gift Secrets of the Obscure to someone else?]

1 minute ago, SoftFootpaws.9134 said:

if you log into the website and buy the expansion, you receive a key in your email that you can give away. just keep in mind the person you send it to has to keep the key in a safe place as it will be required for any customer support inqueries in the future as proof of ownership!

 

if you buy the expansion from the gemstore, its automatically applied to your account, so don't do that.

If I do that, can I still buy the expansion for myself in the future? Cuz I don't have it yet.

[Is it possible to gift Secrets of the Obscure to someone else?]

I want to buy it for my fiancée, but I can't figure out how. Is it possible to gift the expansion to someone if neither of you play the game on Steam?

[stealth vulnerability]

The real solution is just to add more sources of Reveal to the game. Add it to more skills and traits, especially single target or small aoe non-weapon skills and traits. In my opinion, Stealth itself isn't the problem, it's the lack of adequate options to counter it. Each class should have access to a couple reveal skills/traits, so that they can counter stealth-focused builds. That would also allow for more stealth to be added to the game on classes that fit with it thematically, or open up opportunities to explore adding stealth focused elite specs on classes that previously weren't really stealth oriented. I like stealth as a mechanic, and think it's interesting and fun, but in GW2 it needs more counterplay so that it doesn't feel as frustrating/annoying to deal with.

[Let's talk about Bladeturn Requiem]

6 hours ago, Roadkizzle.2157 said:

Virtuoso Blades are a much bigger change in how the Mesmer plays. It takes the clunky clones and makes for very fluid combat.

You say Necro specs are good because they soup up the shroud mechanic. But the Virtuoso blade mechanic does the same thing for Mesmer. 

I think Distortion should be removed from Virtuoso. But only because I think that it should have its own unique defensive shatter by giving Bladeturn Requiem its channeled block back.

 

Sure the enemy can get Unblockable. But that is part of the differentiation the Virtuoso has. The Virtuoso is the most offensive oriented Mesmer spec. No Mesmer can generate Illusions as quickly to cast the shatters as often. When other Mesmers kill their target they have to spend multiple skills to generate new Clones but the Virtuoso retains it's blades to immediately move onto the next target.

Clones are inherently more defensive than Blades because they mess up the enemy target priority again leading the Virtuoso to be the most offensive oriented espec for the class.

I think your reasoning that the Virtuoso must keep the Core shatter skill in order to have a mechanic that wouldn't exist otherwise is ludicrous.

I'm not against the idea of Virtuoso having something different than Distortion, it could kinda fit thematically. But it would have to be better than what the old Bladeturn Requiem was. Either stronger defensive capabilities, so that it can be a worthy replacement for Distortion, or a lower cooldown, to make up for its weaker defense. Also your assertion that Virtuoso has higher damage output than other Mesmer specs is provably untrue if you play a lot of PvP. Chrono has extremely high burst potential, and it has Continuum Split in addition to Distortion, while also having a ton of useful and powerful wells, unlike Virtuoso, which really only gains 1 useful new slot skill. I don't think Virtuoso necessarily needs to only have 4 Shatters to be balanced. Also I personally don't think the Blades "soup up" the clone type mechanic the way you think they do. Losing actual physical clones makes Virtuoso a lot more vulnerable and easier to dive, pin down, and kill, because it has no ways to hide or be slippery. To me, it's more of a "lose a little, get a little" situation, which isn't enough to make Virtuoso strong by itself. Also, this is coming from someone who's fought against Virtuosos more than I've fought as one myself. I'm not a main, I just kinda like the spec, and am sad to see it gutted so badly. I never see Virtuosos in PvP anymore, and when I do, it always feels like a free win/easy fight. Since the nerfs, I've literally only ever run into 1 Virtuoso that gave me trouble, and even that was because his build kind of countered mine, rather than because it was actually strong. I don't love it like someone who mains it, or hate it like someone who wants it deleted, I just like all the classes and specs, and want to see each of them be viable and playable, especially for the people out there who do main them and love them with a passion.

[Let's talk about Bladeturn Requiem]

16 minutes ago, dead.7638 said:

F5 block is gone, I’m sure everyone has mourned long enough.   F5 still gives trait aegis, it’s okay.   It’s also an instant cast.   Meaning you can chain the small amount of dmg with other skills, again this is okay.   However, using the skill still seems questionable as it can be a waste of resources.   And that’s the real problem for me.   When I have to question myself if the skill is even worth using or waiting for the cd on f1 to pop.   Maybe I needed the aegis… and I have for sure.   But that is me investing a trait for only one block from virts most unique skill.   Seems lame.   If it doesn’t get a defensive capability back the dmg needs to be buffed.   I wouldn’t mind a scaling effect on dmg each time you stand in the blades.   And add in extra bleed for a condi variation.

This is my biggest problem with it too. I don't care if they bring back the block, they just need to do something to the skill to make it not feel like a waste of Blades. Right now, there's almost no reason to ever waste your Blades on it unless, like you said, you have that aegis trait, and you need a single block.

[Let's talk about Bladeturn Requiem]

4 hours ago, Terrorhuz.4695 said:

There is no concept as "elite spec profession skill". There are shatters, those are the mechanics. Chronomancer shouldn't have access to distortion (if anything, and that's a stretch, I could accept a channeled invulnerability like diamond skin, but NOT core distortion), nor virtuoso (they get the channeled block, which is weaker but it also has a much lower cd and procs some shatter traits multiple times; IIRC Bountiful Disillusionment turns the mesmer into a pulsing AoE boonrip and Maim the Disillusioned turns the mesmer into a pulsing AoE torment well)

Almost every elite spec has some kind of special profession skill or mechanic that it adds, or at least a souped up version of an existing mechanic. Rangers have a new skill for every elite spec, Revs have at least 1 too, Thieves have either souped up dodges or that shroud (Deadeye doesn't really, and that's why it's weak), Engi has either Function Gyro, Photon Forge, or a better version of a Ranger pet, Necro has souped up shrouds or the shades, Eles have overloads, dual attuning, or Jade Sphere, Guardians have souped up Virtues, and Warrior has Berserk Mode, Full Counter, or Dragon Trigger. Blades don't count, much like how the Gunsaber doesn't count, because those things just replace existing mechanics, instead of adding to the class.

If you just want Mesmer to be weak and unplayable because you hate facing them, that' ok, everyone's entitled to their opinion. But if that's the case, then please save it for opinion threads, rather than distracting from the issue in a serious thread about trying to balance struggling spec.

[Let's talk about Bladeturn Requiem]

On 9/23/2023 at 5:21 PM, Azure The Heartless.3261 said:

This

Them having to add distortion to mes because they overestimated peoples ability to juggle aegis is really funny though

Good. Then they can dodge or press their invuln utility instead like everyone else~

So what would their elite spec profession skill be then, if they go down to only having 4 shatters? Also, what would keep them from falling behind other mesmer specs, without distortion?

[Let's talk about Bladeturn Requiem]

6 hours ago, ArthurDent.9538 said:

Should have never added distortion to virtuoso and kept the block on requiem. The spec has all unique shatters that mirror the core counterparts and requiem mirrored distortion. There were other ways to buff virtuoso if they felt it was necessary than doubling up on their defensive shatter.

Honestly, I kind of get why they let Virtuoso keep distortion, cuz the old F5 could be countered by unblockable, and it was channeled, so you couldn't really do much during it. I think you only got 1.5 seconds of time where you were still blocking, but not channeling, so it was a pretty limited defensive skill compared to distortion, and easily countered if the enemy used something that gave them the unblockable effect.

[Let's talk about Bladeturn Requiem]

6 hours ago, Downstate.4697 said:

Or they could make bleeds relevant so it has some practical use

That too, bleeding is one of the weakest conditions, for seemingly no reason. Unless they want Virtuoso to exclusively be a condi spec though, it's gonna need some sort of other buff too, to make it useful for power builds.

[Let's talk about Bladeturn Requiem]

I think we can all agree that right now it's kind of a "non-skill", not really worth using in pretty much any situation, because it does nothing, and wastes blades. We also all know why it had its block removed, because while I never really thought pre-nerf Virtuoso was all that hard to deal with, it certainly was annoying. So if the F5 is gonna lose its block, then it needs to get something else in order to make it still a useful skill that's worth using.

If it's going to remain a defensive skill, like it was before, then my vote is for it to heal based on blades consumed. I think it should heal for an initial amount, and then heal for more per hit, so it requires some skill and deliberate intent, to get the full value out of it. It could instead provide damage reduction for a duration based on blades, which is a suggestion I've heard before, but I personally think healing is more clear to both the user and enemies, instead of damage reduction where both you and enemies have to guess how much extra damage it will take for you to die.

Another thing to consider is that it might be a good idea to change the way it deals damage. Without the blocking capability, having it be a melee range skill doesn't make much sense anymore, so I was thinking it might make more sense to make it a ranged skill, like the rest of the Bladesongs. Allowing the spinning blades to be cast at a distance, kind of like Unstable Bladestorm (Dagger 3), would allow it to be much less suicidal to try and use, and also opens up the possibility of having it be turned into an offensive skill instead of a defensive one, if people don't think it should remain defensive. Instead of healing or providing damage reduction, the numbers on it could simply be bumped up so that it actually does damage, and it would become another offensive Bladesong, like the F1, F2, and F3.

Does anyone else have any thoughts on the subject? Agree, disagree, other ideas for fixing Bladeturn Requiem?

(P.S. Another thing that needs to be done to help out Virtuoso in PvE is to change the cooldown of Blade Renewal to match its PvP cooldown. It makes no sense that it wasn't given the same compensation buff in PvE that it got in PvP.)

[Quickness and Auto attack interfering with Stealth Attack]

On 8/13/2023 at 5:57 AM, Eloc Freidon.5692 said:

This problem isn't exclusive to Thief.

For example, when using the Deadeye's stolen skill to give yourself stealth. If the stolen skill also grants quickness, your auto attack will go off taking you right out of stealth, not letting you be able to use your Stealth Attack. This prevents Malice from being consumed and causes problems when trying to gain initiative from Maleficent Seven.

Turning off auto attack is not a reasonable solution when this wasn't a problem before.

Unfortunately, this has been a problem since Deadeye was reworked ages ago. It would be really nice if Anet would fix it, but in all likelihood, they're too busy making sure Ele and Willbender stay at the top of the charts. One workaround I've found that usually works pretty well is to just spam 1 the instant you enter stealth, so that the Stealth Attack overrides your auto attack that's trying to go off. Works pretty consistently for me. Unfortunately though, there's no way that I've found to stop yourself from being insta-revealed if you use standing rifle 4 while stealthed. 😞

[Runes of the Trapper are a problem in PvP]

3 minutes ago, Azure The Heartless.3261 said:

I feel like dh would fall apart without them. Rangee has options but theyre def necessary for DH in its current form. 

That's debatable. DH still has stupidly massive damage and fantastic cc. I think it would be perfectly fine without trapper runes on top of that.

[Runes of the Trapper are a problem in PvP]

We've all seen tons of people using them, and I think most of us can agree they create annoying balance issues by giving a ton of free stealth to classes or builds that weren't meant to have lots of stealth in the first place. Fighting a Guardian or Ranger shouldn't feel like fighting a Thief. Guardian in particular gets a ton of extra survivability from it on top of all the defense and healing they already have. Does anyone else feel differently, or is this a common opinion?

[Ele "nerfs" are a joke]

 The class has been head and shoulders above the rest in pvp for ages now, with more and more buffs being piled on top of it, and now that the issue can no longer be ignored, all it gets is a light slap on the wrist. As much as I love playing it from time to time, I'd rather see it get nerfed into the ground for a while than have things continue the way they have been. Pvp matches since the last round of Ele buffs have pretty much become decided by which team has more Eles. The worst part though, is that we'll probably never see anything even close to balance as long as a certain balance team member (whose name can't be mentioned in a critical manner without risking your post being removed and your account being banned) is still making balance decisions. At this point it's starting to feel like all those "doom posts" about the devs not caring about the game anymore are being proved right. 😞

 

(To the mods: I accidentally posted the original version of this post in General, and it got moved to the Elementalist section under Professions. I meant to post it here, so if you're gonna delete one of them for double posting, please delete the other one.)

[Ele "nerfs" are a joke]

1 hour ago, vesica tempestas.1563 said:

your confusing a couple builds with an entire class which just got needlessly ruined through a lack of competent impact analysis. 

Edit or to be fair, the person who pulled the triggers on these ridiculous changes got confused.

I agree, it's not the entire class, and they did try to balance it very incorrectly, but those problem builds are still a massive problem, and the only builds people really run most of the time. I don't want the rest of Ele to be nerfed any more than anyone else, but the problem Catalyst (and to a certain extent Tempest) builds need to be nerfed properly, or there will be no room for diversity or fun in pvp. A lot of people have just stopped playing because of those builds being so dominant and ubiquitous, myself included. It just makes it hard to enjoy pvp at all anymore.

[Ele "nerfs" are a joke]

The class has been head and shoulders above the rest in pvp for ages now, with more and more buffs being piled on top of it, and now that the issue can no longer be ignored, all it gets is a light slap on the wrist. As much as I love playing it from time to time, I'd rather see it get nerfed into the ground for a while than have things continue the way they have been. Pvp matches since the last round of Ele buffs have pretty much become decided by which team has more Eles. The worst part though, is that we'll probably never see anything even close to balance as long as a certain balance team member (whose name can't be mentioned in a critical manner without risking your post being removed and your account being banned) is still making balance decisions. At this point it's starting to feel like all those "doom posts" about the devs not caring about the game anymore are being proved right. 😞

[Theory: Condi Druid changes were made to justify bigger nerfs later]

As a fellow Druid enjoyer myself, it was nice to see condi Druid feeling strong, but also concerning, because we all know how much Anet hates Ranger, and in particular Druid. I have a sneaking suspicion that the changes to condi Druid were made to justify removing Ancient Seeds (which was admittedly slightly annoying to deal with), and also to put it in a slightly overperforming state, so they could justify nerfing Druid back into the dumpster where they think it belongs. 20 gems says they nerf Druid into the ground in a patch or two.

[Torment-Burning: They are way too powerful to be attached to auto-attacks!]

I don't know about torment but Burning definitely does WAY too much damage. Ele and Guardian burning builds burst as hard as power builds, which is just stupid. The whole point of condi is that it's supposed to kill slower than power, since condi builds can give themselves more tankiness, because they don't need 3 offensive stats to reach their full damage potential.

[Is Escape Artist a pointless trait now?]

It used to be pretty useful for clone generation and occasionally fooling people, but it seems like the devs just wanted to replace it with a useless trait so they never have to use their brains when fighting Mesmers. Is there even any real value in giving distortion to phantasms? That just seems so pointless to me, and more like a subtle middle finger to Mesmer players than anything resembling good balance changes.

[The Virtuoso nerfs were motivated by spite, not balance]

Personally I never even found the chain blocking and distorting that hard to deal with anyways, since all of it except the F4 had to be channeled, so enemy Virtuosos couldn't attack you either, but it was definitely a little stronger and more annoying to 1v1 than some builds. That said, you still didn't see that many Virtuosos in pvp because their damage was mostly single target, so they kind of fell off in teamfights, to a certain extent. While one or maybe even two of the nerfs they were bludgeoned with could be justified, the spec was absolutely gutted, which speaks to the devs just being spiteful because none of them play Virtuoso, and don't like having to figure out how to deal with it in pvp. As someone who plays both as and against Virtuosos from time to time, I really don't think the nerfs were necessary or warranted, and if some sort of nerf really was necessary, I think reducing the duration of Blade Renewal would've been more than enough by itself. It should've also been accompanied by a proportional cooldown reduction, to compensate: 2 second duration on a 40 second cooldown.

[What class would you love to see introduced in gw2?]

I actually came up with a full design for a class a while back, including weapons, utility skills, traits, and elite specs (only 2 though, since this was before EoD). It's sort of a yin-yang type of caster class, that switches back and forth between light and dark based skills. Every weapon skill, utility skill, and trait has different effects depending on whether you're using light or dark. I called it the Luminary. If anyone's interested, here's the link to the post: https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/topic/84661-new-class-idea-the-luminary/

 

[Stone Heart nerfs were overkill]

I agree with it being nerfed, it was way too strong in PvP, but the degree to which it was pummeled into the ground and then kicked while it was down, even in PvE, is just spiteful. We went from consistent 100% uptime as long as you were in Earth (which was admittedly too strong) to 5 seconds every 14 seconds, if you manage it perfectly. In my opinion, it should have been changed to pulsing Protection while in Earth Attunement instead, that way it would've preserved the consistency of always being harder to kill while in Earth (which to me is the main focus of that attunement), while also allowing enemies to still crit you and even rip or corrupt your source of consistent damage reduction. The trait could've even included a Protection removal effect of some kind when leaving Earth Attunement, like Pyromancer's Puissance, if the devs were worried about people stacking up tons of Protection with boon duration, and then carrying it over to other attunements. Instead they just absolutely gutted the trait, even in PvE.

[Massive bot problem in pvp]

11 hours ago, Dr Meta.3158 said:

I've never seen bots in ranked but I've  seen bots a few times in unranked only and they are all scripted to follow each other to points and they do fight so I don't think that system would work regardless of what he intended by 10% of enemy score, which im going to go by what is defined in this game as match score rather than what is defined in this game as match stats.

Most bots just auto-run into walls or afk in base while self-tormenting though, so it would at least get rid of a ton of them. Also to be honest, the behaviour you're describing sounds more like bad players who don't talk, rather than bots. That's some pretty complex programming for a bot that's just meant to get someone pvp rewards.