[Are there any builds that use a longbow but without Berserker?]

Longbow does synergize with bladesworn's traits; arcing arrow and fan of fire pretty good power damage, and the explosion effects from longbow 3 and 4 give you +250 ferocity from guns and glory and +10% damage if taking fierce as fire. However, that's where it ends. Longbow is only useful for tagging enemies in the open world, so it's not helpful against bosses. In PvE, smoldering arrow's triple charges for daze + blind may help at breaking bars, but it still doesn't compensate for longbow's subpar DPS.
 

You are far better off taking melee weapons than longbow. You sacrifice too much damage or synergy for ranged capabilities. By taking that weapon, you rely on too much resource management and damage modifiers for extremely subpar DPS.
 

[In your opinion, should the Revenant's spear be a power or condi based weapon?]

Spear is awful for... the same reasons why scepter was also awful, except spear is not a support weapon: it has poor condi variety; its AA is so slow you can't even use that without quickness or stability covering the cast time. The aesthetics are the only feature that makes spear look attractive IMO. 

There's also zero reason to nerf any existing weapon to make people use the new weapon; it's a terrible precedent for future weapons being added to classes. It's a different story when existing weapons are overperforming, but serviceable weapons that get unnecessarily nerfed for a new one do not give players faith in the devs.

[A Humble Request, please make Heal Vindicator PvE Viable.]

could you imagine how different things could've been had quickness vindicator been thought over quickness herald? not like it matters now, but the animations and elusive playstyle work well, especially with quickness. Of course, that'd be assuming Anet never retroactively gave Herald quickness haha. 

Honestly, I miss the old alacrity vindicator when it was not only sharing boons through Ventari, Jalis, or Archemorus + Viktor, but also extending said boons by dodging. Of course, no one talks about how fun that build was, but it was a creative fun build before Anet axed alacrity from Salvation's grandmaster minor.

alacrity renegade was godly once upon a time before they removed 10-man alacrity, not to mention it had assassin's presence through devastation. I would rather see support renegade become more useful instead of becoming undesirable and isolated, whether it is healer, power dps, or alacrity dps. I don't know how many people would scream about 'Alacren jail,' but it'd be nice to give love to renegade instead of being forgotten.

in PvE, alacren has been largely obsoleted ever since EOD especs came out; other classes have cool flavors, strong utilities, and are easy to play. heal vindicator is cool in its rights but unless anet gives it one of the special boons, heal vindi won't be used in PvE.

[Greatsword improvement suggestion]

All I see are nerfs, to be honest. I don't want my skills shuffled around and unnecessarily lose crippled on a hard-hitting skill. Skill 5 is meant for melee players who come up to you and you knock them back to keep fighting said players at long range.

[Seal area suggestion]

you have to plan with preparations, of course, but that doesn't fit with seal area. you want to shut down projectiles anywhere they land, not predict where they will land; the same problem happens when using this against enemies. 

[Is there a reason to play Mirage when Virtuoso & Chrono exist?]

alac mirage is a lost cause, and I would gladly lose it if it meant buffing confusion. alacrity on mirage is a sore spot because the idea was added when no other especs granted the boon. honestly, I am surprised they kept it after EOD specs had been added. I loved playing alac mirage, but then too many changes came in and ruined both the condi side and alacrity side.

the Frankenstein build that it is now is unacceptable. make desert distortion and infinite horizon baseline, then we can start talking about serious buffs. the new Dune Cloak is good for open world enemies when clones die too quickly, but it competes with the current infinite horizon. the old dune cloak was so useful for stripping boons and copying them to you! 

mirage mantle and desert distortion being in the same tier is also wrong, and the old version of alac mirage used to be able to weave in distortions and ambushes after using f4 or gaining distortion from Inspiration's signet GM trait (not like one would consider Inspiration for instanced content, but it was great in open world hahaha).

[Designing Rifle as a ranged support weapon because we currently don't have one]

14 hours ago, DanAlcedo.3281 said:

We need a Mh support weapon tho. 

You can improve traits all you want. Switching off staff to x/Warhorn means most of your healing is just gone. 

Sure, it's just 5s but still. 

By lyssas double booty. Freaking Mace is the meta choice. MACE! The 2012 weapon. Because there is nothing else that even does anything. The best option is one of the worst weapons in GW2. If not the worst. 

Also, they want us to swap weapons as much as possible with the last balance patch. 

Warhorn skills are 20s CD.... 

Turning mace into a healer's weapon with the control side intact wouldn't be a bad change. Could emphasize more AoE healing or defensive effects when interrupting or disabling foes.
 

Or the reality is that a healer warrior will always have to decide what main-hand weapon is best for the scenario.

[Designing Rifle as a ranged support weapon because we currently don't have one]

this makes rifle completely unrecognizable, but I appreciate the creativity here. 

to be honest, this could work with banners when they used to be bundle skills, which would restore banners' flair, especially since they don't have unique buffs.

I like the skills but rifle needs an edge as a ranged power weapon, unless that role gets shifted onto longbow in exchange for this (longbow is hybrid damage to me anyway, albeit poor on the power side).

keeping the explosion effect on rifle skills would also allow synergy with guns and glory.

[What's Renegade's intended purpose in PvP now?]

We could get to the point where any skills won't apply alacrity due to traits, but such a boon isn't the only problem.

The more effective nerf would be to limit its duration rather than outright remove the boon. Removing group alacrity in WvW and PvP was a harsh nerf, but this hasn't stopped boonballs whatsoever. Nerfing concentration as a stat would better nerf the constant boon uptime rather than outright remove group alacrity and group quickness. However, balance patches have gone in the opposite direction. I also don't see how being able to spam a different boon (like might/protection/vigor or whatever boon) over alacrity or quickness is helpful or sensible.

[Janthir Wilds Spear Beta Event Feedback: Revenant]

17 hours ago, Twilightmage.8309 said:

we needed another ranged power/condi wep and we didnt get it... again

well the next question you ask yourself is 'whom was this weapon made for??' rev's spear will not cut a hole into any game mode the way it is now.

[When does Harbringer Shroud Leaves the Beta state???]

7 hours ago, Asum.4960 said:

I think the frustration comes in that other Professions get Combo Interactions slapped on left and right, even when it makes no sense for the skill to be a "Blast" or w/e, while for Necro even just straight up literal leaps aren't Leap Finisher's, Projectiles aren't Projectile Finishers, and even for example the most "Blasty" of all Warhorn skills, Wail of Doom, is the only Warhorn in the game that doesn't have a Blast Finisher - but fsr Skills like Call of Valor, Call of the Wild and Sand Squall are? 

Necromancer always lacking these details and little interactions just makes it look unfinished or carelessly thrown together in comparison. Well, not just that..

True, even this year a few random skills were given finishers, e.g. malicious cunning salvo, convergence, and igniting burst got blasts; for weaver, pistol got phys proj finisher on two dual-attuned skills, but where is necro in those lists?!

It is mind-boggling necro's warhorn doesn't have aoe swiftness and blast finishers; even if it just had a blast finisher or two, you'd be able to grant swiftness by blasting in someone's lightning field. Necro's warhorn is embarrassing unlike tempest's, warrior's, and ranger's. I recall one finisher Necro got a while ago: greatsword 3 became a whirl finisher; said change was also undocumented. 

Necro has a variety of fields, but not enough finishers to complement that. Getting a blast or leap finisher where it makes sense on said skills is long overdue. It's the little details that matter.
 

[Quality-of-Life Requests and Suggestions (New for 2024)]

1 hour ago, Wave.7035 said:

I feel like this would be better addressed by creating an infusion version of Nightfury that would only be available after having crafting the shoulder skin. Rewarded via an achievement. 

that image was a random example of combining shoulder skins. of course, Nightfury could become an infusion to bypass that, but the point still stands that having two shoulder skins would open up a lot more creativity or designs. Nightfury does have the flexibility to become an infusion because they are floating bats, but the same cannot be said for many shoulder skins that aren't visuals.

[When does Harbringer Shroud Leaves the Beta state???]

I suppose skills 3 and 4 can register as leap finishers, though they're good examples of 'not every mobility skill comes with a leap finisher, but every leap finisher comes with a mobility skill.' Harbinger shroud is pretty functional apart from those two skills. 

[Quality-of-Life Requests and Suggestions (New for 2024)]

QOL suggestion: being able to wear two different helm skins and two different shoulder skins. You could select up to two different skins in the helm and shoulder wardrobe as an option, and if you wanted to wear only one helm skin or one shoulder skin, you would untick the second option. 

example of what a double shoulder combo would look like: https://i.ibb.co/8sBs5zx/double-shoulder-skin.png

this would open up a lot of doors to new fashion ideas even though there are clunky shoulder skins that would cover up other armor pieces; if you wanted to use such a skin, then you would wear that one shoulder skin by itself.

[Firearms Rework made while I was chugging IRL Elixir B's]

this sounds cool, but then most of the damaging conditions you want to apply will realistically have to come from allies' combo fields. I like the creativity but I wouldn't change firearms that drastically. this hinges too much on providing combo fields and needing the right ones for this condition or that boon.

[New Pets from Janthir Wilds?]

On 7/7/2024 at 12:57 AM, meerfunkuhtron.9725 said:

I always wanted a pet that summoned more of its buddies as one of its skills.
One of my (actually half serious) proposals has been a house cat, that calls on 2 or 3 other house cats as one of its rotations while in combat. They leave the enemy a bit dazed (I imagine one of the cats jumping at enemy faces), bleeding and blinded after the daze has transpired. The F2 is an area sniff that reveals up to 5 stealthed targets. Out of combat, it sits right by the ranger or their shoulder so that it doesn't just randomly attack things until you're actually in combat, after which it jumps off and starts its combat rotation.

It sounds so natural that it makes me wonder why ranger can't have that as its special beast skill! 

An AOE reveal would also be so cool, given the only other reveal ranger has is the classic 'sic 'em!' The house cat sitting right next to the ranger or being on their shoulder would be a nice touch. Your house cat(s) would do a lot of CCs and condition damage hehe.

 

[New Pets from Janthir Wilds?]

3 hours ago, RainbowTurtle.3542 said:

It'd have to be incredibly short, since they really do not want those boons to be super available (if at all). Self quick or alac on the pet itself would also likely be really mid.

self-application is obviously different from group application, and anet generally does not mind self-application even in PvP and WvW, because the base durations are low not to get permanent uptime or highly available. also, how would either boon be 'really mid' for the pet when you can use 'we heal as one' for the pet to copy its quickness or alacrity to the ranger?  

[Removed rune 6 bonuses]

well, a lot of 6th rune bonuses were not used at all, but just because such things weren't part of the meta *didn't* mean they were discarded. to pick an example, I loved the old zephyrite rune because it lengthened superspeed's duration, and that is now impossible. 

whether or not anet plans to reintroduce the golem, rock dog, or other old 6th rune bonuses as relics is a mystery. anet ended up changing a lot of old 6th runes bonuses when they became relics; in other cases, they even swapped effects such as relic of nightmare having old rune of sunless' fear + poison proc upon using an elite skill.
 

for core relics, there are fewer choices right now but at least many of them get used, especially by core players and other players with the first 3 expansions, but don't own SOTO.

I'd love to have the old 6th rune of perplexity or rune of mesmer on relics; Idk how much longer it'll be before new additional core relics are added.

[Janthir Wilds Spear Beta Event Feedback: Necromancer]

Sure, range is a minor complaint apart from the spear's other issues; given how long a spear is, it could have a little higher reach than a dagger. Understandably, I don't believe anet is going to change it because real-life logic doesn't always apply to weapons designs.

Speed is not a problem because it has good cast times. 

Genuinely, I have no idea how anet will want to rework spear despite many people's disappointments.

[Janthir Wilds Spear Beta Event Feedback: Necromancer]

Numbers are not the problem. The power hits pretty hard like greatsword, but utility and theme disappointed me. This should not be another chill-themed weapon. Spear needs to become a melee hybrid weapon at the very least. Condis that are not chill would also be cool, so spear would not blend in with sword or greatsword.

To prevent it from overlapping with main-hand dagger, make almost every skill be able to apply poison. Additionally, every few stacks of soul shards should also be consumed to poison foes. Preferably 5 stacks of soul shards to apply poison. Don't let spear overlap with dagger and greatsword. I honestly can't tell you how quickly spear will be superseded by these two weapons, or spear replacing dagger + any. Spears should have a much greater reach than dagger as well, like between 240-300 range if you ask me.

Extirpate needs to be able to deny 6 boons in PvE, and in PvP and WvW, probably up from 3 to 5 unique boons denied. Change stacking boons like 10 might or 5 stability to count as one unique boon; as it is, 3 boons denied by Extirpate and 3 unique boons removed is not helpful given mass boon application in WvW. I'd also change the might into fury, so that power necro can generate its own fury without dread or relic of midnight king. 

Isolate should apply slow instead of chill. Also, remove requiring hitting an enemy to flip over to Distress. This is especially horrific to use against thieves or teleporting enemies, any enemies with evade frames, invulnerability, or dodges will also deny your mobility. YIKES. Recharging Isolate with Distress or by entering and exiting Death Shroud is the only reason to use this skill and even use Relic of Peitha. Distress should have an evade frame considering spear has little to no protection with the follow-up skill. You'll get blinded, stunned, immob, or CC'd to death if you get up close to someone. 

Addle is all right. I can appreciate having another source of immobilize and daze, since necro has lost its daze on wail of doom. :| Love that one can benefit from interrupting foes. If addle really wants to punish someone, why not increase the interrupted skill's cooldown by 7 seconds?

Perforate is a little boring. Could do with another boon like fury or vigor. 

I will say that I love that this weapon ties in with death shroud; perhaps, in future, look into necro's weapons to get this same treatment. 

[Janthir Wilds Spear Beta Event Feedback: Revenant]

Uh no, revenant has gotten 2 weapons in a row that started with S and both are beyond sad. How is this even possible?

This looks even clunkier than using scepter as a DPS/support weapon. Oh yeah, about that weapon, what about the mace nerfs that scepter introduced? Will that ever be undone?

As for condis, if you're gonna reintroduce slow and chill on spear, why not give back slow on axe 4?? I'm not sure what the point is to take away a feature only to bring it back.
This needs way better condi variety than torment. Why not poison, fear, weakness, or crippled? The autoattack is the salt in the wound because you'll only get interrupted trying to use it. What happened to the fast mobile Rev? What is with the recent pushes to make Rev as slow as a turtle? That is not Rev to me. A condi melee spear with quick strikes and evade frames would feel beyond better than firing a spear, especially without quickness or stability covering your cast times. 

I may not play rev much but even I feel bad for this class.

[New Pets from Janthir Wilds?]

Bees or snakes so I could pester my enemy while I'm far away. :3 Actually, I won't even ask why these two pets have not made their way into the game (skill names related to them don't count :P). Yeah, bast bow already mentioned snakes, sure. Snakes do live on some islands, and bees especially are present except in harsh cold climates, but I guess real life doesn't always agree with game design. 

Besides that, it would be pretty interesting if a juvenile bee summoned a swarm of bees that apply burning, poison, and strip boons. 
A juvenile snake could have a ground-targeted beast skill where a bunch of snakes lunge at your enemy, and after lunging, they become a mobile dark or poison field that pesters the enemy, pulsing poison and weakness. Confusion could also work thematically if not poison.
Both could be condi pets, but there would be some self-sustain or utility. Perhaps 'draining' endurance and gaining endurance or self-healing, hmm; that's not a niche ranger hasn't touched yet. 

[Power scepter tempest is awesome]

With sword + warhorn, I could hit 30k with more practice. Despite swapping between fire and air a lot, my rotation is pretty tight since I wanna maintain fresh air, tempestuous aria, transcendent tempest, and relic of Peitha altogether. Not only is it a fast-paced rotation, but because if melee is unfriendly, it means you'll lose out on that 10% damage buff. You might as well drop relic of Peitha should you want scepter. It's fun and has a simple idea of combing into fields to maintain buffs. For group play, Powerful Aura makes this build more forgiving to share auras and offers new ways to grant specific ones by leaping into dark, ethereal, fire, or light fields. 

e.g., overload fire + lightning flash for relic of Peitha < fire glyph elite < flame uprising < air < polaric leap again for relic of Peitha. Additionally, by having fresh air, I can swap to air asap after crit hit to use polaric leap. In practice, however, you can rely on allies' combo fields instead of using fire overload or wildfire often. Solo play changes when you wanna put down fire fields ofc.

[Power scepter tempest is awesome]

I've been playing power Tempest for over a year and I am so glad it's surfaced into popularity again; granted I swap between main-hand sword and scepter. <3 I love the charm of giving auras and getting a damage buff for doing so. Tempest has only gotten more and more fun and forgiving! 

• Auras and sharing them
• Alacrity (if you take lucid singularity)
• Unique self-buff 
• Frequent CCs
• Teleports
• Invulnerability
• Stability
• Mid-range DPS
• AOE stunbreak 
• Superspeed

Geninuely asking, what is NOT to love about Tempest rn? 

[Can we PLEASE just buff/rework rifle instead of trying to make Rifle 2.0 with Spear?]

Totally agree! warrior rifle needs its damage buffed but I guess that's a hard sell, apart from gunflame and bladesworn shenanigans with ammo skills and explosions. Rifle makes me wonder how a class suffers so long from not having an effective long-range DPS weapon.