SponTen.1267

Is there any ETA on a fix for this?

Hey ANet, dunno if you guys read these posts. But I really miss there being a way to target-revive with Siphon 🙁 Would you please look into a way to spec for it again? Perhaps through one of the lesser-used traits, like Shallow Grave? It even works thematically with that trait 😁 From what I've seen, Specter is a tad under-tuned compared to most other defensive supports, and Thief's only revive is Shadow Refuge which is pretty meh (and its description is still missing this part), so I'd imagine a small buff like a targeted revive wouldn't hurt.

Looking good, thanks ANet! Tiny request 😁 - would you please give a similar damage/ferocity bonus to Hidden Killer (Thief) that you gave to Burst Precision (Warrior)? If too strong for WvW/PvP, could it be done for PvE only?

Sorry, but what do you mean by this? I've always heard OW is the most popular content?

Ahhh at least that explains it, thanks! Edit: Oops, yes, it mostly happens around the Mire Sea, Treacherous Depths, and Benthic Kelp Beds.

I know this thread is old, but I think I'm experiencing the same issue; lots of Profile Photos are missing for my account. I also have weird duplicates, like very slightly different Daredevil Spec images. Anyone else found a fix?

Thanks for posting these; they were very interesting. I only started playing in late 2021, so it's hard to understand what the game was like back in Core, HoT, and most of PoF. It's funny, because for me, I really enjoy the boon system. I do think the game overall is becoming a bit too easy in OW, and the increasingly-easy application of boons is a big part of that. But then, ANet probably has data on a lot of players who still really struggle with all content, and they also want to make instanced group content more accessible, so I can see why they're balancing the way they are.

Anyone else having a Mind Stab effect play every few seconds on their character whilst mounted in Mount Maelstrom? Very strange; doesn't seem to do any damage or put me in combat or anything.

I always had it in my head that GW2 was designed with the following philosophies in mind: Old gear, skills, content, etc, all stay similar to how they were on release No, or very minimal powercreep, with everything that's released always staying relevant in terms of power level (horizontal progression) Variety of content, like JPs, Guild Missions, Adventures, Races, etc Less focus on combat rotations, and instead more on interesting ways to play, like environmental weapons, combo fields, and racial skills I can't remember where I read the first two points, but I'm sure I did, as they were big points that got me to start playing in the first place. What's weird though is that I've seen other posts and comments from devs that contradict these philosophies (some of which didn't play out), like increasing the level cap, and releasing Ascended gear. And the variety of content thing just seemed to disappear with EoD. I know this is difficult to do, because how do you keep everything feeling the same yet also give veterans actual content to play? The only option with this would be to release a ton of new content all the time, which ANet doesn't seem to want/be able to do, perhaps because they're wary of thinning the playerbase too much across all the zones. So, it's great we got the more recent Balance Philosophy, even though it's a bit disappointing that it goes against some of the original design philosophies. For me though, it's still really helpful to know why things are the way they are, even if I'm not thrilled with them (though I still absolutely love this game). SO, as per the title, my question is: Is there a list of current Design Philosophies? Or are ANet thinking of writing up some more? I would love to see reasons from the devs as to why there are no new JPs, Guild Missions, Races, etc.

I only started GW2 in late 2021, and my understanding was that the game was initially designed around pure horizontal progression. I can't remember what I watched and read (I wish I saved the links), but I swear they said that no old content will be invalidated, gear stays relevant forever, you don't have grind for new power levels, and there won't be huge swings in power through buffs or nerfs. But of course, now I can't find any info on it. Thank you for posting stuff that ANet have actually said in the past. I would love to read more on this, because I feel like either I was misled, or my brain misunderstood what it was viewing; maybe it misconstrued it into something I actually wanted to hear. I wish ANet would post more design philosophies. I love that they posted their Balance Philosophy, because even if they haven't stuck to it 100% successfully, I can at least go back and see how and why they make the changes that they do.

In this thread, I'm going to stay away from all the contentious stuff, and just ask/suggest a few things. Pretty minor overall, and more for just all of PvE in general, ie. not just instanced group content. I'm not a top-end player, so please be gentle if I miss things or my suggestions don't target your specific gameplay preferences; I've just noticed the below stand out so much that they're really apparent even to someone who mostly does OW, T3 Fractals, Dungeons, and the occasional Raid. I think the below affect everyone though. Thief Is there some way to make good use of Sword? Its auto attack seems to do less damage than Dagger, and both its dual wield skills seem to provide very minimal, or even no dps boost over its auto, despite them being a bit janky. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind forced-movement skills or being rooted in place (I know, I'm weird, I actually like strange skills), but it would be cool to have them actually deal noticeably more damage than the auto. Elementalist Is it just me, or are Air autos really weak? Air is supposed to be "heavy damage and control", and yet its autos seem to just suck. Revenant How long is Hammer going to be so much worse than every other weapon? Or am I missing some way to scale it? It feels like it does about half or even a third as much dps as Sword/Sword. Also its Coalescence of Ruin #2 is still bugged and starts its aoe about 200 range away from the Revenant. Ranger Is it just me, or does most of Ranger's power damage come from Soulbeast or Untamed? I know that the game isn't really balanced around Core, but it means that Core and Druid are just... so bad for power builds. Is that intentional? Similar to... Necro Same kind of thing with Necro; Core and Scourge power damage is so bad. I know focusing on Core or specific Elite build types might seem like nitpicking or just a non-issue, but it means that when we get new weapons to play with, there will be a bunch of builds that will just be sooo much worse for Core Ranger/Necro, and Druid/Scourge. Even Micro_Hard's tests seem to verify this for maxed-out dps. Anyway, that is all. Nothing too crazy, and would love to just be flat out wrong about all these; please let me know if there are ways to build for the above as I really want to try out these playstyles. Something about them being noticeably worse than the alternatives, even for a semi-casual like myself, just seems... odd. I'm never going to hit top tier benchmarks, yet the above builds are still so noticeably weaker than the alternatives that they feel weird and disappointing even in casual OW and story.

That was a completely different era. We still have a "best" healer and "best" dps now; it's just that an extra two "required" boons are involved in builds. It's possible to balance the game in many different ways. Just because Quickness and Alacrity (and maybe boons in general) are changed, doesn't mean the balance will be worse.

Depends what build I'm running, but typically it's ~50% with full Celestial and Traveler Runes. This was pre-patch, but looking at the maths and new design, it should be even easier now.

Why? What about most Quick/Alac builds (the ones other than FB or Mech) makes them better to use with dps builds rather than healers? I ask because I haven't found this to be the case; I find it very easy to keep up permanent (or near-permanent) Quick/Alac on heal builds like Renegade, Tempest, and Catalyst, and it's gotten even easier over the past few patches. Harbinger and Chrono aren't the best healers by any means, but it's still very easy to keep up Quick/Alac on them. I also found boon upkeep easy on the pre-patch Druid, Specter, and Scrapper heal builds.

Ahh, yeah totally fair. Personally, I wouldn't mind if some builds could provide a boon or two permanently as long as they had to sacrifice a ton of other stuff to do it. But yeah, my second choice that's barely behind the first would be the same as yours. If Quickness and Alacrity are going to be kept as powerful as they are, it only leads to balance and design problems, and eventual homogenisation, if any build can keep either one of them up permanently for a whole group.