Thorne Templar.6784

Thats actually a really cool build, I hope it doesn't get lost to the void.

Good to know. I did not know this was a thing. In that case, either method would work and not be too overpowered.

Because elementals are timer based, we wouldn't be able to pause the timer when mounting, as then the skill would cooldown and you could dismount, summon, and remount to pause another timer, thus getting FAR more than the intended number of elementals. This means that the best way to implement this would be to just keep track of all the timers still in place and have them keep going until you dismount. Once you do, whatever elementals that would still be alive if you hadn't mounted during that time would resummon with whatever amount of time they would have had left.

Some of my own thoughts on mesmer phantasms: Consistency and ease of use: The sword phantasm will frequently miss if the target moves slightly out of the way. I'd like some sort of update to its attack to make it more reliable. The focus phantasm's whirling defense attack has such a long cast time that it isn't super practical against weaker enemies that die quickly. However, it also blocks (reflects if traited) projectiles, so I wouldn't necessarily make it faster just because of that. I agree that making it ground targeted would make it more skillful to use. The phantasmal defender utility isn't super useful or fun in my opinion, and I haven't really heard much about it in any context. I might make the taunt effect stronger/make the damage from blocking attacks scale more. (Another thought is giving everyone affected by the phantasm a second or two of quickness to make them attack the phantasm faster and get more blocks in the limited time.) Another option for this utility is just rework it into something else entirely. Overall fun level The staff phantasms just do vulnerability, which is fine, but not as interesting as it could be. I'd like for it to do additional damage/conditions if some other condition is satisfied to make them more interesting. The pistol phantasm is fine. However, it'd be fun to have it summon two phantasms instead that split the same amount of damage between them to give it more of an "ambush" type of feel for the weapon. Other ideas I couldn't fit elsewhere: It'd be interesting to have a phantasm that focused on giving boons instead of doing damage (maybe a ground targeted utility skill). Phantasms only there for visual purposes: What if there were phantasms that "hold down" the null field or feedback bubble?

Yes, we do love getting new playstyles added to the game, but the cost of balancing them all is growing too. I'd prefer that the current options get fleshed out more and balanced better. Some of the newer specs like Willbender, Untamed, Virtuoso, and Harbinger all have very boring or one note traits that are either "Gain X% of your Y as Z" or "Get X boon whenever you do Y thing." These sorts of things are okay, but I'd prefer more meaningful interactions such as Ranger's quick draw or Chronomancer's chronophantasma that fundamentally alter things further from the original designs. Another thing is that since GW2 has started to focus more on roles, I'd like to see each current elite spec (that doesn't already fulfill a nice clear role) to be able to perform a role better. In that vein I'd love for some of the less fun boon-granting methods (that usually result in you spamming most of your utility skills off cooldown) to be made more interactive.

Agreed, this is a very outdated design that is very deserving of a rework. Since we've seen similar things happening to weapons like Ele's scepter and Engi's rifle, I really hope Guard's scepter can get some love too.

I think people were concerned about accidentally going too far into bad things, but that's on them, not the skill. The actual functionality of these two skills isn't exactly for their engage potential.

Virtuoso definitely does great damage (fully ranged as well) when put with the proper supports. It generally has a pretty easy rotation, and I hit 30k dps with little effort. However, I really only find it fun in instanced pve or in large meta groups where you're guaranteed to have outside healing and key boons like quickness, alacrity, and might. Otherwise, I find it to be quite squishy in solo situations, and chrono and mirage have better access to more reliable defensive tools while not losing as much damage. (Being able to supply your own boons is nice.) As for competitive modes, I don't play pvp as much, but in wvw the projectile hate is so prevalent that virtuoso can't do much beyond some smaller scale fights.

I was playing around with the new hammer changes on my dragonhunter and I noticed that spear of justice isn't immediately resetting on kill with renewed justice as it has been. I tested this on single enemies and groups of mobs with the same results. It remains on hunter's verdict for a period of about 10-15 seconds after a kill. Using hunter's verdict flips the skill back over to spear of justice, but then of course puts it on cooldown.

Fishing should be a relaxing pastime. With the quick jaunts back and forth to continue working on collections for a painfully short amount of time (I can't help the wordplay, I'm a mesmer), it's difficult to say that fishing is relaxing when your available time is five minutes of every hour. Also, the issue of enemy attacks is quite frustrating to me. I can hardly settle down at a node without some random mob tearing my boat apart. I have no way of knowing how my skiff is doing when I'm standing on top of it, which makes it hard to gauge if I should deal with the threat. Beyond this, I have to leave my skiff and burst down this enemy and get back on to maintain my fishing party buff within 10 seconds. The fact that I have to leave my skiff is annoying. I could easily use ranged attacks, but shooting down into the water always says that the enemy is invulnerable. If these problems could be fixed, I would say that fishing could return to the blissful peace that it initially was when I started my journey in Seitung Province.

This is something that needs to happen, otherwise I fear this pass will fade into a niche pick rather than a staple of any vip lounge pass.