FirebrandFrog.7603

Rotations have been in the game since launch. Hundred Blades into weapon swap, axe AA, use adrenaline skill once in a blue moon, swap back to GS for Hundred Blades. Lather, rinse, repeat. If you were playing Warrior farming CoF p2 for money like I did back in the day, that was what you needed to memorize. FGJ mostly off-cooldown (but somewhat "in rhythm" with the other FGJs to maintain 25 Might). You went either shouts or all-Signets because most of your skills did poopoo numbers or were worthless for what you were farming. The unfortunate and uncomfortable truth is that "rotations", or one end result of optimizing one's damage to Kill Something As Fast/Efficiently As Possible, is an inevitability in action RPGs like Guild Wars 2 (as others have said). Over time games will get figured out, fights will slowly become "solved", meta builds will arise from days and weeks and months of player playtesting and theory crafting that 95% of the game's playerbase never sees the process of, only the end result. And this happens in *any* game with stats on a character that aren't hardset or pre-determined. I'm happy for you that you still have open world play to enjoy, but it also does appear that GW2, fundamentally, isn't your game anymore.

It's a patch notes thread. Well, no, it's a plea to any dev who'll answer some questions because there's just...so many aspects to the most recent list that I'm confused about. I understand this list was a preview and not the full changelist. Even so, it is very concerning from what I have seen and certain trends just...don't make sense to me. The Catalyst (re-)nerfs were very much inspired by the recent world clear speedrun videos done by those various niche guilds who enjoy that sort of thing, though Cata nerfs in general are focused around ANet looking at Cata Stacking and freaking out. The thing that gets my goat about this (probably) rationale is that these speedrunners are a TINY population chunk of the game, let alone those who play Elementalist. Yes, their benchmarks are ludicrous. Additionally: they are freaks of nature (loving) who are clearly passionate about optimizing their gameplay to the absolute apex of what their class can do. So... why would you balance your game around such a tiny population of your playerbase? If the game were PVP-focused, I would understand the philosophy of balancing around top players: not only do they drive the metas of their games, they're the ones on literal world stages playing for grand prizes and most players of these games will at some point try to aim for this lofty goal, and thus it's prudent to have this balancing goal in mind. But Guild Wars 2, for better or worse, is a PVE-focused game with PVP-based excursions (sPVP, WVW) that are secondary to what the game actually makes money from. This kind of philosophy is not a healthy one to balance from, especially when so many players can't even reach a 50% benchmark for something like the DPS Cata found in these stacking groups. Speculation is abound that Snowcrows had actually been hiding the true damage numbers of Catalyst for some time now. The reason a site would risk their reputation of reliability like this is rather obvious: ArenaNet balances their game not out of playtesting their own code (or letting the playerbase QA it through means of a PBE-like server) but by peering over the fence into these sites and effectively judging books by their very flashy covers. They've done this before, most famously being the Day 0 Catalyst Nerf that got...quite a bit of attention from the fact that it was all predicated on the benchmark video of an Elementalist enthusiast. The incoming One Wolf Pack nerf is at least ANet finally catching on that benchmarks don't tell the whole story...but it still makes the Cata nerfs seem extreme regardless. An information-gathering site shouldn't be punished for the sins of a dev group's...incompetence, and trust shouldn't be lost in sites like Snowcrows because they make a choice of withholding information for the sake of preserving a class's playable integrity. That is not and SHOULD NOT be their job. Do you, ArenaNet, understand that these sorts of actions will drive players off of sites like Snowcrows or drive players to forgo maintaining sites like Snowcrows out of fear that their information will lead to potential nerfs? Building off of these two questions, what kind of message are you sending to the playerbase when you effectively punish them for being more knowledgeable at your own game than you are? Because I'm sure there's a large, laaaarge playerbase percentage that at minimum think a capuchin monkey wearing a fur coat can do a better job than you...putting it nicely. Now I'm not trying to come for an ANet dev's throat, nor do I want this post to come off as salty malding. (Given today's news cycle, believe me, I have a lot more to be mad about right now.) But I'm just so confused. The more I try to rationale around these changes, the less sense they make and the more questions I ask in response to those answers. (the offending post), emphasis mine. When this was first posted, it came off as cheeky. Playful, even. "Don't just have a main, try all the classes~" it implies. With the preview list out days later, this post hits...a little different. Primarily because the buffs are to classes already seen as either decently strong or overperforming (i.e. in need of QoL changes at best), all the while backhanding elite specializations and classes that desperately need buffs to keep up with this every-changing and ever-more-condi-centric meta, at best ignoring them and at worst doing to those specs what the zombies did to that one guy in the Dawn of the Dead remake. You know the scene. Why did I include this reddit post excerpt from an ANet dev? Simple: the tone of it now comes off as very harmful and deceitful. These changes, much of them don't make any sense. They don't actually help the classes that need them, more just attempts at funneling players into the classes deemed strong in the hopes of...what, exactly? Quoting that oh-so-famous vine, "I am confusion."

Bigger numbers for Power builds all around. I'm not too sure where to begin for this one: bigger raw numbers? Bigger power coefficients? Hard to say. Viper's a thing so you don't want to push that to even more ridiculous strengths...but buffing power will indirectly buff Viper's, so. 🤷‍♀️ At the very least, bigger numbers for Vindicator would be nice; if it's going to be a Greedy DPS spec with little to no utility to bring to a group's table, it needs to justify its existence with big numbers or else you have the issue of commanders going "welllll I'd rather have the Quickbrand/Scourge/Renegade that has less numbers but is a walking toolbox". Undoing the damage nerf to Battle Scars in PvE would be nice. Maybe a buff, even? Nerfing the sustain, it's annoying but I get it. Add a second dodge to Vindicator. Make the Big Landing Dodge a unique "dodge attack" on an internal cooldown. You still incentivize "aggressive dodging" but Vindicators also aren't kittened when they don't have to choose between saving dodge to Not Die and saving dodge to Add To Rotation. Alternatively: make the Crashing Dodge a passive ability that modifies your normal Dodge and the skill has a normal0ish cooldown and energy cost. Same as above, you can have your cake and eat it too. Herald Facets, imho, need a minor rework. There's too much to say but the short of it is that they feel old when you use them in how underwhelming their maintained boons and Facet Consumptions are.

Being perfectly honest I think the Commander should have buried Caithe in a shallow grave yeeeears ago, but we lost that opportunity in favor of...letting Aurene imprint on the Commander and Caithe both, I guess. 🤷 But I digress. The only rational story angle I can think of for why Caithe is favored as being Closer To Aurene is that the Commander serves Aurene's interests better exactly where the Commander does their job best: in the midst of a battlefield, trying to right wrongs and quell conflict where necessary. Meanwhile, Caithe can be as close to Aurene as she needs be given that she's an assassin and direct conflict isn't her cup of herbal tea.

* Preferably have main-hand axe as a weapon, synergizing decently with off-hand axe or off-hand sword. * Another Human legend, because I wanna see Asura/Norn mains keep being mad that the GW1 Nostalgia Class keeps referencing GW1 characters (the vast, vast majority of them being Human). Not to say a Gadd or Svanir Legend wouldn't be aces, buuuut there's just more interesting Human villains. Sorry. * Another villainous legend, preferably one tied to the region that expac's espec has. Path of Fire could have given us Varesh Ossa (nice quadruple whammy of: WoC, villain, intimately tied to the region) but we...got Kalla instead. In hindsight it feels like Kalla should have been the Legend for whatever an expac version of IBS looked like, but I digress. * I want someone drawn to the Commander's nigh-supernatural propensity for violence, bloodlust, and the ability to incite and create chaos by their mere presence. * In other words: Legendary Mad God, Menzies. I want a Legend that just turns the Commander into a muhfuggin' rabid wolverine who sticks to a target and never, ever, eeeeeever lets go. Constant strike damage, constant condi damage, all-in deeps skills, heals are for COWARDS * ...Barring that, I'll happily take a Herald rework instead with added voicelines and legend interactions.

To answer your changes: Phase Traversal: Unblockable damage is one of Shiro's gimmicks, I wouldn't cut this from PT and especially with the blegh state Power is in at the moment. But with all the changes you intend...PT would *still* be unusuable unless it costed like 10 Energy (because, as stated by someone else, it's competing with Nomad's Advance for a gapcloser and Scavenger Burst for Quickness application...and *both* skills are better than PT, albeit only because the nerf bat hasn't been pointed at Vindi yet). Riposting Shadows: Honestly I think it's fine as-is, though I would personally cut the distance travelled by...I want to say half? This would all be PvE-only, mind you, but endurance regen is super important for Vindicator specifically so I wouldn't touch it. Impossible Odds: The thing about it being bonkers is that it has a *lot* of interaction with passives and abilities that are based on hits instead of damage, so e.g. Thief Poisons, Soulbeast Stances, Necromancer's Vampirism trait, etc. (And, of course, Battle Scars pre-nerfs.) Buffing it is a tightrope act because it's a very easy skill to break and ANet tends to overnerf things that overperform... Ideally, I would turn IO into a six-second Unique Buff that lets you double-attack and has a modest but still long-ish cooldown, giving Shiro a playstyle that's still balanced around IO but balanced around it being a burst-strike damage playstyle where other buttons can still be pressed instead of "optimized" gameplay where you maintain IO but press as few buttons as possible. Jade Winds: I disagree with lowering the stun duration but only on the premise of "if you lower the CC then lower the cost, too", maybe give it something else that still makes it worth pressing instead of being ignored for everything but mobbing. Strong CC is needed for certain fights where enemies can pack some really thick breakbars and having piddling CC will leave your team in a rough spot for that kind of fight. Mostly, I just want either a cheaper elite or a stronger CC from something so debilitatingly expensive.

godddddd tell me about it 50 Energy for a CC button that does less barbreak than flesh golem charge, an overcosted gap closer, an underwhelming lifesteal heal...and apparently if you buff any of these Shiro somehow ends up too strong because Impossible Odds is bonkers (which, it *is*, don't get me wrong) and the entire skillset is balanced around/orbiting that skill.

I would disagree since the 3s of quickness still isn't enough to push the button. Even going full Diviner doesn't justify it, you only get maybe one or two extra seconds.

For context: >May 17,2016: The cost of this skill has been increased from 20 to 35. A change for PvP and WvW that ended up badly hurting PvE players in the process. >August 28, 2018: The energy cost of this skill has been reduced from 35 to 30 in PvE and WvW. A "minor" buff for the skill aimed at the non-PvP gamemodes...but 30 Energy for this kind of skill hurts. But...can't this skill just cost 20 Energy again, now that it's very much possible to keep such changes contained to PvE?

I'm going to reply on the assumption that you're arguing in good faith. First off: as others have said, this sort of thing encourages bad monetization for GW2 and especially in the foreseeable future. It's a line that can't be uncrossed: once you start selling Legendary Weapons, what stops you from selling Leggy Armor, Accessories, Backpieces, etc.? What then stops them from making Gem Shop-exclusive Leggy game pieces? What about Legendary...Chairs? Mini pets? A Legendary Omni-Gathering Tool? Again: not a line you want to cross. It's like blood in the water for corporate suits. Second off: you already get a pretty easy compromise via in-game legal RMT, why not just...convert gems to gold and then buy the leggy?

The average player is someone who (going off of raw guessing): * Only plays the game. No forums, no subreddit, no external sites. * Mostly they log in, cash in their daily rewards, maybe do some dailies if their skill level permits it, and then use the game as a glorified chat room (so mostly lounging in LA or DR). * Gear is going to be a hodgepodge of whatever the game gave them plus the rare exotic piece or three based on what they get from map completion, karma vendors if they actually checked, or rare drops from world bosses. This statements applies and extends to all their gear and includes runes and sigils. * If you asked them what their skills did, without checking said skills, they'd stare at you like you grew a second head. They, at best, might press a few buttons on their weapon. Maybe they'll weapon swap, if they figured out how to do it. * Their ingame settings are all set to factory defaults. Their play experience is, understandably, pretty mediocre. * Ultimately, as others have said, they'te casuals. Their obligations are to things IRL and they are not afraid or ashamed of ditching you for whatever is calling them back to IRL. This also means they have a pretty low curiosity or creativity drive; in other games, they're more than happy to have their hand held and do exactly what the game tells them to do, but games like GW2 hit them with paralysis of choice like a bat to a man's face.

something something different gaming culture between east and west The whole thing is fascinating and ties pretty heavily into why there's so many p2w freemium games in places like mobile phone app stores (tldr: they're popular and can make crazy money despite how f2p unfriendly they are), but yeah, I'm not surprised CN has access to straight-up p2"not play" options for their Gem Shop.

It's a little of both. In games with a proper aggro system, a tank kittening up (underperforming in aggro gen, underperforming in either healing or DPS based on class) can be pretty lethal for a party, but it'll be context-reliant on everything else too. Could a dps off-tank in case of an oopsie-doodle on the tank's behalf? Could the DPS's simply out-burst the mobs while the healer's running double-time? But in GW2, a dps dying can be *felt* in how sluggish an encounter goes. And with some encounters having enrage timers (e.g. Aetherblade CM), a downed DPS drastically reduces your chances of success; too many downed DPS's, and you might as well not waste time and call for a mass /gg. On the other hand, I've been carried on a baaaaad near-TPK in Kaineng Overlook and even Harvest Temple on the backs of two or three very ballsy players...but they also have the skill (and the *time*) to perform that carry. Thankfully, it was also on phases where the only thing left *to do* is DPS Or Die. I agree that supports are rare because the job is thankless and hard; you have to *want* to be support in order to truly enjoy it (and even that gets old after a while). Having the responsibility of keeping a bunch of other headless chickens alive is *HARD*. I don't want just anyone to do it, to be honest.

inasfar as asking for specific classes: some quick or alac classes are better than others in doing a secondary thing alongside their main boon. Case in point is Firebrand which *still* has the in-game most reliable amount of aegis to be provided, along with stability thanks to Book 3. DPSing is a lot smoother when you don't ever worry about dodging or breaking your rotations.

I agree that Archie's skills and the GS skills need tuning (in particular the autoattack chain could stand to be...crunchier? not sure how to make this make sense), but the issue with Legendary Alliance is that it's already doing so little for how much kit there is. It'd be better for Vind and really for most eSpecs to just take what it already wants to do—strike damage on Archie's side, healing/defense on Vikky's side—and make those numbers better. Besides, nothing you can give Alliance will really top what Renegade puts out with Blood Fury/Heartpiercer/Vindication (irony!).