Gaiawolf.8261

Except when roaming or trying to catch up with a group. 😅

I'm seriously gonna miss that wicked tome opening animation, would be cool if we could get the open book from the original tomes back while they are activated though. EDIT: I apologize; I was incorrect. I watched the preview again, and the tome opening animation is still there. I am very happy about that. The original open tome graphic is still cooler tho. 😉 EDIT 2: Looked again, closer this time. The book opening animation is still there, but the character animations during it were cut out. The book just opens over your head now without the character doing anything.

To be fair an expert longbowman can hit a target at over 200 yards. Then again, a good rifle marksman.... over 2 miles. 😅 Pretty much sums up many players' skepticism for the rework. We all expected the shared resource from the image, and the changes to the grandmaster traits look interesting too, with some good possibilities. No longer only 1 BIS trait! But, all math seems to indicate Tome 1 skill usage will be considerably lessened, even when used fully and leaving zero pages left for the other tomes. It's not like cFBs or qFBs were anywhere near the top of the BMs either. Tome of Justice used to yield 5 tome skills per 30 seconds. Now with only one page per 8 seconds and #4 and #5 costing 2 pages, we only get to use our cool Tome skills and see those beautiful spell animations maybe 2-3 times per 32s. They even got rid of the nice tome opening animations. Quickfire or the buff to Aftermath might help DPS some, depending on the game mode and situation, but that's just a further example of balance treading too much on art, lore, and theme. Tome of Resolve actually looks okay if you give up all uses of other tomes. Okay, fine. Tome of Courage users look like they will have it rough. Again, this is when focusing totally on one tome. Any cross-Tome action is going to be very touchy if it's even possible at all, which might be okay. My biggest fear is Tome 1 usage.

Delete double post.

That's what they are doing with the firebrand grandmaster traits. They have one trait for Virtue of Courage for boon support and utility, one for Justice and DPS, and one for Resolve and healing/support. It's one of the really interesting changes for the rework that opens up some possibilities.

I think the fear is twofold, from posts I've seen, and also my general fears: Tomes will lose their identity. They'll go from repositories of lore that you open with a nicely themed animation, and then unleash a powerful torrent of lore and magic, down to scattered pieces of parchment you just whip out willy nilly whenever you need 1-2 skills, like engineer kits. They're gutting the lore out of the lorekeeper, in spirit. The shared resource will hit too hard. The balance problem with tomes now is you can go from one fully powered tome to another back to back or whenever they're off CD. I'm not opposed to a shared resource. It's probably a good idea, as long as keeping the same basic functionality we have with one tome now, doesn't completely screw us out of anything else. Some theorists are saying we won't even be able to use Tome 1 fully, and that you'll only have enough pages to activate Ashes on CD and maybe one other skill, leaving you no pages left, even for other Tome 1 skills. The good news is they can adjust page refresh, but will they? Will doing that make HFB too strong? That math seems to check out. At one page per 8s, and Ashes costing 2 pages on a 20s, if you pop any other Tome 1 skill, that's 3 pages, 24s to recover. And forget about Aftermath, that's another 2 pages. That's over the 30s CD we have now on just 2 tome skills! Tome of Justice used to grant 5 pages on a 30s CD. Now, the suite of Tome 1 skills costs 40s to recover (actually 56s, but 16s are recovered from Swift scholar). And that leaves you 0 pages for anything else. We can't even keep up our mediocre DPS with these changes and we give up everything else from the other tomes. It should be one or the other, not both.

Ack. Please no. The idea of a pure anything in GW2 is an affront to the game's core combat design. Plenty of games do the holy trinity. I chose GW2 over all of them at beta because there was no pure anything and builds were largely self sufficient. They could all fulfill more than one role at a time, except maybe some thief builds? I agree no build should be able to do everything, but neither should they be forced to do only one thing at any given moment like a one-trick pony. And let's face it, especs are basically your character's class identity now, since they change the lore and theme so dramatically, and usually the playstyle. Changing from a firebrand to a dragonhunter, or a tamer to a druid, is basically a different class. My plant spent years in Elona learning the lore of the firebrands. Picking up a bow or doing a Ryu-style hurricane kick are the furthest things from her mind.

What is your build? Core? FB? DH? Power? Condi? Support? What game mode do you play most? Open world? Raids? Fractals? sPVP? WVW? FB is still heavily played in PVE and WVW, we'll see what happens after the rework. Not really used much for sPVP and roaming. Core and WB are played in PVP modes and open world. Core is still used in WVW zergs, and WB is used for roaming. Not sure about sPVP, but I hear WB is used, and maybe Core? WB is pretty good as a condi spec in open world and raids. DH is probably suffering the most, and I hope it gets some good buffs in the future. It's... decent in some open world and WVW cases.

Writ of Persistence is better for persistent healing and boon support. Force of Will is better for burst healing.

Some gamers already ran the numbers and are projecting the best use for Tome of Justice now is to enter, hit 5, and exit every 20 seconds. That's it. I really hope this isn't the final resource management, because that would be sad. Tomes will have gone from the theme of opening a book of lore, with a really cool animation, to unleash a powerful torrent of pages and magic down to minimal animations while we dip in and out of them once in a while. Blink and you'll mis it. I really pray against this as it kills the concept and feel of what tomes were supposed to be. Guardians have always had strong light and fire themes, and many ways to apply burning. The lore is thick with it. It infects every 3-5 attacks we make with Virtue of Justice, possibly our most prominent profession mechanic that can also spread burning to our entire team. Plus, a weapon for it, multiple utility skills, and then we get to trait specializations: Radiance "Burn away the unworthy." Radiance improves your ability to burn and blind your foes, as well as improving your critical-hit capability. It grants bonuses while you are under the effects of retaliation[sic] and strengthens the effects of your signets. — In-game description Firebrand just kicks it up a notch, because, well... they're Firebrands! Willbender simply leans on existing mechanics already built into the core class from Radiance and other traits. No other damage condition comes close to burning for the core guardian than burning. It's baked into our profession mechanic.

I think other have wondered why a shared resource of some type couldn't work with the current tomes. i don't know the answer to that one. Maybe it tested bad internally? I'm worried about the same thing. The proposed rework doesn't look like 3 tomes to me anymore. It looks more like one Tome of Virtues that magically appears opened on its own (no cool animation) and you flip to the section you want or close it willy nilly. I'm worried we'll just hit Ashes on CD, save the rest of the pages for emergency, and be forced to camp axe auto attack like a drone all day long.

Yeah is a bit vague and hard to read from their quote. So I'm not really sure where they are going with it.

It doesn't, and shouldn't. And contrary to popular belief, it doesn't have it now. What is has is a firm set of support and utilities baked in that don't need to be traited to work somewhat effectively in clutch situations. I'm a firm believer that all classes should have some good utility, support, or mobility like this, so they don't need to overspecialize and become one-trick ponies. FB can afford to lose some utility or support (not both like this rework seems to do), but more importantly, underperforming specs should be given some measure of support or utility baked in so they can be useful like the FB is for something besides DPS, especially when things go haywire. Also, I'm not opposed to a shared resource between tomes, as long as it's not so restrictive it robs the class of too much identity, versatility, or theme.

Stowing mean putting it away. It used to proc when entering or leaving a tome. It no longer procs on leaving. Not that it makes much of a difference with tomes instant open close now except to cause jankiness.

I really like this idea in concept and fully endorse it. I disagree on the skills being weak, especially Desert Bloom. Spamming over 1K heals for free would need a heavy nerf. Probably the same for Searing Spell. If Unflinching Charge subs protection for stab, yeah, that's pretty weak and can stay, but I'd prefer a charge mechanic like speed better. Needless to say, these auto-attack/free skills could no longer proc Swift Scholar. I would also love the caster feel this would add to the FB. Love it. Searing Spell as an alternative to camping axe? Bring it on!

Swift Scholar will only grant quickness when opening a tome, not closing it, but you raise an interesting point. Every 8 seconds you can open a tome and immediately close it to get the proc. Just, the instant open and close is a mechanical buff and probably needed now to work properly. Sure, but it's not thought out well, and removing the animation robs the theme and style for the mechanic. Sigh Renewed Justice was stated as reducing cooldowns of "a handful of traits that interact with virtue cooldowns" and "active trait triggers" whatever that means, and also grant you "some pages." The only trait I know with a CD that interacts with virtues is Swift Scholar's quickness and Tenacious D anyway, and the latter is Tome 3, not Justice. No idea how traits with no CD, like Justice is Blind will interact with instant tomes on no CD either. Spammable blind? I don't think so. So... maybe these traits will get a CD for FB only? Madness. They really are rocking the boat with how rules apply to FB versus every other guard. Maybe RJ should just reduce recharge Tome 1 skills by a little bit instead of these weird traits that may or may not interact with just Virtue of Justice? How would Tenacious D work anyway, if Tomes have no CD now? Reduce recharge on all Tome 3 skills? That would be cool. Inspired Virtue, another trait with no CD that procs on active Virtue activation. Is there a new CD, again only for FB, that gets reset, but only for opening Tome 1? All tomes? ??? Renew Focus is another skill that would normally recharge virtue actives. Being an elite on a long CD, I would hope that mean refreshes all pages and resets cooldowns of all tome skills. Did they really think these changes through when reworking how tomes work on a fundamental level? I supposed a blanket fix that makes us not have to relearn how traits work when switching between FB and DH or WB would be just say, these traits proc when using a Tome skill/page instead, of the relevant tome if applicable. Would be much easier to keep straight. EDIT: Two things I just thought of. 1: Renewed Justice will return pages, but now pages are shared, so they can be used for Tome 2 and 3 too, I imagine. Can't see a way restrict that only to Tome with this mechanic. 2: Doesn't look like you have to switch tomes to proc Swift Scholar as is. Just open/close any tome or close/reopen same tome to trigger.

Explained in the livestream. Firebrand Tome/Trait Rework 11-22 https://imgur.com/a/fN1RkPB

They mentioned in the live stream that these kind of traits would reduce the CDs on other traits that affect or proc from virtues.

Guess we'll just have to disagree what makes a class fun and engaging to play in the game. I've played them all except rev and a few scattered specs across other classes. FB and mirage are my two favorites by far. Some really dynamic tools in each kit that I often feel are missing when playing some other specs. Mech, conversely, plays nothing like FB and was not very rewarding to play. I agree axe is a somewhat boring weapon for FB, though I love the pull and symbols in general, which is partly why I so value the tools the tomes offered. I'm also not vibing with the idea of a lorekeeper with access to powerful magic gleaned from books, relying too heavily on just whacking things with a blade over and over again. I hear some interesting feedback about adding a hybrid/condi component to scepter which could make that weapon more viable. I hope the devs notice and look into that. Otherwise, I fear this rework will force me to camp axe even more. We'll see.

Going into and out of a tome is now instant cast with no animation. Just like an engineer kit. Probably got rid of the animation because it was too long. Mechanics at the cost of aesthetics.

No, not every espec needs to be especially diverse like FB, just maybe one per class so we all have options. But each spec should be capable of doing more than just one thing at a time, if the player decides they want that, especially for solo play where you have no one else to rely on. And I never said anything about homogeneous class design. Yes, that's easier to balance but robs classes of their unique flavor. I agree, let's stay away from that. That's just what this rework looks to be doing with FB. They took its unique mechanic and made it work like kits on a limited resource. They even got rid of the cool animation that gave them this divine lorecaster flavor to make them just another paladin flavored guardian spec with engineer-lite tools (mechanically).

The team actually addressed that in the live stream. It's like that by design. The traits were reworked so you have to pick which virtue, and tome, to specialize with. Each grandmaster trait retains the specific passive virtue for one tome only. Swift Scholar is meant to benefit players that stock up pages and then burst them, instead of popping in for one skill piano-player style which I fear min-maxxers will find optimal. Ugh. They seemed pretty proud of that trait. I like it too, since it'll help me stay in a tome longer and not burn pages quite as fast. Helps retain some of the bursty caster feel of the class, just a little. I hope they buff it later, or just buff page regen, or nerf Searing Spell's damage down to a regular auto-attack and make it not cost pages. I'd be fine with any of those. Give me my divine caster, so I don't have to camp axe like a paladin. 😉

Firebrands still have 5 pages, now shared across all tomes, that regenerate at 1 page per 8 seconds. Archivist still bumps it up to 8 pages, allowing them to start combat with more and stock more overall. Loremaster increases page regeneration to 1 page every 6 seconds. Also Swift Scholar regenerates 1 page for every 3 consecutive tome skills used, so now it makes no sense to open a tome for only 2 skills, or 5, since an extra one would be 'free.' EDIT: I've done the math, and if you maximize page counts and regen with traits, you can sustain the familiar amount of tome skill usage for Tome of Justice over time, just with much longer CD per skill, so much less bursty. But this leaves you only 2-3 pages for any other Tome. Likely this is their design. If you don't add ToJ to your damage rotation, you can actually get more usage out of ToR or ToC, again not both. It basically locks using Tomes 2 or 3 out of being useful if you want to use ToJ for DPS at all. Some others have claimed the best way to get DPS out of ToJ and keep "oh kitten" support is to only use Ashes on CD. So, maybe not so much of a nerf, but completely guts the theme and feel of the class as a cleric archetype, as opposed to just another paladin spec.

Well, you were right. They gutted tome animations too. They are now instant cast, and you pop in and out of them like kits now. Gone is the theme and feel of opening a book to read it for a powerful burst of magic without screwing yourself over. Now it's more like, the book just appears in the blink of an eye, "Behold the desolatio---- Oh, the book is gone. Never mind." *Swings axe for the hundredth time.* Loremasters no more. EDIT: I was incorrect. The tome opening animation is still there. I apologize for any confusion I caused. I am still mildly concerned that opening a tome have less feeling of opening a book of wuppass, and that it grants us less spells overall due to page regen rates and increased page costs, but that might be mitigated by opening tomes more often for smaller burst of powerful spells. We will see.

It really wasn't. It was good, versatile class design that was fun to play across the game's content. FB wasn't actually the problem. It just stood out as an overperformer, because most other specs aren't designed as well. They were forced to overspecialize to their own detriment. A proper solution would have been to give those other specs tools for some extra utility or support outside their specialties, so they aren't either boring or one-trick ponies (crazy rotations optional, in some cases).