[Unable to generate combo field in Act 1 EOD Aetherblade Hidden Base]

Combo-ing off of the unleashed pet skill "enveloping haze" worked for me

[Delete unranked revive hot join]

21 hours ago, Avatar.3568 said:

The bad habits are everywhere, the big majority in this community, I would even say 99%, are not knowing how this gamemode works

It wouldn't change anything, but newer players would have a way more chill place to check out pvp

Touche

I just remembered the whole 'choose your map' angle. What a great thing. Sometimes you just don't want to play skyhammer or on Coliseum for the umpteenth time in a row. I'm convinced. Bring back hot joins!

[Bladesworn Criticisms: Dragon Trigger]

59 minutes ago, oscuro.9720 said:

I actually agree with you, despite the post. The post was more to highlight how dumb it is right now. Obviously, as a warrior main, I wouldn’t mind a 20k burst after eating one or two from a range before…

Jokes aside, I don’t think Dragon Trigger is the biggest issue with the kit. Imo, blooming fire is the lynchpin skill rn, as it is the melee pressure source for the kit, and presently is a wet noodle. It should be comparable to maul imo (the cast, cool down, etc. are all very comparable presently).

On top of that, adding real utility to a few of the other skills would drastically change its viability, regardless of Dragon Trigger. Artillery slash gives cripple, that should be weakness so Blade can mitigate damage better. Cyclone Trigger should be a full block instead of a projectile reflect then speed up the cast so that it can be used in a more reactionary manner. Break step should be 600 range or give some sort of associated boon (aegis/superspeed)

For adding more effect to Dragon Slash, I don’t know what you could honestly do without making it OP in some way. For 2.5s and 100 resource that takes a decent bit of time to build, the payoff has to be inherently big, whether it’s damage or utility. 
Perhaps something like;

Immortal Dragon: heal on all explosions, then heal per charge (500) in an area around you?

Unyielding Dragon: Pulse the might to allies around you (does it already do this I don’t remember)?

Unyielding Dragon: Pulse stability per charge?

Those might work better, but I honestly don’t know. Still would need more damage than it presently has. 

Sounds like we're in full agreement. DT aside, the gunsaber is too weak, and your ideas are good for how to allocate the necessary power budget toward saber skills 2-5 rather than toward having this mega burst skill. That being said, if your ideas were implemented, I think it would be fair to throw on some superspeed and maybe quickness that take effect post burst and scale with charge time. The idea would be that as a reward for standing still for 2.5s, you get tools for finishing off a surviving opponent. Thematically, these buffs would fit really well with the whole idea of standing calmly before exploding into impossibly quick actions. Another thought, perhaps a little too out there... what about an effect that increases the effectiveness of your 'on burst' abilities by a scaling amount? I'm thinking  adrenal health would heal for ~450/s after a fully charged hit, CI would cleanse 5 conditions, etc.  Regardless of the specific effects, I'm thinking these bonuses would be inherently a part of DT. The existing GM traits could be left as is or, ideally, improved.

Also, I know this thread is about DT, but I honestly think it would be fair for the off weapon set to retain a tier 3 burst. The gunsaber replaces an entire weapon set rather than adding something extra like berserk mode or FC. 

[Bladesworn Criticisms: Dragon Trigger]

18 minutes ago, Lan Deathrider.5910 said:

The middle ground is getting rid of DT, leaving the coefficients as is, and just having DS consume all built up flow when used rather than having to use flow to charge bullets. The current coefficient in competitive on a 1/2s cast is completely fine and normal, though they'd have to tone it down some in PvE.

Well, yeah, there is that blunt-force solution 😀but I doubt they're going to scrap DT. Evidence? See druid, berserker, etc.

[Bladesworn Criticisms: Dragon Trigger]

9 hours ago, oscuro.9720 said:

I did not see those posts, thank you for taking the time to write it out, it’s good information to read 🙂

I will give DT some credit; Dragon Slash boost is a decent mobility skill to re-engage and bait dodge with. But that’s not exactly what you want from that kind of skill…

Actually, DSB with unyielding dragon would be ok-ish if the rest of the gunsaber kit was compensated with a proper power budget.

Needless to say, the whole concept behind DT is broken (dumb). I disagree with giving the DT skills crazy power scaling. Either there is not enough reward, as is currently the case, or the reward is far too great and therefore the skill has to be a moonshot. I doubt a middle ground exists because neither a massive 20k hit nor standing stationary for several seconds is a fun experience for those involved.

So assuming DT is here to stay, a more realistic approach might be loading DT with other effects (full counter style) or improving the rest of the gunsaber kit while leaving DT as is. I favor the latter approach as this would provide an alternative style vs the rest of the heavily-burst reliant warrior kit.

[Delete unranked revive hot join]

Hot joins were how I got into pvp back in the day. I am not a great player, mechanically speaking, but I was downright horrible when I started. The super casual environment was therefore much more appealing than jumping straight into solo arena play. There is a big segment of players who would be similarly well-served by hot joins, especially if rewards could be worked out to a reasonable degree.

On the other hand, a hot join environment inevitably teaches a lot of bad habits that don't translate well to regular ranked play. Regardless of whether the new player / casual environment is hot joins or unranked, the game still needs a better way to teach players how to play conquest.

[Why not just make capture points larger?]

If there is a problem with skill circles being too large, then change the skills. On the whole, it's a good thing that different maps have different mechanics. Let's not homogenize them all.

[Petition For Exploding Torch]

5 hours ago, Za Shaloc.3908 said:

 

I like your ideas a lot. Would personally give torch 4 2 charges on top of the blindness, but the smoke field is a really neat idea and also "makes sense" for a skill like bonfire. In WvW I almost never see torch used. Would be nice to see it used more.

Thanks! 2 charges would be nice, was just trying not to be too greedy haha.

[Petition For Exploding Torch]

I don't really play pve much these days, but #4 would be unpopular there unless the launch is set to 0. #5 is pretty cool but no way you get a 20s cooldown on that type of skill. 30-35s is more realistic based on guard hammer/longbow. Also, #5 seems to really play into the theme of untamed, which makes me realize it would potentially be awesome if unleashed ambush skills could change with your offhand weapon.

My proposal for changes to torch #4 and #5 would be:

#4 - add a 4s blind upon hit

#5 - after dropping the fire field, flips over to another skill which converts the fire field into a smoke field with a duration of least(remaining duration, 3s)

[which class is the most one dimensional]

Assuming you meant in terms of playstyle, it's prob gotta be thief

[Anyone played a Dire Condi Berzerker or a Celestial Warrior?]

13 hours ago, Lan Deathrider.5910 said:

Swap an OH for OH axe. You won't really be making use of Warrior's Cunning otherwise.

I regularly do cele Axe/Axe + LB or GS + Rifle. You'll need a hard hitting skill to clean up with and Sword MH at least has FT, but Mace MH/OH and sword OH really don't. OH Sword on paper would seem like it does but it is too clunky compared to OH Axe.

The extra concentration isn't needed. You'd be better off shoring up another stat like Power or Condition Damage with your infusions.

Thanks. Warrior is my main alt and not my main class, so it's helpful to consult with the experts.

I'll give OH axe a try in lieu of OH mace. The CB+FT combo chunks HP decently and tremor is good for chase potential, but you're totally right that OH axe offers better, more reliable damage. While I was playing, I didn't come across any condi uber tanks, but I imagine the extra axe damage is probably necessary vs. such builds.

I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with OH sword. For now it seems to be working so I'll keep it. The great thing about roaming is being able to swap a broken or subpar piece on the fly. I have almost zero roaming experience, so I'm still adjusting to how it differs vs spvp.

I realized draining sigils don't have an ICD, so I should swap to using those on both sets if I end up keeping OH mace. An extra 1k+ damage (+ healing) per interrupt is nice. Also, even though berserker isn't the best for might stacking, I will try working it in over strength, swapping OH mace for torch. The berserk mode bonuses combined with FGJ work out to be a considerable stat boost.

[Anyone played a Dire Condi Berzerker or a Celestial Warrior?]

So I recently acquired an ascended set of celestial heavy armor and decided to do some roaming on my warrior with the following build:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PKABwmlzlJwSYXMMGKOOTlLfA-z1IY1onvUqMB6ME6NCCvAc/QEm9wbJ+JL-w

It actually seemed to work pretty well. Anyone try something similar or have some optimization tips?

Also, that setup is the goal, but I don't have the tokens on hand for aristocracy runes. For the time being, I'm just using hoelbrak runes cause they were cheap.

[High Rating Disparity Duo's Cause Unbalanced Matches, Limit the Gap to 100 or Less Rating Points]

What about a conditional threshold where the higher rated player's rating is used for both players if the gap between partners is greater than say 200, otherwise the duo's ratings are treated as they are today? I mean, there will always be issues around the margin with any threshold used and there is the fact that rating is a nonlinear representation of skill. Still, I think something like the above would help alleviate manipulation from high-low duos without ruining things for the majority of players.

[Revitalizing Berserker: Traits and Utilities]

So one idea I had to give warrior more z-axis mobility without resorting to full on ports would be to add a z-axis to a couple of leap skills, sundering leap and stomp being the prime candidates. Basically, the travel distance would be the hypotenuse of the triangle formed between the warrior, the destination, and the ground. A higher jump would mean less horizontal distance traveled whereas using the skill on flat terrain would mimic the current behavior. So with the addition of the z-axis component, a warrior could 'high jump' up to a ledge such as the clocktower on battle of kyhlo. Thematically, this idea fits well with berserker IMO.

Both sundering leap and stomp would have to be sped up quite a bit, but I don't see that being unfair. Stomp provides stab, too, which would help reduce the risk of being interrupted mid leap. Also, I know way back in like 2014, anet patched leaps to prevent them from being able to scale certain terrain, but the game has changed so much that there is no need to be bound by that philosophy. Orrrr, warrior could, you know, just get an actual port skill.

[Fast Hands Must Be Baseline]

1 hour ago, Sobx.1758 said:

It wasn't about "viable" (btw you're clearly using "viable" wrong, it doesn't mean what you apparently think it means), it was about "needing to swap weapons because one weaponset does only one thing!", which is obviously a wrong claim, since you can mix-and-match. So you """covered it""" by pretending mixing and matching isn't worth it for warrior because you don't like it, so you need a buff. 🙄

You know, I had typed up a thoughtful response to this but decided not to bother given the silly ad hominem you led with. I hate to have to be this pedantic, but given that viable simply means "capable of working successfully", I did in fact use it correctly btw. Go spend some time playing a few matches as a warrior with those mixed weapon sets I 'glossed over' and you'll see that I'm right about shield. That's the beauty of this being a game. We all can actually test things for ourselves.

[Blade Sworn Problems]

2 hours ago, Lan Deathrider.5910 said:

Either explosions or per ammo spent (with CD). Making the effects of the traits work on the last or first charge only is what is causing the problems.

I feel the first tier should be based on explosions personally. Like proc unseen sword when you hit a foe with an explosion (strikes in the area of the target), 1s ICD, gain flow per target struck. Grant swiftness around you when you hit a foe with an explosion, with bonus positive flow rate per ally affected.  River's Flow could instead heal in the area of the explosion (not anything major, like 1000/500 hp PvE/Comp split) and gain positive flow rate per ally healed.

Currently, every master tier trait interacts with ammo charges, which means they're useless on some builds or mostly useless if your only ammo skill is SiO. An explosions trait at this tier would always have some effect by virtue of there being explosions in the gunsaber kit.

Something like losing a condition for every explosion used with a 5-10s icd or maybe a resolution proc would be nice. The latter would provide a bit of synergy with defense since taking that likely means not taking shouts (nobody is taking a bunch of armaments 😛).

[Fast Hands Must Be Baseline]

36 minutes ago, Obtena.7952 said:

You're right .. I absolutely did ON PURPOSE even, because it's absurd to make something baseline for all warrior builds because "benefits to competitive builds". Why is it critical that FH be made baseline if ONLY competitive builds NEED it to be competitive? That doesn't make sense. Making something baseline is NOT ONLY about some subset of builds that you want to focus on to justify your argument. Baseline is about ALL builds, even the terribad ones. 

Again, making FH baseline is NOT about making something available that isn't ... because we already have access to FH as a choice for whatever build you want, EVEN competitive ones. Do not pretend that making FH baseline is solving a problem if we already have the ability to choose it as a trait. So far, FH is obviously intended to be a meaningful choice as a trait and so far, I haven't seen anyone with an argument why it shouldn't be a choice. IF anything, the argument that it's SOO good that it's always chosen is an argument for a NERF, not a baseline implementation. 

So by competitive, I meant builds for competitive modes lol i.e. spvp and wvw. That was pretty clear in my original statement. Additionally, you have simply repeated yourself and refused to engage with my argument that the 'choice' to take fast hands has effectively been removed because the trait is so critical that there is simply no viable alternative. Btw critical doesn't mean OP. Again, I am speaking practically and not in the literal sense of being unable to equip a different trait. Some need that clarification as reasoning is hard, apparently.

 

Think I'm done here.

[Fast Hands Must Be Baseline]

56 minutes ago, Obtena.7952 said:

No you didn't cover my point because you don't know how much time alternative solutions would take. You don't even know if the problem it solves is one that Anet agrees that needs solving. You're just assuming it's less to dismiss the question which BTW, is REALLY relevant here. I have NO DOUBT that Anet wants players to make meaningful choices when interacting with the trait system so removing meaningful choices as traits is not some trivial issue that we can just hand-wave away because people want special considerations on certain classes. There IS integrity in this trait system. 

Again, the problem of 'being locking into 10 second weapon swaps" is already solved by the fact that you choose FH with the trait system. The question here is why it should NOT be a choice as a trait just to make it baseline. 

Heh. I have some idea actually because I am willing to use common sense plus rely on actual corporate experience. A trait swap is guaranteed to be less time consuming than reworking a bunch of weapon skill effects, animations etc.

You're right in the literal sense that I don't know if anet agrees. However, myself and countless others have made arguments to hopefully persuade them to agree. As I pointed out previously, one condition that is present now that was not prior to feb 2020 is that cc skills do no damage. This condition increases the need for fast hands to the point where the meaningful choice of whether to take fast hands has been eliminated. Given the state of warrior weapons, builds without fast hands don't work. Full stop. See my example about alternatives to warrior's sprint. Those involve meaningful choices, especially when each competes with good alternatives like shield master in the case of dogged march and lynx runes vs say fighter runes.

You also ignored my question about demonstrating a competitive build that doesn't take discipline.

[Fast Hands Must Be Baseline]

7 minutes ago, Obtena.7952 said:

That's a reasonable question. A contention (not sure it's the main one) is that Fast Hands is a meaningful choice as a trait and should remain so because ... that's the point of traits. If Warrior is so broken without choosing it (that's debatable BTW), then the answer is to determine alternative ways to fix that without downgrading trait choices. 

So the question back at everyone here is ... what makes Warrior so broken if they don't have FH? How does FH being baseline resolve with the idea that the trait system is founded on the idea of giving players meaningful choice and variation?

Actually, no one has discussed nerfing or removing FH if it's such a go to trait ... because that indicates it's too good. That's not off the table right?

I covered your first point already. Much more development time would be required to rework everything that is currently built around fast hands than would be required to simply make fast hands baseline and replace it with another trait. It's not a question of fast hands being too good, it's that warrior is too bad without it. I have yet to see anyone provide a real example of how this is not the case. @ProverbsofHell.2307provides clear examples of why warrior is broken if it's locked into one set for ten seconds. Can you provide a build that works consistently or even footage of competitive play where a warrior is succeeding without fast hands?

As far as removing fast hands goes... that would be one of the hardest kicks imaginable to the class that is already on the brink. Might as well consider deleting warrior at that point.

[Fast Hands Must Be Baseline]

17 minutes ago, Sobx.1758 said:

You can mix main/offhand weapons. So no, what you've said isn't true any more than it is for other weapons/classes.

I literally covered that in my post. Shield is really the only viable offhand for most builds (warhorn works for support), and it provides neither damage nor enough mobility to compensate for the one-handed weapons' weaknesses. Taking offhand mace, axe, or dagger means having a weapon set with no defensive skills. Try camping such a set for ten seconds in pvp and let me know how it goes. Offhand sword is ok on paper but too clunky in practice to actually work well.

Also keep in mind that most warrior weapon skills have a range of 130, so mobility is extremely important. Range actually compensates for a lot on other classes, be it in the form of an actual functional ranged weapon like say ranger axe or in the form of increased melee hit range like rev s/s.

[Fast Hands Must Be Baseline]

31 minutes ago, Sobx.1758 said:

Elaborate, because you keep repeating it but did nothing to show how this is true.

That's because this is an obvious point, as is the one implied by this thread, which is that warrior is broken without fast hands. Mace does nothing but cc, axe does nothing but damage. Neither allows you keep up with your target. Sword does but also doesn't do any damage. At the same time, none of these offers any defensive abilities outside of a single block (lul). So you take shield, which doesn't fix the problems above. Spending ten seconds in these sets is terrible. I'll concede that greatsword is better as it at least has damage, mobility, and an evade. It's also no coincidence that greatsword is the best pvp weapon warrior has.

Another thing to keep in mind is that removing damage from CC skills in competitive modes has exacerbated the hyper-focused nature of several warrior weapons. Hammer used to do decent damage but is now just a cc stick, and bull's charge formerly provided important supplementary damage. The feb 2020 patch made fast hands even more critical than before.

[Fast Hands Must Be Baseline]

42 minutes ago, Sobx.1758 said:

The main argument for warrior's fh to become baseline boils down to pretty much "because it feels better" (and it's a buff), but that would be equally true for any other class with in-combat swap available. If you don't pick disci, FH is pretty much as useful on warrior as it is on those other classes.

I definitely disagree with the claim about "if mains want it, it must be correct". I've seen way too many ""mains"" of different classes proclaiming the class dead in their respective class subforums after parts of those classes got nerfed and yet they were obviously wrong. The idea of "THIS SUBFORUM HAS SPOKEN SO IT MUST BE TRUE!" is misguided. If anything, they are prone to being less objective.

I agree that making 'mandatory' traits baseline is a slippery slope. Every class has at least one trait that feels like a critical must-have and and surely most should not be baseline. I'm sure every thief main would love for preparedness to be baseline for instance. It's true that nitiative costs are priced assuming preparedness will be equipped. However, there is a simpler solution for that trait than there is for fast hands, which is to replace preparedness and re-price initiative costs.

This gets at why fast hands should be baseline. Fast hands is so critical not because it 'feels better' but because warrior weapons are so specialized that they literally don't function without it. Just about every weapon on warrior would have to be reworked in order to function without fast hands whereas weapons on other classes typically have multiple functions. So in other words, there is no simple solution for replacing fast hands, which in it's current state, hamstrings warrior build diversity.

This would be less of an issue if warrior were in a good state in competitive modes, though warrior being good would just mask this problem. There are reasonable alternatives to the other traits in discipline (dogged march + lynx runes or warhorn in lieu of warrior's sprint, for example), but fast hands is irreplaceable.

Tl;dr - the assumption of fast hands is built into every warrior weapon and since there is no reasonable way to fix this, fast hands should be baseline. Being locked into discipline for one irreplaceable trait in literally every build destroys warrior build diversity.

[Bladesworn Feedback Thread]

The more I play bladesworn, the worse it feels. Some of the other especs got significant buffs since the previous beta and bladesworn can't keep up in pvp.

- The gunsaber damage is still badly undertuned. Here's the thing. We're forced to take it in exchange for losing a set of sigils and weapon swap, so if anything, the gunsaber needs to be slightly overtuned as compensation.

- The gunsaber provides literally no defense besides a bit of projectile block. Again, this thing is mandatory (inflexible), so it needs to provide more.

- Make dragon trigger work on the regular weapon set or better yet, return the core bursts. These weapons were clearly designed around having burst skills and are completely neutered without them. Seriously, go use mace or longbow on bladesworn and tell me that they work. Giving up one weapon + its burst for the gunsaber + dragon trigger is fair, the current implementation is not.

-Pistol should be mainhand. Remember how gunsaber offers no damage mitigation? At least let the bladesworn poke from range before wading in. Bow and rifle are not great in general but are utter trash on this spec, so they can't reasonably be used.

-Give the bladesworn a major master tier trait that doesn't rely on taking ammunition skills. All three of them are literally useless with many weapon/utility combinations.

-Give the bladesworn a real teleport skill as a utility. Flicker step is a meme. Literally every single other class has one now and several of those classes that had them previously picked up new dashes and leaps. Not giving bladesworn a real teleport is tantamount to saying that you want it to be bad.

-Related to my point above, rework the utilities because they are incredibly weak. This marks the  second wartior espec in a row with basically all garbage utilities.

[Completely clueless in PVP]

Just some basic warrior advice, take your home node at the beginning of a match if you can and try to stay out of big team fights. Operate on the side nodes, but be aware of the respawn reinforcement potential at far. As a warrior, you're most effective fighting 1v1. If additional enemies disrupt your duel, simply run away unless your teammates arrive simultaneously.

When you're fighting, weave in and out of close range so that you can land your skills but avoid the enemy's damage (don't stand in red circles). This is key because you lack the defenses to simply tank this damage. Whirlwind attack is good for this. Dagger 3 can be really good for setting up shield bash -> weapon swap -> arcing slice because its cast is near instant and it immobilizes your target. Landing full counter is really important for creating windows to burst your enemy down.

Good luck out there.

[The 2 Elite Specialisations that could have been]

2 hours ago, InsaneQR.7412 said:

Honestly i think even druid is part of that.

 

Just shuffle the utilities arround:

 

Stances on UT, Glyphs on SLB and cantrips on Druid.

 

Stances are group buffs that are great in zergs, which fits untamed perfectly.

 

Further glyphs change depending on archetype on soulbeast would also fit very well.

 

Lastly cantrips can be various skills that give helpful effects on a short cooldown which can be slapped on basically anything.

 

Overall i would redesign all rager e-specs just by streamlining their roles more. 

 

Ancient Seeds as much as it may be hated/loved it fits better in the UT role than on druid while the dagger fits more to the poison cloud pet than to soulbeast etc etc.

 

So much feels like its misplaced its not even funny.

Ya, a few swaps could lead to each espec fulfilling its role to a much better degree. I know we're benefiting from hindsight at this point, but it's a bit sad Anet didn't wait to release certain concepts until they had developed the tech to execute them properly. Untamed might have been better as our first elite spec and druid as our third. Imagine the following:

 

Untamed - conceptually similar but with mainhand dagger and more of a hybrid dps focus

 

Soulbeast - same merge mechanic and stances but with a hammer and a few more frontline-oriented traits

 

Druid - ideally no pet or maybe a wisp, an F2 skill for triggering related traits, pet-swap traits triggered on CA, staff+glyphs

 

I would argue each of the above would be better at fulfilling their respective beastmaster, frontliner, and support roles than the current especs.