SponTen.1267

I'm wondering if anyone who's never done Raids before would be up for giving them a shot, with low expectations and low requirements, kind of like what Preach has been doing (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQHWwb6ddRE), and what many players did when Raids were first released (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnwxXciobVY). For example: No role requirements "Blind" runs; we go in without having done them before, nor read guides on them Only expectations would be things like having at least some cohesive gear, traits, and skills ie. Not full Nomad's on a Condition build, but a mix of Berserker's, Assassin's, and Cavalier's would be fine on a Power build We expect to wipe and have to try many times, but go slowly and learn along the way When we fail, we can discuss things like mechanics, adding in more heals or boons, note that we're struggling with dps because we're running around too much, etc Is there anyone else up for this kind of thing? I've done one single Raid ever (W4), and it was fun, but we kinda flew through it with the experienced players just telling the rest of us what to do. I'd love to play them (preferably in order) with a group of people who've never done them before, and just kind of experience them as new content that we work out together. Can even discuss the story and setting and all that. And W1 is Emboldened this week. I figured that, yeah, there will be lots of wiping, but you only get to experience content for the first time once, so might as well make a thing out of it!

Problems have already been demonstrated in this thread, and many others: Core zones are so easy that new players can't even participate in some events because all mobs are obliterated in an instant, and additionally the rewards in these zones are so far behind the rest of the game that the only reason to visit them is for very specific achievements. Why would having a way to increase difficulty and rewards in these zones not solve this problem?

I feel like a solution to everything here would be for ANet, as part of their Core Game Updates, to allow players to pick a higher difficulty in OW (or maybe only level <80 zones), which also bumps up rewards. Thus, new/inexperienced players who find the current level of difficulty sufficient can continue to play as they currently do, and everyone else can choose to do reduced damage to mobs while taking more damage, but also get rewards more on-par with Expansion zones. Everyone wins, right? Most experienced players would pick the harder difficulty for Core zones while being rewarded better, and mobs wouldn't be obliterated in <0.5 seconds during group events.

Afkers are the worst part about PvP. Having bad players on your team... look, at least they're trying, and at least they can distract the enemy. Having bad players in your squad/party in PvE... at least you can try to teach them, or do a vote kick if they aren't responding. But having someone just intentionally refuse to interact with anyone else in a closed arena, to purposely grief 9 other players? How is this not a bannable offence? Can you imagine the riots if other players could just reduce your damage and health by 20% in OW without even interacting with the game?

Please list the "time remaining / reset time" in all time-limited Achievements, like Weekly WvW, etc, so that we know how long we have before they reset. This is already done for Dailies, so would be awesome to get the consistency for all of them.

I would love to see something like this, but I just really doubt it'll happen. Firstly, it goes against Anet's design philosophy of always being able to play in a group without having your rewards reduced. Yes, technically you're actually working as a group better this way, but it won't be immediately obvious to people, which will be confusing for casual/new players. Secondly, many players want to be able to just jump in and do something they feel like. Having dedicated "roles" that are basically required to be filled for everyone to get appropriate rewards will cause issues with some players griefing others because they're not adhering to the "right" role at any given moment. I hope I'm wrong, and I hope some sort of system like this can make it into WvW, but I'm not getting my hopes up because I'm pretty sure ANet don't want to encourage this type of gameplay.

I gotta say, I'm really, really glad to hear some of the design philosophies you guys are discussing and moving forward with. At the moment, I'm mostly referring to the Mantra changes, and what was mentioned on stream about rebalancing Might application for supports. It's often not immediately popular to make things different for the sake of variety, especially if the change makes something harder, or "clunkier". But it's much, much better for the longevity of the game when there's more variety in skills and playstyles. Not everyone wants boons to be passive, or even instant cast "just press this button after cooldown to permanently boost your power". Not everyone spends most of their game time in Raids/Strikes. In fact, I'd argue that most people wouldn't fall into either of these buckets. Hell, there's definitely a lot of people posting about how they want boons and utility skills to not just be "spam off cooldown". You can't have both at the same time, but you can have some skills/builds that are more passive, and some that aren't. That's one of the amazing things about GW2; there's just so much freaking diversity. Yes, that's being different for the sake of being different. And that's a good thing. Please continue with this type of balance, ANet. Make some skills high risk/high reward, like Meteor Shower being clunky, but super high damage (it does need a bit more). Make some require preparation, but they provide lots of effects, like Mantras. Others can be simpler and easier to use, but do one thing really well or two things somewhat-well, like Field of the Mists (although Rev Hammer needs more buffs), or Dolyak Signet. And I'm curious to see what Might changes are coming; I agree that it should be very rare and/or difficult for a single build to upkeep 25 Might, and I actually think you should extend this to Quickness and Alacrity too. That way, more builds can focus on dps with a bit of support (eg. Banner Warriors), and the selfish dps builds like Weaver and Reaper can pump maximum dps (more buffs for Reaper?).

But surely most of them will be around my skill level, right? At the time I was playing this exact build. But it's not dependent on my build, because I switch around a lot and it can happen in any game. In fact, in most games there will be some sort of team fight where I just cannot do any damage to anyone, or they seem to have crazy heals. I guess that's mostly down to support, which I get, but I don't get it when they're solo. Hm I've heard something about this. I'm not good and I know that, and that's fine, but it's just frustrating being matched with players wayyyy out of my league. THANK YOU, that's all super helpful, and I'm not offended at all lol. This is exactly the kind of explanation I was looking for in this instance. I'm almost certain I wasn't blinded, and I'm pretty sure my hits were landing, so it sounds like Corrupter's Fervor + Blight health regen. Maybe Weakness on me too. There are lots of Mesmers that seem to avoid a lot of damage too, but I'm guessing that's because I'm targetting their clones and not them directly. Ugh that's so annoying. I heard that this can happen to reduce queue times or something? This game mode is SO MUCH FUN though when things are balanced, so I really hope ANet put some resources into encouraging PvP to up the numbers. PvE is so bland after playing PvP, cause PvE is all just permanent every boon and just watching for boss tells. Maybe upping rewards for Unranked would help? I feel like there should be some sort of Unranked pip reward track, and the Ranked one should be buffed a bit. Even if you're top-tier and win all your games, you're still kind of capped to just a few gold per hour, which seems kinda crazy. Would be nice to be able to target farm mats and stuff for Legendaries too. They weren't using the terrain in this case. I'm bad, but I know when I'm being juked; in this case though, they were just standing still and tanking all my hits. Yeah I'm trying to focus more on rotating, and it's been working out better for sure. But I still find that in a lot of my games, there's either an individual or a few people on the opposite team who are just unkillable and can always hold nodes or chase me if I try to out-rotate. But I appreciate the advice; I wish someone had told me to focus more on rotation when I started lol. Took me way too long to realise.

I'm quite new to PvP, so I'm Silver 3 and feeling a bit overwhelmed. Not my issue though, since I'm learning a lot every game. My issue is that every couple matches, I come across foes who just seem to be completely unkillable. Sometimes they'll just stand there and tank 2-3 of us, and they're not always even evading or blocking. Doesn't seem to be dependent on my class or theirs; I've seen a huge variety of matchups with all classes where their health barely moves despite us dropping everything on them. So is there some secret to this? I'd understand if they were blocking, evading, invul, and juking, but often it just looks like they're standing there somehow not taking any damage. Last game for me it was a Harbinger, which I understand aren't that tanky, yet they were able to tank me, a teammate, and Svanir. How is this possible, especially in Silver? Shouldn't these players be as bad as me?

I guess that's the thing; what each Ascended Spec does would be dependent on the Spec. So, sure, Ascended Virtues would buff... Virtues of course. But Ascended Zeal would generally buff Strike damage. Overall, I'd say it's best to keep it simple, to retain the original designs of Core classes. For Mesmer, Ascended Domination would improve Strike damage and Vulnerability; Dueling would be Crit and Bleeding damage; Chaos would be Defences and Condition Damage; Inspiration would be Healing and Support; and Illusions would be Illusions and Shatters. Core builds aren't that much worse than Elites in their current state, so the numbers wouldn't need to be crazy. Hell, there are even some Core builds that perform incredibly well; I've seen some Core Warrior, Engineer, and Thief builds do 32k+ dps with a bunch of extras like Boon Support or CC. Ascended Specs would just allow the underpowered ones to perform better, open up some design space, and also allow people to play a "new" variety of old builds in top-end content.

I appreciate the thought you put into this. I know that synergies are a big reason why Elites end up more powerful. That's part of their point; they specialise more in something (damage, defence, heal, support) and often bring new mechanics too. My issue that having direct upgrades invalidates a whole set of classes and mechanics, which goes against GW2's philosophy of horizontal progression. I don't want Elites to be more powerful - IMO, the player's power feels really great already and I don't think it needs to be nerfed or buffed - I'm just wanting there to be a way for Core classes to be more comparable to Elites. In solo play, you can generally achieve similar-enough levels of power with Core classes for most content. But we all know that instanced content players expect you to hit certain benchmarks, which Core classes can't always do. Other than the time investment to develop this and maintain balance, I don't see a major downside to this suggestion. I guess Warrior and Ranger Elites wouldn't have Quickness/Alacrity from Core? But they could have new methods built into their Elite specs. Core classes are weaker than Elites in the vast majority of cases, and only a few of them can perform roles other than dps. There's also been a lot of people asking for things like Heal Warrior, or Quickness Thief, and it'd be cool to have new ways to play regardless. It would allow new designs for Warrior and Ranger, who a lot of people have complained about because they don't have Alac/Quick builds, respectively, due to how their Core traits allow them access to a key boon and ANet have stated they don't want any builds having access to permanent group application of both boons. Lastly, it'd give new players a nice little goal to strive for before Elite specs, and potentially even teach them about the game. There are no Profession Trainers, so it's easy for new players to fall into the trap of never using Steal, or never switching Attunements, for example. But if they could Ascend Trickery or Arcane, respectively, they could have ways to provide group Quickness/Alacrity, which make sense thematically and would give them something to play and learn in early instanced content.

I'll be honest here: I'm not a fan of this idea, as it would push Elites more into the realm of a "new class" rather than a subclass, and may not actually increase build diversity. Sure, it would allow ANet to buff Core and Elite more, but I don't think the game as a whole needs more buffs.

Just an idea that's been floating around my head lately - what if your third Spec, if it were Core, could become "Ascended"? Could be part of an Expansion release if it required a lot of work. My reasons are: - It would allow Core specs to be more comparable to Elites in PvE and WvW, without changing the levelling experience - It wouldn't powercreep the game, nor conflict with Elites in terms of providing extra boons - It would allow new playstyles with what we already have, not just on Core Specs - It's thematic with the "Elite" Spec slot - It shouldn't take as much work (in theory) as new Elites, as they're mostly numbers changes Some ideas... Elementalist Each Ascended Attunement Spec could significantly reduce the cooldown of that Attunement, eg. Ascended Fire could reduce Fire Attunement's cooldown by 40%. They could also be themed appropriately, like Water having greater range on Soothing Mist, and Earth's Rock Solid providing additional/longer Stability. Ascended Arcane could allow Alacrity when switching Attunements. Warrior Double Standards in Discipline could provide Quickness only when Ascended, freeing up Alacrity to be added to Spellbreaker (or other Elites). Ascended Tactics' Roaring Reveille could provide Alacrity, and Vigorous Shouts could be buffed to open up Heal Warrior. Ranger Nature's Vengeance could provide Alacrity only when Ascended, and the base skills (non-Ascended too) could allow Spirits to move, similarly freeing up Alacrity on an Elite. Ascended Beastmastery could make Pets much stronger, allowing Rangers to have actually strong Pets. Necromancer Ascended Death Magic could make Minions much stronger. Ascended Soul Reaping could provide Alacrity. Guardian Haven't thought much about Guardian, but could open up Alacrity + Heals. Thief Deadly Aim could open up a dual Pistol playstyle when Critical Strikes is Ascended. Ascended Acrobatics could open up Quickness support. Something for Short Bow? Engineer Could make Turrets/Tool Kit a new build? Alacrity support without Mechanist. Mesmer Unsure about Mesmer as it's my least-played class and I suck with it. Revenant Heal Alac again with Ascended Salvation. Ascended Invocation could reduce cooldown on switching Legends. And for all classes, it could open up new dps builds for those who prefer Core. This would sometimes be especially great for accessibility/LI as some Core classes are simpler, and would allow those who prefer Core themes and mechanics (eg. Necro Shroud) to stick to those builds without losing them when having to pick an Elite for endgame groups. They could be toned down or just not apply in PvP/WvW if the respective Core class is already strong enough. And if ANet is concerned about selling expansions, they could only be available when at least one Expansion is owned, or even tied to Expansion content (perhaps unlocked with HPs or MPs).

Huh, I've never actually thought of this. If this is possible in the engine, I think this would be a really cool change. I just... feel like it wouldn't be possible lol.

Not really? Both main hand Dagger and Staff get vuln from Water, not Air.

I don't know if you could count one as overall "better", because it depends heavily on the specs, traits, weapons, heal skill, utility skills, playstyle, game mode, and content type. But if you absolutely must have an either/or answer, I would say: Celestial. My reasoning is that, since the above are almost entirely variables, Celestial is so broad that it covers all the bases to at least some degree.

I wouldn't mind options for both Alac on Overload as well as on Combo Finisher. It'd just be difficult to balance. We see this with Warrior at the moment. It's really cool that they have a bunch of different options for providing Quickness, so you have many options to hybridise and provide some Quickness, lots, or 100% uptime. It does need to be tweaked from what I can see, because it appears that it's too easy to get huge Quickness uptime in groups without any dps loss, but the idea/theme behind it is really interesting. The thing is though, improving Combo Fields is more of the theme of Catalyst than Tempest, and ANet have stated that they really don't want any one build providing both group Quickness and Alacrity. Personally, I'd love to see sprinkles of Alacrity for Core Ele, kind of like how Quickness is with Warrior, but less so for Ele since Ele's Elites already get Quick/Alac. I doubt that would happen though, again, due to ANet's stance. Lastly, I think Combo Fields could do with some updates. The idea of them is really unique and a lot of fun to play around (imo); I never see mechanics like this in other games. To respond to your suggestions more directly though, OP: I doubt this will happen, though I do somewhat agree with your ideas.

Thanks for the communication guys. While I don't agree with some of these changes (my feedback below), I still really appreciate how much you're communicating ahead of time, and how much detail you all go into. I'll be taking into account your recent Balance Philosophy, especially when it comes to Purity of Purpose, Holes in Roles, and Power Budget (aka Opportunity Cost). If I don't mention something, it usually means I'm fine with the change, or just don't know enough about that skill/trait/class/mechanic/etc to be able to comment. Elementalist Please don't change Scepter's functionality this much. Dragon's Tooth is fun as as difficult-to-land but high damage and low cooldown skill, that's also a Blast Finisher. If you think it's underperforming, then consider reducing its delay a little, or increasing its damage. The Phoenix change I sort of understand, but could its additional Burning stack be longer than the base 6 sec duration please? Seems fair to have to check/time for Burning stacks on enemies and be rewarded with more damage. The Shatterstone change seems a bit... weird? Very different skill now. I'll have to play it to see how it feels, but I'm a little sceptical. Please don't change the mechanics of Water Trident this much. If the healing is too OP, then fine, reduce its healing a bit and increase its damage. Edit: Perhaps Water Trident's current functionality could be somewhat merged into Freezing Gust on Focus? Also, where are all the Utility skill changes? Cooldown reduction on Conjures? Retaining Elementals when you mount? What about lowering the cooldowns on Core Elites? Improving the damage on big hitter skills like Dragon's Tooth, Meteor Shower, literally all of the Arcane skills, Conjure Flame Axe? Buffs to traits like Burning Fire? Doing anything with Freezing Gust? There are so many changes that could be done here that likely wouldn't even need extensive testing, because you can just compare the skill/trait to anything similar on other classes and it'll be clear how much worse Ele's are. Guardian I really like the FB changes. The numbers will probably need to be adjusted over time - for instance, I'm seeing a lot of theorycrafting going around about how much dps FB will lose - but mechanically, I'm all for it. The only downside here is that it's less of a unique mechanic and more like Initiative now, but imo that's a small price to pay for FB finally adhering to Holes in Roles. Imo it's still fine for FB to be more of a hybrid class that can't compete with the top-end for dps, because it brings so much value with Quickness, support, and other utility. Mesmer The Alacrity duration on Chaos Vortex may need to be adjusted to 1.5 sec. Thief I love the theme of dual Daggers. I love that it's hybrid but still has solid damage in most types of content. I just wonder if the buffs to the auto attack will push Dagger into the "too good not to use" category - will have to play, watch others, and review. I just note this because I think GW2 is starting to approach the powercreep and over-homogenisation cliff. As for the Deadeye changes - please do not implement any of these except for Kneel not being cancelled when you're disabled, and the Death's Judgement pierce change. Kneel is supposed to turn you into a sniper with high damage but no movement. Changing it to allow you to move slowly completely destroys the skill's identity while not really allowing you any more mobility; you're still going to have to dodge or un-Kneel to avoid most damage. And the range reduction on Spotter's Shot (you meant this, right? Not Skirmisher's Shot?), Three Round Burst, and Death's Judgement... these changes combined with the Kneel changes destroy Deadeye's class identity. Also, why is Deadly Aim still 1500 range?? Are you supposed to Kneel at 1500 range, super slowly creep towards your target while auto-attacking, and then switch to Spotter's Shot and Three Round Burst once you get to 1200 range?? This makes zero sense, will almost certainly feel weird/bad to play, and homogenises one of the few 1500 range weapons we have while not actually providing any respite. It does not "improve the usability of deadeye in PvE" at all; it makes it worse, except in a very few number of select fights where you're sitting within 1200 range anyway. My suggestion: Keep the changes to Death's Judgement pierce and Kneel not being cancelled when you're disabled. Perhaps consider making Three Round Burst pierce, or allow it to pierce with a trait? You could also buff all Free Action (non-Kneel) skills' damage if the disparity is too great. It's fine for Kneel skills to be mostly very high single target damage though; the whole point of Rifle Deadeye is you give up aoe and movement for super high damage and range... like a sniper. Edit: Also, please allow Deadeye's Mark to remain active when you're downed.

Please add the "missing" Expertise and Concentration to Exquisite Charged Quartz Jewels. This is especially fitting given how many players will or will have already Boosted given the Steam launch. Thanks ANet! Loving your updates as of late 😁

I'm not asking for Core to be 100% comparable or better than Elites. I'm just wondering if ANet is intentionally relegating Core to "underdog" status in PvE. It's a bit odd, because there are some Core builds that have their own unique mechanics that their Elites don't have, like Necromancer. It would feel weird, at least to me, if ANet just went and slapped Death Shroud onto the Necro Elites; why is this kind of thing being done for some classes, but not others? I enjoy playing Core as well. It'd just be really great to retain them as an option without being kitten because the 3rd spec will almost always be worse than the Elite spec + extra skills. And that's a bit sad, isn't it? There's something nice about their simplicity, and they also sometimes have mechanics that their Elites don't, like Necro's Death Shroud. Same here! But I also get excited for Core specs too. Sometimes I'm playing my Tempest and I just... don't feel like using Overloads, or switching to Dual Attunements, or making use of a Jade Sphere. Sometimes I just want the same build that I'm running, but with Soothing Mist instead, for a bit of support. And I do play them anyway; they're not unplayable. I'm playing around with a Staff Ele right now, switching between Fire/Water/Arcane and Fire/Water/Air, and it's a breath of fresh air (heh). I'm just asking if ANet is aware that most Core specs are much less powerful than Elites, and if this is intentional and something they're happy with. It'd be really cool to see Core builds have their place as a "4th Elite", as well as more Core skills (eg. Conjures) getting some tuning.

How many players wouldn't buy the Expansions if Core Specs were comparable to Elites though?? I feel like this number would be very, very low. "Remastering" old content is a great way to get players back into the game. We see this with the million remasters coming out for other games. It'd wouldn't just be good for build diversity; it'd be good for nostalgia too. Not to mention that it'd give new players a better experience as they transition into Expansion content, as the difficulty curve would be a lot smoother. And GW2 is known for its horizontal progression anyway, so it makes sense in that context. It just seems like ANet is half doing this already, with all the Core weapon and skill buffs they've done recently, which have been very well-received. Why not continue it?

I'm really enjoying all the dev attention that balance is getting now. It's also great to see older content, like Dungeons, get very minor updates over time to keep them somewhat relevant. Kudos to ANet for this; it's really appreciated! One thing that's bugging me though, is that with a lot of the changes, it seems that the reasons to play Core builds in PvE are becoming fewer and fewer. A good example of this is Ranger; it used to be that, if you wanted to just play a simple Ranger with a couple pets, you'd play Core. Druid had hampered pets, and Soulbeast only got one, but they both got other bonuses that made up for it, like healing and Glyphs, and huge damage and Stances, respectively. I'm not sure about Untamed here, as I haven't played it yet, but it looks like it comes with extra complexity due to the Unleash mechanic. Now that Druid pets don't get hampered and Soulbeasts can swap pets in combat, it seems that the only benefit of Core is having access to a third non-Elite spec... though due to most Core specs being much less powerful than Elites, this is kinda pointless 99% of the time. Cmc and Roy did say they wanted to remove a lot of the downsides of Elites, which I completely understand, as a lot of players feel bad about losing something when they pick an Elite. But if this continues, what will be the point of Core builds? Are they supposed to be just for levelling? My concern here is that it reduces options. The third spec will always be devoted to an Elite, so there will be fewer options for different builds. What if you just don't want to have the Berserker Rage mechanics, or the Soulbeast Beastmode, or the Tempest Overloads, and instead prefer to keep things a bit simpler? I'm sure some will say "Well, you don't have to use them" or "Just play Core then", and that's mostly true; but players will be willingly giving up a lot of power, which also feels bad, and may get booted from groups due to other players thinking you're griefing. Anyway, what do you guys think? I know I'm probably in the minority with wanting to retain Core builds that are at least somewhat on-par with Elites. Perhaps Core specs could be buffed a tiny bit (and some Elites toned down just slightly if they become too powerful with these Core buffs)? Or the third spec slot could always be your "Elite" slot, so if you slot a Core spec in there it gets boosted somehow? For example, I'd love to play a Core Ele that was able to provide Alacrity by Attunement swapping or blasting combo fields quickly, instead of being forced into Tempest Overloads. This kind of change could be a great way for us to have a "4th Elite" til the next expansion is released. Other than the dev time, is there any real downside to this?

Okay couple things here. Firstly... The maths you did in the last sentence is the correct one for average damage per second. Let's take your greatsword and double axe example here. Say you did 20k dps with the greatsword for 10 seconds, and then swapped to the double axe and stopped attacking for 10 seconds, leaving you with 0 dps with that weapon set. Is your dps 20,000 + 0 = 20k? No, it's ((20,000 * 10) + (0 * 10)) / 20 = 10k. You have to take the average. You did 200,000 damage over 20 seconds, leaving you with 10k average damage per second. Thanks for the extra info. Firstly, I have to apologise; I typed out my initial post late at night and derped a bit. I'm using a Jungle Stalker, not Tiger. Secondly, when I was testing with the boons, while I'm 100% certain I applied the boons to my pet, I stupidly used Druid in my Elite slot, so that would've been what counteracted the boons to some degree. I re-tested again last night with no third spec (just to be safe), maintaining 15+ Might and Fury at all times, and 25 Vuln (from memory), and I got to 3k+ dps. I'll do some further testing, but yeah, seems things are working. I'll test a bit further today and see how it goes with Quickness, though it will likely be inconsistent since it's hard to keep up permanent Quickness on Ranger pets. Again, I'm sorry about my quality of testing; totally on me. However, it still begs the question of why Ranger pets are so weak compared to Mech. My Mech hits ~3.5k dps solo, with no Vuln and only 5 Might. I'm probably just being bad here, but I struggle to hit more than about 6k total solo dps on Core Ranger (me + pet), and 8k on Soulbeast. Sure, I'm using Exotic weapons and armour, but it's the same with my Mech, whereas she hits 8k+ solo dps while afk lol.

Thanks so much for this info. But I just tested with no boons vs permanent 15+ Might and Fury, and it seemed to make zero difference to my pets' dps for some reason. Your pets also seem to have nearly double the dps that mine do, even with 25 Vulnerability. Are you using "Sic 'Em!" at all? I'm just not sure how I'm missing out on so much of their damage.

Is there some trick to having a pet that does more than ~1k dps? Seems that no matter what I do, my pets' dps tops out around 1k. I've slotted Beastmastery, I've tried buffing with boons, I've tried with/out F2 and tried manual vs auto cast... nothing seems to increase their dps. I've managed 1.2k with Tiger, but that's the highest I've seen.