Plushie Knight.4209

Given that my oldest character and elite specialization main is Daredevil, it's very interesting to see that single line change. Feels like the biggest one for them in a while. I have always loved the extra endurance as a means to play more reactively and survive, and the Relic of Isgarren made that even more rewarding. Any word on whether the flat bonus on the updated Havoc Specialist is going to match the old 33-66% endurance bonus (10%) or the 0-33% bonus (15%)?

I'm still waiting hopefully for the return of the Jade Prosthesis Gauntlet Skin. I have a character who, in lore, uses a prosthetic, and I've been waiting this past year for the chance to get her the closest to what I imagine her having. Early wintersday present, pls?

Interesting stuff. I see a number of details I'm excited to try out and play around with. Bringing more relics up to pace is good! Especially with more expansion relics on the way, options to help customize playstyle within a build or suit specific elite specs are tasty. I'm very glad support Scrapper is getting a little boost. I've played it for years as my preferred heal support, and it has a lot going for it, but it feels like it's stayed static as similar roles have been buffed a lot. I'll gladly take a little more breadth and identity. And I'm very excited for Relic of Mabon with Blast Gyro on a lower CD, for even more team support. It's a tiny detail, but I'm glad for the look at Ranger pets as well. I'm not as experienced with them, so I can't speak for all those changes, but I'm very excited for Phoenix swapping to a new skill. It's one of my preferred pets, and having Dash as movement or utility sounds so much nicer than a Peck which does less than an autoattack (barring traits that proc on beast skills).

Is it possible to add dye channels for backpieces that are part of glider sets? There are a number of backpack/glider sets- such as the Branded Relic Package, or the Moth Wings Glider Combo, where the glider has dye channels but the backpack does not. I won't presume that they use the *same* models between the backpiece and glider, or dye channel configuration could be copied over, but I feel it would be a huge improvement for these sets. Currently, it's quite a sore point for character customization that the gliders can be any color...but can't match the backpiece, so if you intend to use the combination for the nice animation and theme experience it provides, you're shoehorned into using the default colors. There's also a lot of room for character customization fantasy in these, too; for example, the Branded Relic Glider can be dyed and styled for themes like Aurene, Bloodstone, Jade Tech, Void Jade, Icebrood, Destroyer, or of course Branded just by changing the colors with dye channels that are already there. In contrast...the backpiece can *only* appear as branded since it is undyeable.

My weapons, and all my gear, are ascended. I've been working on comparing my EE uptime and what skills my damage are coming from to the benchmark using Arcdps and dps.report, so I'm making headway. I think I might be cancelling water and air 2 into autoattacks.

Does this mean, standing too close inside golem so attacks swing past it and miss? I don’t think this is the case, I’ve gotten the same numbers on average and larger hitboxes. I was using food and a sharpening stone, and I don’t know if infusions would make much of a difference; that’s only a difference of 85 stat, right? I suppose it feels like I’m not *as close* to benchmark as I should be. I have identified several ways to improve after using Arcdps and comparing the report to the benchmark, and have gotten up to 32k already with that, but it feels like I need to close up the last 20% of rotation polishing to eke out 33% of my possible dps, where other classes make up that 20% of effort for the last 10% bit of damage.

I think it would be nice to see more prosthetic designs, and additionally different limb options like the oni arms offer.

I recently started playing Catalyst, after picking up my ninth character slot and making an elementalist. I've been trying to get a power dps build going, since I have condi builds and boon builds on other classes but still haven't found a power dps that keeps me interested. I feel like Catalyst is promising for that, for me; I like the idea of an elementalist that uses all the elements, and I think the effects and lore are neat. However, I'm having trouble getting close to benchmarks I've seen other players put out. After a few weeks of playing in open world and a few days with scattered golem training, my dps is capping just over 30k on golem. That's with full ascended Berserker gear, full Scholar runes, and sigils of Force and Impact, every boon on me, every condition on the golem, food and utility. I've been studying videos of folks doing 42k on golem as a benchmark, and 35-37k on raid bosses with a looser rotation than mine on golem. I'm trying to figure out how to close the gap, what to focus on to get better, but the margin is so wide that I'm feeling discouraged. At first, I thought Elemental Empowerment uptime might be the difference; it doubling at 10 stacks has a huge effect on crit chance and damage, after all. But the more I work on my rotation and make it muscle memory, the more chances I have to look away from the keys, it seems like I'm maintaining nearly as much as those videos I'm chasing, and keeping 10 stacks for the damage bursts in Fire. What should I be looking for or working on? Does having other folks' combo fields in organized content and multiplayer do a lot to help maintain EE without needing perfect timing on orbs and finishers? I don't expect to be matching benchmark after just a short time playing the class, but after years of playing the game and other classes, the difference between my current numbers and the top is so wide that it makes me feel like I'm missing something entirely.

"grants boons to yourself and allies" is the language they've been using this patch when something applies quickness or alacrity in PvE but others in PvP/WvW, right? I would be surprised if that *didn't* give alacrity in PvE.

Jokes aside, I do agree on the note that class fantasy is an important thing to build into. It's nice to expand access to the key boons, and give more builds than can supply them, but it's important also to make sure they feel fitting for the fantasy of the classes that get them, and that they don't trade off other things that are key. I like a lot of the new changes- Berserkers going so hard that they make their allies faster? Wicked. Cool as heck.

I haven't read the whole thread, so I'm not sure if anyone has done this math. As a quickness scrapper main, I'm...hesitantly interested in the change from applying quickness on Superspeed to applying it on leap/blast finishers. My biggest question right now is whether the scaling on how much quickness is applied will remain the same. If it does remain the same, I think that this will provide an interesting way to apply the boon, and more importantly leave space for variance in folks' builds- what armor or utilities or weapons they bring, and whether they're using abilities on cooldown or when the mechanics demand. My current daily driver build applies 5 instances of group superspeed, granting 0.533 seconds of quickness per second of cooldown (before alacrity and concentration). Comparing a similar setup- rifle remaining as weapon, two utilities, Function Gyro, and healing skill on cooldown- the change grants 0.555 seconds of quickness per second of cooldown, if the quickness per application granted by Kinetic Accelerators remains the same. If the scaling does remain the same, and this is true, I'm interested in what this change brings, and hopeful that it could breathe a novel mechanic in while promoting build diversity. Attached is an image of the spreadsheet I whipped up. https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/464954155027529732/1117113742434521128/image.png

I'd love to see the Icy Demon Horns or Enchanted Dragon Crown Package rotate back in again.

I was initially very interested to see a cape that had a separate dye channel for the inner lining, but the price is outrageous. No hair with the hood is downright silly. It's nice to have that customization option, as well as tail physics and ears/horns through the hood, but there's no way it's worth such a price hike to me. If there's more 'artisan' items that are at a higher price, I don't care how they look, I'm avoiding them.

The base necro changes are welcome; the Focus tuning is nice, and while the Axe buffs sound like a step in the right direction for me, I’m curious whether main hand Dagger for Necro could see any changes. It fits a similar niche to Axe, being primarily power damage (the 2 stacks of bleed are minor, and do more proccing increased strike damage in the rotation combo than by condi DoT) single-handed. I’m glad that power Necro is getting love, and Axe, but I’ve never heard the Dagger of being accused of being better than the Axe; I barely even hear about it as an alternative. While the Focus buffs work well alongside it, they also work well alongside the improved Axe. Are there any particular reasons main hand Dagger for Necro isn’t seeing any changes that might pull it in line with Axe, and expand the options further from Staff?

The update is very appreciated, as is the news it brings. From the perspective of a mainly PvE Scrapper player, that's a big relief. Even if gyros as a whole change some day, I'll be much happier if they're still a unique gameplay experience in some way.