[Minstrels is a problem and I'm tired pretending it's not.]

I see, it is in 2022 instead of 2020 so the time period is slightly different, but it is very interesting indeed. And also it is a nice nostalgia trip. 🙂
Thank you for sharing the video!

[Minstrels is a problem and I'm tired pretending it's not.]

Interesting,

It looks WAY more legit than the "Blue china, best china" video that people keep linking where the two blobs stay cartoonishely static. It is a shame we don't see the subgroup to check what comp they were running and if it was a 4 minstrel supports comp we had a couple of month ago.

[Minstrels is a problem and I'm tired pretending it's not.]

17 hours ago, MedievalThings.5417 said:

When the videos first came out from China of two groups standing in nice little piles next to each other, than moving to stand in one spot to see which one would live, we laughed.  Cause they would just stand in 1 spot, no dodging until 1 side died.  Now look at NA.  Usually its just blobs farming pugs, but occasionally it's just 2 blobs standing in 1 spot until whoever had more wins.

Ok, time to break a misconception about the infamous "Chinese GvG" meme.

As far as I know it originated from a Youtube video from June 2020 named "GW2 GvG - Blue China, Best China" ; that is most likely the video you are referring to. However, in this video, both the game client, the chat popup, and the guilds names are in English. Furthermore, a quick look at other videos on the same channel seems to indicate the author plays on NA servers. In the comment section of the video, they even explicitly told people it was "a mockery/parody". In other words, it has nothing to do with oversee servers or Chineese players... sorry to disappoint. ^^

TLDR: the "Chinese GvG" was most likely a parody from NA.

[About the evolution of celestial equipment in WvW.]

1. "It will kill the celestial meta in Zerg." - Most likely yes. I believe it is very much the main intention behind this change, and to be fair, it is probably healthy for the game. Don't get me wrong, a few celestial build are great... but when half the squad run cele gear then it start to create clunky slow fights.
2. "Elementalist are designed for cele." - As an Ele player, I see where you are coming from but I also somewhat disagree, let me explain myself. My point is, while the attunement system make good use of cele, other classes also have good mechanical reason to pick cele too; in current balance era it is not unique. I would argue though - and there I will align with you - that for roaming specifically, Ele is the only profession that does not have a lot of strong power build. Sure, there is off-meta builds and fresh air scepter catalyst is ok I guess, but other class fill the same niche better.
3. "Some Power build are outperforming cele." - Yes that is absolutely true, I don't think it is the point of the nerf though. People who wanted cele removed often complained about "bunker-ish" build that are "less fun to play against"; and that is fair enough I guess. As long as we are not talking about removing every stat to the point where WvW gearing essentially become sPvP amulet system then I am good ^^.
4. "Celestial reflect a balance approach." - I don't understand what you mean. If you mean that cele nerf will kill some builds then yes, it is absolutely true and some of them really did not deserved to be destroyed... I am sad for those builds but hopefully other builds will appear.
5. "Gear slot to compensate." -  I don't think a compensation is needed, most WvW build don't do well in PvE and the other way around.
6. "Lower the amount of stat instead." - I mean I feel you, but... that reduction would probably need to be drastic to still affect point 1. Maybe later they will bring back expertise and concentration and lower the overall amount by say -20% or something like that. My ideal approach would have been to replace cele with a couple of 5 or 6 attributes gear. For example, something that is basically marauder stats but for hybrid damage instead of power would have been great imho; let's bring more aggressive condi and hybrid builds into the picture. ^^

[Choose Team manually and not via a Guild... Is it possible when in a guild?]

Basically yes, it is intended by the system that new and returning players get to pick their team, but it is essentially the exception not the rule, to make sure people can play with their friends even if they are late to the party. People are shuffled every month or so; if you want to play with a specific player long term, you need to contact them and ask if you can join their alliance.

Here are the different case scenarios as far as I know, on relink (every month or so):

• Players who did not play WvW recently get to pick a team of their choice. This concerns new and returning players.
• Players who played WvW recently are automatically assigned a team.
  • Players who have set a guild as their WvW guild before the deadline (you can do it by checking a box in the guild panel) get assigned together as a guild to the same team. Because of that, people have created flagship guilds called alliances, whose only purpose is to be able to play together. If you are part of a WvW focused guild, they may ask you to join an alliance and set this guild as your WvW guild instead.
  • Players who have not set any guild as their WvW guild get assigned a team as a solo player, which makes the team affiliation process functionally random from their perspective.

The algorithm is not perfect yet and can get buggy at times, if you think you did not get assigned to the correct team you might want to contact support and make a ticket. I have never done it (I am part of the lucky one who always got the correct team assigned) but I have helped people do it in the past. You may want to prepare the following info: the WvW guild you should have been assigned with (type the full name not just the guild tag), your region (Eu/NA), the team you are currently assigned to, the team you should have been assigned to.

[How to kill cele harbs?]

• A lot of harb attack require them to have line of sight and face toward you, you can prevent a lot of damage by constantly positioning yourself in their back and playing around terrain.
• Try to keep a stun break ready for their shroud 5 (that is their float), if you can watch for the animation and dodge it it is obviously even better. Once it is dealt with you have a 25 second windows where they are less scary.
• A big skill to watch for is their elite elixir. If they land it either on you, on them or both, try to kite, disengage or play defensively. There is no point to fight them when they have all the boon and you have all the condi. Stabilize first, reset the fight if you must!
• Depending on how they are built, they gain a lot of buff, condition cleanses and are overall more tanky and scary when entering shroud. Watch for their shroud and plan your burst/disengage accordingly.
• Finally, it is a bit of a general advise but one of the best way to understand how to beat something is to play that build for a couple of day, see what is difficult to handle from the other side, and try to replicate that later.

[Power Herald or Condi Mechanist?]

1) For solo openworld both spec are capable and fairly chill to play. When sustain is a problem, you may want to invest in celestial gear for Condi Mechanist while Herald is ok by just switching a few traits. So if you don't want to have two set of gear go for Herald there. For group openworld I'd say boons are generally on short supply so herald would contribute more especially if you grant quickness... not that it really matter outside of one particular meta.

2) Both choice would be pretty solid and easy to play for story but I would say condi mechanist require less effort for similar results and the range can make things easier at times. Herald has the advantage to have bigger CC but it does not matter too much for most of the story.

3) Ok... now we are talking about instanced PvE and it is time to hit you with the big bad ugly news (sorry 🥲). As good as Herald indubitably is currently, it is mostly played as a quickness provider and not a pure dps. People will constantly assume you provide quickness and if you want to play dps the spec you are looking for is Vindicator. It shares more or less the same gear and is a straight dps upgrade. Ok back on topic:
- Condi dps mechanist is not very sought after in fractals (it deals ok dps but lack CC). If you invest in ritualist gear though, you could fill the Alacrity dps role and it will vastly increase the number of group you can join.
- Power QUICKNESS herald would be super desirable on paper (and it is arguably one of the most popular build in Strikes and Raid group at the moment) but the fact that most fractal groups ask for a Heal Firebrand means the quickness is already covered. What you want is either unlock the vindicator spec and play dps or even better grab diviner gear and unlock the Renegade spec to fill the Alacrity-dps role.

4) Selecting a class to main is a matter of personal preference and I strongly advise you to test things out before settling in. The 80 level boost is not immediately consumed, you will be ported to the Silver wastes map and you can test things out there as long as you don't leave the map. You could for example test both class, but you would only be able to try the base profession (unless you have a few hero point but you probably don't on a fresh toon).

5) On the matter of difficulty. Power Herald is fairly easy to play but Condition Mechanist is even easier. If you want to delve into Condition alacrity Mechanist then be aware that the build typically juggle between a few kits. Don't panic though, it is still fairly easy to play; watch a benchmark video to get an idea of the added button pressing and demystify the 3-kit gameplay.

[Please, do something about condition elementalist builds for instanced content]

The current dps output for condition hammer Tempest/Weaver is probably too high for its own good and tweaking the number is the logical and healthy decision. I would love to see some damage traded for a bit utility. Because, well... big numbers is pretty much the only selling point of the build at the moment and addressing that relative lack of utility is also - in my opinion - a logical and healthy decision for the game. The tempest variant for example provides some might and is durable, that is it. The proposed nerf represent about 9-10% less dps loss with the current rotation which will put the dps number lower than what appears to be the dps target for condi builds. I guess Anet plan may be to nerf it "too much" and hope people will find a better rotation to push it upward just enough... we will see what happens but so far the future new rotation seems to be "play dagger/scepter + warhorn instead until pistol is released" which is a bit sad to be honest 😄.

[How Important is 100% crit chance on raid/fractal builds?]

It is important-ish for power build not so much for condi except condi virtuoso.

For power dps : if you are looking for the best possible gear, then every meta power dps build is at least close to 100% crit chance but it is worth noting that some build would theoretically gain a tiny bit more dps by garbing a little chunk of power or ferocity instead of precision resulting in less than 100% crit chance but a tiny dps increase overall. For condi dps it is heavily build dependent so it is hard to give you a global answer. Generally speaking, build websites are trustworthy so try to run that however if you ever happen to have mismatch gear and want to know if it is decent until you grab better gear then the best advice is to go to the golem and see for yourself or at least check on the discretize gear optimizer to give you an idea of how much dps you are loosing.

If you do 30~35k+ golem dps and have good positioning you should be ok for most content in the game (except speed clear obviously but that is a different beast).

 

[I’m Happy With The Announcement]

While removing the alliance part of world restructuring is an important piece of info, in practice I don't think it will change much at all.

The thing is, people will most likely end up doing what they did for the betas already. Here is a quick summary for people that may not know: during the beta, players ended up creating "flagship" guilds which were basically the grouping of a few guilds plus some pick up. The GMs are given officer rank and they ask their mates to select this new guild as their WvW guild of choice. It was supposed to be a placeholder but quite frankly it kinda works... Well more or less, as people have already pointed out in the past it has its own set of issues.

It is speculation but the general vibe I got from the blog post was : "Hey, you seem to have found a makeshift solution for the 'alliance part' so we will use our development time on other part of the project instead."

[Open a chest, get another chest, open chest, get a bag, open bag, get another bag.]

I agree on the "box inside a box" situation, I eventually got used to it but it can definitely be a bit too much at time. 😄
 

On 9/8/2023 at 9:30 PM, Psycoprophet.8107 said:

Also pls just have a "are u sure" option for deleting vs typing out the name and quantity, it's fing annoying asf at this point.

On that topic here is a useful tip for items with long or intricate name:

1. Click your chat box to start typing a message and Shift click the item you want to destroy.
2. The name of the item should appears between brackets, copy all of it with a handy Ctrl+C and delete the message without sending it.
3. Try to destroy the item, instead of typing the name on the confirmation window, hit Ctrl+V to paste and remove the unnecessary brackets before confirming.

Also, you can right click "chests" which pop up above your map to directly open it. Moderns problems require moderns solutions. ^^

[How are we feeling about the amount of new profession content in SotO]

I am not really hyped by the expansion.

Yeah I get it, it is wizard time and that is cool and all... But if you see stuff from the end-game content perspective there is no new announced instanced pve, and pretty much nothing for competitive mode. Usually we get new specs to shakes things up, and I don't think giving old weapons for everyone will have nearly the same effect. For example for WvW-focused player, it will impact roaming less than usual and for zerg play: Scourge will grab a greatsword, we may see Longbow based willbender and greatsword based herald, Tempest will use the relic system to mix the healing stat from rune of the monk and the 6th rune effect from the rune of the trooper... and for the most part that is it. Sure, new weapons will be added but they will come later down the line. About that I would prefer if they design less e-spec by expansion and maybe wait a few month between each new spec (let's say 1 new e-spec every 3-4 months or so) instead of only designing the weapons.

Basicaly my hype level is lower than on regular patch day which says a lot! ^^

[Thoughts on Support Vindicator?]

23 hours ago, Aeolus.3615 said:

you forgot condi cleanse can be really decent with the vindi leaps and salvation trait, since u can make it to be spamable  and ur also healing and applying barrier(anet and the spam game..),  there's also stability on jalis (screw stab on ventari lol that's Anet catering the most idiotic players that QQ when they cant have access to all  boons in the same build).

To put some figures into that, when I compare the good vindi and the good Tempest of my server : condi cleanse on Vindicator appears to be roughly 33% below Tempest. The trick is, your resistance take care of non-damaging condition and the damaging ones are not really an issue in zerg vs zerg (except poison with the nasty healing reduction). So yeah, Vindi can afford to cleanse less even though it can be sweaty at some specific time (aka the "oh no!  My resistance got boon striped." type of scenario).

But yeah, long story short : Vindi heal is strong in the current meta even post nerf !

[Thoughts on Support Vindicator?]

Heal vindicator is still strong (even if it is a bit boring to play in my opinion but your mileage may vary). A few influential players in my WvW server even argue that the build stand a fair bit above other supports... and not by a little, they really love the build. I disagree with them on the specific place of support builds (especially about Tempest ; they think it is out of the meta and push people away from it and toward vindi instead) but we both agree that support Vindicator bring a lot of value to a squad. While it is true that it only does healing, resistance and projectile reflect really well (other aspects are meh at best)... but oh boy does it crush the competition for those three things and still does after the patch. To be fair I think druid is the better rounded build right now but I guess it all depend on what you value and why.

[Elementalist Getting Main Hand Pistol in Expansion 4! Whats your ideas for how it could work?]

If pistol was the Catalyst e-spec weapon instead of hammer I would have actually been thrilled because the EoD specs are - at least thematically - technologically inclined.

For core elementalist though, I am not gonna lie, I don't feel very excited. My best guess is that they wanted to give ele a ranged option to appeal to the requests on various Gw2 board (including this forum). And that while other weapon may have been considered at first, It is reasonable to point out that every other classical range weapon are two handed and designing 20 base skills + 6 dual skills for weaver + the 6 dual skill for hammer is maybe quite a lot of work for a singular profession. Read this sentence with a sad longbow noise please. 😄

*sigh* Still, I may have preferred it with elemental arrow but infusing cartridges with elemental propriety is a concept that still somewhat speaks to me. I expect some short range cone attack and explosive shell in fire, mid range shenanigan and a tazer gun CC attack in air, some healing water pistol and ice shard in water, and I guess stone bleeding pellets in earth... you know the usual. Give it enough defensive potential and it may see plays in sPvP and WvW roaming.

I also don't feel too hot about giving every e-spec weapon to the core class. Sure it would be fun to try things out for a couple of day, but I am afraid it will lead to a big homogenizing apocalypse where everyone plays Sword/Warhorn (or whatever the flavor of the patch is) not to mention it is one less way to balance e-spec.

[Question for wvw]

The metabattle build listed above looks solid ; it is more or less what a friend of mine is playing. By default I would definitely switch Armor of Earth for something else. The three utility skills listed in the build description are fine but for regular Blob vs Blob I would take Signet of Water myself because of the juicy active healing since last buff. Unless I am mistaken the build description did not mention that you can (and probably should) equip a second weapon set. You have two options here :

• Scepter/Focus is a classic GvG option : you use it for the might precast at the beginning of the fight.
  • LONG PRECAST: in Water Staff: 2 -- Switch Fire -- Swap to Scepter/Focus: 4 (at your feet)>5>2 (without target)>3 (at your feet)+5>5 -- Switch earth 2+4 -- Swap to Staff 3 | Switch to fire then scepter and not the other way around as Water staff 2 is a bit capricious and tend to disappear mid air otherwise, be quick and press the next skill during the cast of the current one, only press Staff earth 3 once as you want to have this skill ready when the fight begin, when there is a "+" sign press both skill simultaneously. Congratulation your group now have 25 stacks of might, and 2 stacks of stability, while you have 250 additional toughness, resistance, and a bit of barrier.
  • QUICK PRECAST : in Fire Scepter/Focus : 2 (without target)+5>5>4 (at your feet)>3 (at your feet)>5 -- Switch earth: 2+4 -- Swap to staff | Sometime you straight up don't have time for a full precast and this is a good alternative. This one only generate 19 stacks of might (which is still plenty) but it takes less time to execute and is easier to do. You can still transmute earth if you have the time or wait until the last second of magnetic aura to make sure you have stability at the beginning of the fight even if the engagement is delayed.
     
• A second Staff with a sigil of Benevolence : note that you are not supposed to use stacking sigil in GvG but if you are not planning to enter the Edge of the Mists Arena then this is a strong option that cost you basically no effort.

[Question for wvw]

Heal catalyst is a thing specifically in the context of Guild vs Guild so... yes it is definitely playable if you want to put the effort. That being said, there is a reason Tempest is generally preferred in Blob vs Blob. On paper both BvB and GvG looks the same (2 squad bashing at each other) but it has a vastly different dynamic when you look into the details. In GvG, the arena is smaller, there is no terrain to hide behind, focusing one target is way more common, etc. and therefor you favor a different set of tool to do the job. But fair enough, you specified you knew Tempest was a thing so I will not insist 😄.

As for the specific Catalyst build, GvG build are often tailored with a precise squad composition in mind so people tend to play slightly varying builds. Generally speaking though both Water/Arcane and Glyph of renewal see play but I don't feel too hot about the Elite water elemental as it will die super fast and you would not end up gaining a lot of value from it imho. With the combination of Water+Arcane trait line in mind - and the fact that such builds tend to look for regeneration application in order to cleanse alteration via the trait Cleansing water - I would advise you to take Elemental celerity instead to refresh your Water skills and fit two Healing rain (staff water 5) into a single Water loop.

[why is sword weaver dead in wvw roaming?]

Hi, yeah it is not you, Sword weaver is indeed not seen very often these day.

The thing is fire sword weaver has trouble dealing with slippery kiting build and those are really strong at the moment which makes the traditional sword weaver feel lacking. Furthermore and despite what seems the intention of Anet some of the nerfs aimed at catalyst spilled over to the other viable roaming builds for ele and the meta shift did the rest. All in all I feel they ironically pushed player away from Tempest and Weaver and further toward Catalyst. Don't get me wrong the good builds of the past are still playable, but I would not recommend them.

To be fair about your dagger comment: I like it on weaver, it is fun! Please anet make D/D weaver a thing. 😃

[What are your predictions for next balance patch?]

I am expecting a patch focused on instanced PvE with a couple of PvP/WvW adjustment on the side.

• First I  am hoping for a bug fix on Tempest Alacrity (right now Quickness decrease the number of Alacrity ticks on some overloads) or at the very least a statement about how they are looking into it.
• I'd like the damage on Alacrity dps Tempest both power and condition to be increased ; even without the alacrity bug, the build is on the weak side of the dps at the moment.
• I would love if the dps of Alacrity-dps and Quicness-dps builds were to be adjusted. Right now Quickness-dps builds are generally stronger than Alacrity one which hurt class diversity not only for support-dps but also for healers (if Quickness dps are preferred in the meta then Alacrity healer are indirectly more prevalent too).
• I would like to hear about the change on Fervent force (Untamed grandmaster trait). They have teased it for a while now and I would like to know what is in the box even if it is just a distant preview.
• A buff to WvW Sneak gyro (even if it just a cooldown reduction) would be fair as this elite is pretty much never taken anymore.
• If they could take a general look at WvW roaming that would be awesome but they explicitly said roaming is not a balance priority so I don't think it will happen.

And yeah that is about it! The game is pretty fun for me right now so I am fine with only a handful of changes and hopefully a lot of bug fixes.

[Ele changes previewed so far on Feb 3 preview]

Hello fellow elementalists, here are my humble thoughts on the patch preview :
 

1. Dagger changes (Burning speed and Earthen rush). Overall I like this change quite a lot but the implementation puzzle me, let me explain. It makes dagger zoomies way more usable in PvE where falling hazard is a thing. That is huge for Hybrid Alacrity Tempest! It looks way more enjoyable in the future. For sPvP and WvW having more control over your movement is always good. And now the bad part of this change... clumsiness! If I understood correctly, you still dash forward in the direction your toon is facing except now you stop if your target cross your trajectory. That could lead to a lot of mishap where people feel they would rush toward their target - after all they have targeted something - but their facing end up a bit off and they dash out of position as a result. I think a better implementation would be to have a "skill shot" type of targeting like Fiery Greatsword skill 3 - Fiery whirl. Also, one thing that may be worth considering is that dashing at point blank range would shorten the cast time (I imagine) and therefor both increase the dps and decrease the evade duration which is great in PvE for my buddy the Hybrid alac tempest and its below average dps but could also lead to a more bursty Burning speed in sPvP and WvW.
    
2. Scepter changes. The change is aimed at Catalyst and I don't really play the spec nearly enough to have a solid opinion on the mater. Nerfing a core weapon is a bit scary and I am a worried that Scepter Fresh air weaver got caught in the blast.
    
3. Staff change. This set of changes is actually quite interesting! The live version of staff is already low key decent from a support perspective in sPvP and WvW. I am pretty sure Staff is now the de facto weapon of choice if your zerg lack stability and I am positively curious to try Staff and see how it performs especially on pirate ship scenario (it was decent before now it might be great). It heals more, it cleanses 5 more condition every 30-ish seconds, it have superspeed, it retain the goodies it had like CC and mobility... yeah it is great for a support! But as a bonus it is also impactful for power Staff Catalyst and Weaver (especially with Unravel instead of Glyph of Storm). I think it will remain an hidden gem until the other zerg dps build are nerfed and people are looking for a replacement but realistically, the build now compares better to other dps build in WvW zerg which is nice.
    
4. Conjurer nerf. I am afraid the trait is no longer viable outside of niche cases. Gaining a fire aura every 30 to 60 sec is just not that strong. Also, usually when a trait lowering cooldown got simplified their is a fallow up list of almost every previously affected skill with lower cooldown. However, unless I have missed it, it is just a straight nerf this time. Weirdly enough it will most likely does not affect anything but sPvP and WvW as using conjured weapon tend to be 1 to 3 skill only in PvE.
    
5. Soothing disruption and Cantrip adjustment. In instanced PvE Cantrips have little to no attractiveness and the proposed changes does nothing to address that. In instanced PvE non-healer Elementalis rely on their utility skill to deal damage, replacing aid utilities comes at a great damage cost. The harsh reality is that any Elementalist utility that does not deal competitive damage will probably be forgotten in PvE unless they are super broken for other reason (which create its own set of issue). Weirdly enough a 20 second Lightning flash actually deals decent power damage in PvE. I remember a time when Arcane blast was used and if my math is to be trsuted the damage is fairly similar. The rest probably missed the mark for PvE though. In sPvP and WvW some Cantrip are used but ironically the one that were used with Soothing disruption remained untouched except Ether renewal which is now better than ever (and probably too good ?). As for Armor of Earth, I am using it on my WvW Heal tempest to provide my own stability when my subgroup does not have an HFB but now that there is stability on staff I will probably switch to staff instead and call it a day ; I may try replacing Earth shield with Armor of Earth on some of my build though. Cleansing fire does not look terrible for sPvP and WvW but there is probably better utility. I'd say overall you missed the mark on Cantrip.
    
6. Lucid singularity pulsing Alacrity. Yes please! This is a nice quality of life improvement for your fellow Alacrity Tempest not to mention an incredible help for newer player. If I am being picky I guess it is a also very minor nerf as well for when you are kiting some sort of mechanic far away from the group (for example flak kiting on Sabetha). Basically in the current version of the game, you carefully manage your movement and only stepping back and forth at 600 range of your group as the overload is going to finish. It requires precise timing and Druid is probably better suited for the job but it was doable and now it will be harder. But quite frankly it is not a huge loss and overall this is a good change in my opinion.
    
7. Power weaver and Weave Self changes. The PvE power buff on Sword is a bit scary as the build currently sit at a very respectable dps but I guess the same pain point about the build lacking utility for the group remain. Paradoxically in PvE the Weave self power damage buff would probably affect condition build more than power simply because power needs to beat Fiery greatsword while condition already use Weave self. I guess the re-emergence of an Hybrid sword weaver is possibility and I would welcome it. For sPvP and WvW I guess it may be a valid compensation for Scepter nerf and Conjurer nerf but once again : will it beats Fiery greatsword (and the mobility that comes with it).
    
8. Catalyst changes. I am still not playing Catalyst in PvP nearly enough to have a solid opinion on the matter. It looks reasonable I guess though I am worried about non-scepter Catalyst.

Oh, it looks like you have made it to the bottom of this post. Here, take a cookie and have a wonderful day! 😊🍪

[Hey guys! Havn't played in 3-4 years, whats new?]

Welcome back,

1. The blob meta classes has shifted a bit (but not that much). It would be unecessary long to list every changes but generally speaking your meta build from of 3-4 years ago will still be at least relevant today even though you may need to update some trait here and there.
2. The roaming meta is still about playing what feels right but you may want to get more mobility than what you are used to.
3. Celestial gear got buffed with Expertise and Concentration. As a result it has become more popular for roaming.
4. Skills tend to do less damage, especially CC skills.
5. Desert borderland Fire keep lord and Air keep lord use their CC attack less often. You can now escape from the Air keep Lord "donuts shape attack" with stability.
6. Server linking and transfers are still a thing but WvW restructuring is visibly progressing and you may see a beta once in a while. If you want to get the most out of it, you may want to join a guild.
7. Pips got changed a bit. This change was aimed so the average player gain marginally more pips than before. Outnumber bonus pips are gone though so your mileage may vary.
8. Siege engine can no longer be placed into shallow pool of water to prevent some exploitative siege placement but some legitimate spot also got caught in the blast. Most notably, placing siege to open the aqua gate on Valley got tricky as a result.
9. Boon, ongoing skill effect and Traps (including WvW specific traps) are now removed when you switch build. (It was done to increase game stability if I remember correctly)
10. Repairing walls no longer count as actively participating.
11. When you successfully queue for a map you now have more time to click on the join button.
12. They removed some neutral critter on the Borderland to improve performance.
13. Conflux and Slumbering conflux (The WvW legendary ring) is now the same item and you can wear two of them ; as all legendary items they are now usable by all of your toon (as if you had multiple copy).
14. Interacting with an anvil at spawn no longer repair your armor, it now instead gives you a small tanking long lasting buff instead.
15. EoD added a thing called the jade bot. For WvW it basically gives you a tiny bit more loot when you cleave adversaries.

I hope that helps! 🙂

[Ele a good choice for a main?]

Both profession has good build for every game mode. Here are some key differences :

1. Guardian can provide Aegis and Stability in good amount and as a result are sought off in specific PvE encounter. Don't get me wrong, Elementalist is actually very good in PvE right now but I have almost never heard "I wish we had a Elementalist to handle that encounter."
2. For PvE Guardian dps is pretty much condition focus at the moment. Yes it has some power build but they are overshadowed by other specs. Meanwhile Elementalist has access to high damage build for both condition and power dps.
3. Elementalist can make good Alacrity healer, decent Alacrity dps and good Quickness dps. Guardian can make good Quickness dps, and good Quickness healer. Yes, Healer quickness Catalyst, Dps Alacrity Willbender and Healer alacrity Willbender are theoretically possible but they generally compare unfavorably to similar spec.
4. In WvW both Elementalist and Guardian have access to good roaming build... and generally roaming is really varied anyway so most class can say the same for themselves. Also, it is nothing new for WvW players but you can build a very tanky Elementalist if you so desire.
5. For zerg, Guardian is forever meta as the backbone of any well coordinated blob and they have a very strong dps build. Elementalist in the other hand is a super good heal cleanse support and it has a decent option for dps... but let's be honest Staff weaver is really nice and can do wonder if played well but power Dragonhunter is generally preferred for a reason.
6. For PvP, both Elementalist and Guardian have access to good support build. Otherwise Elementalist lean heavily in the sidenoder niche while Guardian is more varied and can take the role of either a Dps or Roamer depending on the build.

[Staff rework]

I wouldn't mind a few buffs and quality of life upgrade... I mean, staff feels generally kinda slow tand trash mob often dies before the projectile even hit, I would like more synergies between skill 3 and the rest of the kit (what they did with scepter skill 2 and 3 comes to mind), air lack a punch which hurt a potential power staff build, the whole concept of locking mob into your AoE with CC is pretty neat but it stop working the moment you meet a defiant foe... but I would not go as far as calling staff "utterly garbo".

It has some uses, condi Staff weaver in particular come to mind. It is pretty dope in instanced PvE, test it! 😊

[Easiest healer class?]

Of all the healer I play at a decent level, heal herald is probably the one I would consider the easier. Specifically I see quite a lot of new people insisting on playing hfb because they have heard it is great (which to be fair is true !) and some of them are struggling to maintain good boon with it. In comparison it is super easy to maintain boon with heal herald and it is quite tanky as a bonus so you have more margin of error.

Another thing that is worth mentioning is that different people find different things difficult. For example, Heal tempest is probably not the easiest healer to play but i feel it has a more defined simili-rotation than most healer and therefor could feel smoother to play for some and harder for others.

As for the heal necro it is an incredible third healer (aka the safety net healer) for those times when you really need to carry your team. I don't think however it is a good pick as a main healer because it lacks the valuable boon that usually come with it.

[Help identifying a WvW Tempest build]

It probably is Celestial tempest either double Dagger or Dagger/Focus ; both are playable. Their are multiple variant but you can find a good baseline build on Guildjen.

Celestial tempest has a high sustain potential, in order to beat them you need to play kinda passively and fish for an opportunity. Then, when you see one, lock them in place with a chain of CC and throw as much damage as you can to burst them down. Soft CC is ok-ish but remember they have good cleanses. If you did not manage to scratch them then it is possible they either outskill you or play bunker (it is ok to disengage when you are not having fun). However if you drop their health in the danger zone but they still survived that mean they are now in panic mode and they may try to use their big heal to resustain ; at that point you need to assess if it is worth it to to maintain as much pressure as you can while interrupting any potential healing skill or if you would rather resustain yourself and reset the fight.

Basically the idea is that elementalists have a squishier base than average but gain good survivability through active skills. A constant medium pressure is suboptimal on them because it basically give them time to rotate through their active defenses. In short: try to coordinated with your team mate and go all out at the same time.