["Transcendent Tempest" Trait only gives 7 seconds of bonus damage, rather then the listed 15]

There's not many steps required to replicate this either, just play Tempest, select the Transcendent Tempest trait, use a overload and hover over the buff, you'll notice it's 7 second instead of the listed 15. (or 6, but I think that's because it instantly goes from 7 to 6 cause like, that's how time works)

[Thoughts on staff changes?]

I feel the need to come back to this post and say that staff isn't as mediocre as I made it out to be, but it could still use some tweaks. Tested on a Golem and noticed I was doing about 2k less damage then Scepter and Focus, now, that'd be fine if staff had more utility, and while I think it does have decent utility Scepter and Focus also have good utility, such as:

- Invincibility with Focus 5 and a Condi cleanse with Focus 4 in Earth 

- Huge CC from Focus 5 and a projectile block with Focus 4  in Air

- A Quick casting, low CD heal from Scepter 3 and another CC skill from Focus 5 in Water

- A single condi cleanse from Scepter 3 in Fire, plus, Focus 4 also combos with Scepter 3 and 4, giving you Might

All that plus MORE damager then staff, staff isn't bad for utilizes, I think water in Staff is better then Scepter and Focus, and you have better access to bleed in Staff's Earth, but you still do more damage camping fire in Scepter and Focus so the Bleed isn't that big of a deal. Sure Staff has more range but you're gonna be in Melee range for at least part of the fight for your Overloads in Tempest or Primordal Stance in Weaver.

So what can be done? Anet absolutely SHOULDNT nerf Scepter and Focus to bring it to staff's level, instead, I can see them doing one of two things to make Staff perfect, not in a sense of it's OP, but in a sense it fills it's role perfectly, those two possibly being:

1. Keep it's slightly lower damage compared to Scepter and Focus, but make it more utilitarian, give it more accesses to boons, condi cleanses, that sorta thing

2. Buff it's damage even more to make it the be all end all Ele DPS weapon for both Condi and Power

I think either option would work, it's damage isn't that much lower compared to Scepter and Focus so making it more utilitarian could help justify that, and buffing it's damage would make it the go to DPS option and instead make Scepter and Focus the utilitarian option. On that same vein if Anet were to make Scepter and Focus the utilitarian option it may need more accesses to boons and such, but that could also mess with Warhorns niche.

Idk, food for though, I'm hardly a pro Ele main, hell it's my most recent class, I was spurred to level it thanks to the buffs to staff, keep in mind that this is all from the perspective of a hybrid Cele/Viper's Tempest in open world PvE! I know Staff has been a good power weapon in WvW for a while and I can hazard a guess it's not being used at all in any sort of completive strikes or raids.

[Thoughts on staff changes?]

I don't have any formal testing, but I tried Cele/Viper's condi staff tempest in place of my usual Scepter + Focus in regular open world content, I noticed I wasn't doing as much damage with staff, I don't have any numbers but if I had to guess maybe I'm doing 3k less? Maybe 4k? 2k even? 

Thing is, Staff doesn't feel too much better from a Open World perspective, my current Tempest build can Solo champs easy and does pretty good damage to everything else, and that's without most boons or something like Spotter, so for now I don't see a point in staff, Scepter and Focus seem better for both single target and groups.

This is JUST on tempest too btw, idk how the other specs will fare.

And one more thing, my build is a open world optimized build, so I'm not gonna be benching super high numbers for at the very least my gear isn't tailored to a DPS build, maybe staff will perform better in instanced content, but for open world, I'm not feeling it.

[Well, Steam complaints are starting to flood in...]

This happens with everything new on the steam forums, it's nothing out of the ordinary.

Dolts will complain for 3 days, then things will start settling down and normalcy will set in, always happens.

[Alliances and lopsided coverage and dominant green]

Green has been steamrolling my team too, we're always outnumbered and there's been way less comms since the beta

idk what's happening, back when I belonged to Gate of Madness I knew my server was pretty decent, not the best, sure, but not getting constantly crapped on like now, makes WvW so un fun

[Which is worse: weaver or chrono]

I hear Weaver is pretty good with Celestial, but idk, I'm thinking of making  a Cele weaver but I'm afraid I might just be wasting a armour set 

[Most well liked mount skins]

The Chocobo Roadrunner Raptor skin is awesome, it dyes wonderfully and even makes new bird like chirps and squeaks, has to be my absolute favourite mount skin. 

Special mention to the Sunrise Macaw, you can colour it in so many cool ways, I've actually been complimented twice on the colours I use for it! 

[I don’t get why folks are excited by steam release]

There are toxic players in every game, it's unavoidable, but GW2 is pretty good, been playing it for a few months now, and most of everyone is nice and willing to chat and help out.

GW2's community doesn't really foster a toxic environment, everyone is as I said, mostly nice and willing to help out, even if toxic players do join, they'll be drowned out or they'll see no point to be toxic and vile to others as everyone is nice to each other, it will rub off on new players.

[Hammer need more than just a little buff]

Realistically we'll need to wait and see how it's damage is when the patch comes out to come to any definitive conclusions, but I kinda agree we might need to see it's anim's sped up, they're so slow I'm not sure a damage buff will help. that much.

All from a PvE perspective btw, it's still good in WvW

[August 23 Balance Update Preview]

It's really nice to see tons of damage and other buffs to a ton of different classes and weapons in PvE.

Rev hammer is pretty lackluster in PvE so the damage buff on a few of it's skills might make it a actually viable option and not just "welp, I'm not playing Renegade, guess I need to run Hammer as my only ranged weapon :(". Also good to see buffs to Greatsword, Vindicator is fun as all hell as a spec but it's damage felt a little underwelming to me.

The buffs to Daredevils auto damage is also nice, though I still think that Staff 3 and 4 could use some work, at minimum a initiative cost reduction, at most a rework of those skills, but this is absolutely a step in the right direction.

Warrior getting all those damage buffs is also amazing to see given how it's been shafted HARD recently, it's been regularly on the lower end of DPS for a long time too. 

And Ele staff get's constantly meme'd on by every Ele main I talk with, so the buffs too it must be very apricated, I don't hear good things about Weaver so I'm sure they're happy about that too.

There's still issues, Engi Rifle is probably the biggest atm, but these buffs are 100% a step in the right direction.

I'm sure for once in a while, there'll be more people looking forward to this patch, rather then dreading it.

 

[GEMSTORE REQUESTS: New Items; Items offered again - [Merged]]

Please, pretty please, give us a Kangaroo Springer skin, I'm shocked we don't have one already, it'd be PERFECT

[How would you improve Staff 3 and 4?]

I honestly don't know how you could improve them, they're overshadowed in every game mode and every scenario, DD kit already has everything the class needs in most scenarios, and if not someone else will fill the gaps. You have76 no reason to use them 99% of the time/

Rework them to be able apply boons? decrease their imitative costs? Maybe rework 3 into being a general condi cleanse and stunbreak and not just for one condition? Make 4 leave a cloud of blinding smoke behind that blinds those who stay in it like pistol 5? Maybe make it into a short timed block (half a second, 1 second) that rewards endurance if you time it right? 

That's just me brainstorming, I wanna know what others think as I'm sure there'd be a few ways to make both 3 and 4 more useful.

"But why do you think those two skills are overshadowed?" Alright, I'll explain myself. 

3 is a Stunbreak and Evade, yet you're never gonna need a evade when 5 is much better on demand evade and you have Shadowstep/Haste (Take your pick) as stunbreaks. There's also the immobilize but why would you want to make your enemy slower? DD is a up close and personal class, why make something slower when you're just gonna be in their face anyway?

4 Is a blind and vuln, but DD auto already applies Vuln, and it's a core part of DD's rotation when you're waiting for inactive to come back to spam 2 or use 5 if you're out of endurance, and  a blind? For 4 initiative? When 2 costs 3 for loads of damage?

initiative is also a problem for 3 too, both skills cost too much intative and don't give you enough utility compared to 2 and 5. 

[Let us dismount Springer mid-air]

On 8/5/2022 at 9:29 AM, Sunchaser.9854 said:

Oh it already can, glad to see someone trying it out! Just press the dismount button before you finish the Springer hop and you can get to dismount it midair which lets this skilled Griffin user get a full speed swoop off 5% slope terrain and a Springer / bond of vigor combo. 

 

I wouldn't expect to get a full length swoop for the average player on a flat unless someone is maybe 30% mount energy chip and very experienced with the bird. But its a fun mount that can fly in a lot of areas pretty quick just as long as you can use 1-2 Springer jumps and have two mount /radial mount keybinds.

 

My Springer/last radial mount is set to z for instance, and my griffin is set to v. So I press z, jump, v, dive. Not too bad. 

I have another tip for this, now with EoD and the Jade Bot, and with you being able to dismount Griff mid air since a few patches ago, you can use it's Gliding Booster to give yourself even more height! 

What I like to do is Springer -> Dismount -> Mount Griff and flap once -> Dismount and Glide and Boost with the Jade Bot -> Bond of Vigor -> Dive, can also add in Bond of Faith but idk if that even helps

The Jade Bot boost is a HUUUUUUUUUUUUUGE help, I've never seen any Griffon pilots mention it, yet I preform this literally every session I play of GW2. I was able to get a full speed dive outside the Black Citadel bank and cooking station doing this method. On completely flat ground.

And I say I've never seen anyone mention it, but I've never met another Griffon aficionado in game before, might be common knowledge already haha.
 

[last patch removed my key mapping. [Merged]]

This happened to me too, I was just about to change it until I tabbed out to this post and it crashed my game, action cam only goes forward and back 

I'm so confused, is this a bug? Or just a oversight?

[I don't want to be rude, but the writing...]

Since Dragonstorm got brought up, I need to mention that despite that being a hugely important event the only lines I remember are from Brahm and one from Rytlock and can quote them verbatim: 

"growl"
"TIME; HERE WE FIGHT"

"WE, ARE, PRIMORDUS"

"WE, ARE, FIRE!"

"DEFEND FIRE, THEN KILL ICE'
'KILL JORMAG"

"What do you think we're trying to do, kid?!"

It's sooooooooo over the top but it's so fitting for Primorduses "destroy everything" goal, I love it, but at the the same time, it's a bit troubling those are the only lines I remember from Dragonstorm, everything else fell a bit flat imo.

[What's one thing going in the right direction, and one thing that isn't?]

What's going bad? Class balance

What's going good? Anything that isn't class balance, even the story 

  

[so what things did you love to see in the guild wars 2 community]

How open random people are to conversations 

Back when I played FF14 everyone always kept to themselves, I don't wanna say it felt abrasive but honestly it really did feel like that. You  could be sitting in the hub city with over 2 dozen people AFK'ing at the main spot with countless others running through and no one says nothing for the whole time you're there, and anyone who does say anything gets ignored.

Here, you say something, or ask a question. it's almost guaranteed at least one other will join in, and the best part? Most of the time it's positive too! Even in the PvP lobby where the convos can be special (or autistic that has has been said MULTIPLE times in that chat, mods don't ban me again pleeeeeeeeease), people will chat about whatever and generally be positive about it, there's not much toxicity and it feels amazing coming from a MMO where toxic casual-ism was baked into every conversation.

I should also add I don't feel worried I'm gonna get banned every time I speak, back in FF14 the GM's were bloody brutal, herwe, there's been no really toxic convos but people have sweared and talked about more mature things openly, including myself, yet here I am, still being able to talk in all chats, it's soooooooooooo wonderful.

 

[1600 Gems for a Jade Bot Skin]

Just popping in to say that yep, 1600 for the Jade Bot of all things is insane, this seems like something that'd cost 400 gems

I also think it's silly, a cat plushy? Really? Why not a Aetherblade steampunk themed one? It'd be WAAAAAY more fitting considering the story (however memey/crap it may be at times) and the meta in Seitung 

[How to win 1v1's/Duels?]

Title, I have ZERO CLUE how to win duels and idk where to start.

Sometimes I'll go into the arena in the pvp lobby and just duel people, but most of the time I lose and when I win idk how I managed. I get by in WvW though, I mostly stick to zergs but sometimes I'll find myself in small groups of a dozen or less and I fare fine in those too, even in 2v2's or 3v3's I do well, once I won a duel too but again, idk how.

I play Thief and Mesmer in PvP if that matters, in case there's classes that are better or worse for duels, I also plan to level Rev to use Dragoo - I mean Vindicator as my next class

[Fashion Wars vs. The User Interface]

On 7/3/2022 at 11:53 AM, AliamRationem.5172 said:

Add custom "outfits".  By this I mean that the player can create and store a specific look and then reapply it to an equipment template at the push of a button.  Possible interaction with transmute charges, e.g. 1 transmute charge to store a custom outfit in addition to the transmute cost to create each individual item within the outfit, but free to recall from custom outfit storage.

Please this, a wardrobe feature we can use to store and select from pre made sets of transmog would be a HUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGE QoL feature. Surprised GW2 doesn't have this already tbh, it'd make switching your outfits less of a hassle, and depending on how they handle it, less costly too.

[New playeable races]

2nd time I've seen this thread, and its the 2nd time I'll say that I'd kill for Tengu as a playable race, I think I would swap all my characters over to them, or it'd be a split between Charr and Tengu. There's already lots of diffirent Tengu's in diffirent attire and faces in game, the ground work is already there for Anet. 

BUT. and this is a very big BUT, if Anet needs to cut corners, or otherwise half as a new race to get them in, I'd rather not have a new race all together. Played FF14 before I quit to play GW2, and the two new races they used could only pick from one gender at launch and TO THIS DAY they cannot wear helms, despite both races likely being easier to fit helms on then bloody Charr.

I'm not saying say Tengu won't be able to wear helms if Anet suddenly decides to add them, but its just about other ways they can manage to F them up, like imagine no voice acting for the likely over thousand voice lines for the commander.

And to be fair while, while the balance team for GW2 is a joke, the races look great overall and the fashion choices in this game are pretty awesome too, but still, I'd want Anet to go big or go home

 

Spoiler

And I say look great overall from my lens of seeing races apart from Charr, I tried playing Sylvari, like honestly, I love their lore, but I literally couldn't and had to make a Charr instead, I felt so small as Slyvari and I missed not having a tail, I'm not even a furry 😕

 

[Making gold in WvW?]

And mods, before you put this post in WvW, I genuinely wasn't sure if this should go there or here, but since this is literally a case of players helping players, here seemed more appropriate.

annnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnyway, I recently got into WvW by accident, I wanted some gear from dungeons and didn't want to spend hours waiting for a group that's willing to bring someone new to them, so I said that i'll just do the reward tracks in WvW for the pieces. 

But now I'm having a quite a bit of fun in WvW and I wanna play after I get what I need, my only issue is gold. I mainly play open world PvE and I make good gold just by playing, and in WvW idk where to start and could use some advice,  and yes, I did look this up online, but anything on making gold in WvW is years old or too shallow to be of use.

[What now?]

I'm not gonna quit, but I won't be buying gems with real money, and I suggest everyone else dissatisfied do the same

Vote with your wallet, people

[New banners are a disgusting joke]

How did they manage to make them worse then I thought they would be, the fact you need to PICK THEM UP TO MANUALLY REPOSITION THEM invalidates what  l i t t l e hope boon warrior had

Not like it had any hope to begin with, 4 seconds of swiftness every 60 seconds, what a joke

[Follow up to the June 28 Balance Update Preview]

This post feels hollow, "We know we messed up, yet we're going through with it anyway" is the summary of it. 

I'm also a bit concerned about them defending the one dev we all know, this dev has said personally bias effects their balancing, and that they were excited to see the salt from the reactions to this patch, I'm not enthusiastic with someone like that balancing this game.