Baltzenger.2467

Please Cal, reconsider this, some links are in a really bad shape, this is not a good time to this kind of things.

Has it been mentioned that grenadier effect (grenades travel faster) should be baseline?

@"Stephane Lo Presti.7258" This are issues I have with the current system: Since the original gear setup and build setup has been replaced with templates, you cannot change equipment or traits/skills without changing a template. I think this should be corrected ASAP, templates should be aside the original system, not replace it, what's the point of registering templates if every time you swap something (without wanting that change to be permanent) you are changing something that is supposed to be a stored setup? Beyond being able to setup buttons for swapping gear, I believe each gamemode (PvE, WvW and PvP) should have some sort of "memory" as to which template or setup you used the last time you entered that mode, so we don't need to manually change setups each time we swap modes (given that previously the system had this memory, it's easy now to forget that you need to re-select your build when you enter each mode, leading to annoying mistakes) I think that by this point is clear that I expect this new feature to add to what we previously had, without replacing it. Additionally, things that I would like to see added or changed about the new system: The price is too high, I find no point for account-wide build storage, and the price of templates is just too high for what it is, while yes, you can compare a gear template with a bag slot, it has both pros and contras against just adding a new bag slot, on one side it allows you to quickly equip what you have stored, on the other hand, it can't be used for storage of any class of items, so I think that pricing it above a bag slot is bad, if anything, for good faith, it should be priced less. In a dream world, you could keep the price but make it an accountwide unlock. Build templates on the other hand have no reason to be priced so high, it is basically a macro, that offers no advantage at all beyond convenience, please consider pricing it fairly instead. what's the point of account wide build storage? the build templates are just a text, I don't understand this feature, I mean is nice to have it integrated, but at the same time, why are your charging for it? That's it for now, I support you guys, but you should be more careful next time, you had an entire month to listen to the concerns of players, and you went with it anyways, of course people is pissed.

@Swagger.1459 that sounds really good! But I don't think that the scope of the next balance patch involves such mechanical changes, I remember that the devs posted the parameters that they're working with (such mechanical changes are beyond them). @"Cal Cohen.3527" Hey!Good to see that you are looking at this issue. I'd say that reducing the target cap back to 5 will affect compositions on wvw, but I don't know if it will ultimately work as a band aid before the big shake up. Reducing the cap is important, but I'm inclined to think that the treatment to such high AoE fighting styles should be similar to what you have done with spellbreaker. If the shade skills "debuff" enemies in such a way that they cannot be affected twice (or thrice) by shades, as in, once you hit them, they get the debuff and if another scourge plants a shade on top of yours, their skills will target the same enemy, but won't affect it, that would greatly reduce the impact of having 10 shades on top of a group, in the same way that stacking Wind of Disenchantment is of no use, spreading out shades offers better counterplay, and promotes diversity within squads. I've no idea if adding or removing "debuffs" from skills is within the scope of what you're working with though, if not, I hope that you can both get the skill to a manageable level before the big shakeup, without alienating necromancer players too much, we need every player that we can get on WvW right now!

@"Irenio CalmonHuang.2048" Very happy with the proposed changes, but is it possible that you give us a little bit more information about changes on warrior's tactics line? I think that it's a bit hard to assess the impact of the changes on warrior's warhorn without knowing the direction tactics will take. I already started theoricrafting with what we've seen, and I find it unsubstantial, tactics line is just too subpar, even if you want to go on a full support route with warrior (which could be cool), there's not much space for more support on current compositions, and it's not really a matter of not having competitive options, the thing is, as long as we are constructing the metagame in wvw in terms of 5 ppl groups (say, FB-SCRAPPER-NECRO-NECRO-X) then there's not much space for new or different roles. If you nerf scrapper to the point where it won't be used, we will just replace it with another FB or another Scourge, if you nerf FB to the point where it becomes really weak, we will just take more FB to compensate. Stability is too important. If more effects affect 10 players, we might start running less of those classes (as they will cover more people) and open new slots for different roles, but it has to be done in such a way that we won't be tempted to keep the same composition but gain double the benefit. (no idea how that could be achieved in wvw, might have to do with a wider look over the metagame). It's a similar problem to what we have in PvE raids in fact, and right now there is quite a bit of diversity there, at least on the more casual groups, where you see a firebrand for quickness, a renegade for groupwide alacrity, a chrono for both tanking and quickness, a druid for heals, might and spirits, and warrior for banners.If you want to achieve similar results on WvW, you should probably look at that. I would be tempted to bring tempest auramancer if I don't have to compare it directly with scrapper, for instance. Maybe make Gyroscopic Acceleration make wells affect 10 players, make auras more powerful or give something extra (the potential of auras is that they are not boons, so it's hard to interact with them). Same with warhorn and warrior, if I want to bring a support warrior, that maybe strips boons with spellbreaker, I have to ask myself, "do I prefer whatever warhorn/tactics brings, or do I want a perfectly decent damage dealer that also stips boons?" Or maybe we don't want it to take spellbreaker's slot, maybe something else, but you need to think in terms of not just what they bring to the table, but what we will take away to give it space. I liked that warhorn will increase damage on the next 2 hits for allies, that's a somewhat unique effect that with coordination can make interesting gameplay. At this point all I need is that the tactics line offers something worth building around. The obvious direction is making something with shouts or making something with combos. Combos are very outdated in the game, outside of some niche situations (like blasting for stealth), people don't care much for combos anymore, and shouts are in a tough spot. They compete with stances, which the warrior tends to need in order to stay at melee range with enemy groups, and they themselves don't bring anything that you already don't get plenty of from other classes. I hope that as you look at tactics line, you too look at shouts. On the other hand, phalanx Strenght does need some love. It doesn't have many synergies with the rest of the line, and the effect is outdated by current standards. Maybe make it so that aside from sharing the might, when you gain might you heal around you for each stack (not yourself tho, to not compete with Might Makes Right), and when a threshold is met, you give stability to allies? Move it to master column and you could have a build between warhorn trait-phalanx strength-vigorous shouts. I would care about blasting fire fields with the warhorn, and about using For Great Justice (it should cover the threshold and give stab around you, you can give the trait an internal CD so it doesn't compete with Stand Your Ground!).Well, this are just some ideas, hopefully you can share a bit more about your plans with the Tactics line. edit: I would love a take on phalanx Strenght that cares about how many warriors are on your group, that's an effect unexplored on the game.

You get it @Matoro.9708 , core engi does have a cohesion on its aesthetics, is just that the skills are so bad. Like, for example grenades, why is there a trait that makes them travel faster? Do rangers need to aim their arrows? Do deadeyes need to calculate the wind resistance and ballistics of their proyectiles? No, of course not, it's a fantasy game, why not make grenades connect easily? Make traits something interesting, not about fixing the flaws of base design. Of course, we could go on and on about different engi skills, we should, maybe, but that's it for now.

I disagree with barrier being "godmode", it's a form of sustain, and more often than not, a bad one.

Sometimes I think that this attempts at exposure and "teaching" end up making people more angry at each other, and separate them further.

Would your gameplay change as a result?In regards to engineer, not really, reducing the amount of cleanse on cleansing gyro like this won't kill the support build, granting it reveal is actually pretty good because stealth got really predominant after last patch. Increasing the CD of stealth gyro kind of makes it worse for the rest of the players, because stealth bombing strats were being used because the CD was short enough to use it more than once during a long fight, now this might make it either unrealiable enough for commanders to not consider it, or it stays the same, overall not a great solution (if stealth bombing is something that should be checked on, I think bringing more reveal is the right kind of solution, not really making stealth gyro feel even more underwhelming, the skill outside of organized group fights is now pretty bad tbh).Changes on warrior seem good, but still not enough to even build around them, I think tactics as a line needs a good rework, maybe shift away from the "reviving allies" effect, and bringing old traits on par with current standards, as of now, I want my spellbreakers and berserkers to both be damage oriented, and leave the support to other classes. Do you feel these changes would improve or worsen the state of the game?For the most part improve, except for the change on stealth gyro, which I think is the wrong way to address its usage. Are you looking forward to these potential changes?To be honest, I'm always interested in balance changes, so yes, but I could look forward for them even more if more meaningful things were addressed. What are your concerns with this set of changes?As of right now, I think change on stealth gyro might slow things down a bit (having groups waiting for the CD to re enter a fight), which is not good. What consequences do you expect would come from these changes?As said before, some of the changes giving reveal on demand will be good (good counterplay to stealth bombing), others might make waiting between fights longer. Overall I think though that this are pretty minor changes, so I'm a bit disappointed.

@"Stephane Lo Presti.7258" Regarding WvW:At this stage, you could consider bringing back old practices like collaborative development initiatives, it is clear to me that there is a dedicated playerbase for WvW that is greatly invested in the gamemode, with plenty of opinions and ideas as to what the gamemode needs (and specially regarding things that are needed now, and that are needed in the future). Beyond the vague idea of alliances being a top priority that we will talk about in the future (as you've said, when it does release it will be a transitory process), we need a more concrete roadmap of what your plans are, ideas, or lack of, regarding the mode. A reason to play now, and to keep playing towards the point where world restructuring is implemented. Beyond rewards and moving pieces, the WvW community feels abandoned, even if some updates have happened to the mode, there is a lack of clear communication, and clear direction, to keep players invested. Please consider this, we don't expect you to make something appear out of thin air, we want a reason to believe that if we stick around there are great things to be expected, until you decide to stop developing the game. I personally was expecting at least some talk about new skills or traits in the future being added with the new saga, because that kind of things affect the whole game including WvW, and the lack of that was the source of my disappointment. I want world restructuring, it would improve things in wvw, but that alone is not a solution to all of the problems or lack of incentives that prevent the mode to thrive, so even if you say it is a top priority, what I understand is that it is due to the difficulty of developing it, but not because it is what is most urgent to be improved. Scaling rewards sounds great, the question is "which rewards will be scaled", as you'll quickly notice, wvw players soon reach a point in which there are no new things on the horizon to be excited about. Talk to us, do AMAs, do collaborative development initiatives, tell us what you expect from the mode, what's you plan for it beyond fixing imbalances that are caused by the lack of players (world restructuring). GW2 has confounded epic with emotional, and forgotten how to be epic for a long while.

Put a huge beast/kongor/roshanlike creature at the middle (a big wyvern would be cool), hard to kill, impossible to solo. Kill goes to the last hit like beasts(svanir/uthahein) in sPVP, and those who get the kill get a buff, this buff makes you revive if you die in combat. Yes, this seems both pve like and taken out of a moba, but in games like dota or hon, this type of objective encourages fights around it, makes fights hazardous, while also giving an incentive for groups to get it in order to tackle a difficult objective.

It might come down to the need of having better tells about where the action is beyond the orange swords, contested objectives and marked enemies. Private tag is a great thing to have when you need it, but since it was implemented I've noticed how some squads that used to at least point the presence of allies on a map, have disappeared, and thus the casual player entering a map sees no tag and leaves. If your server is not particularly organized it will suffer because of this, not just because pugs won't know where to go, but because sometimes more than one invi tag is running around, not communicating, not knowing where your allies are pressuring, which does affect strategies. So maybe Arenanet could find some other ways of showing in the map where players are, without spoiling an invisible tag. Current tells tend to point towards the enemy presence, maybe knowing how many allies are inside each controlled objective could help determine presence of allies. Of course this gets also easily solved by just making a community and talking to each other.

remove "presence of the keep" type of effects on objectives, replace with increased rewards not in the form of magic find, but tangible benefits that make players want to control territories. remove dodge on mount, make it cceable, increase hp. It should be a transport that helps getting back to fights faster, not running away from them. iterate on desert borderlands, it can be a good map if fixed. iterate on ruins system. implement alliance system, not just because of population imbalances, but because guilds should be at the heart of the mode. rework wvw related guild missions. They suck. Make tiers mean something beyond just who are you playing against, servers (or alliances in the future) also need collective objectives to want to improve, to want to make the effort to organize and help their less experienced players, you create communities around that kind of things, pride(server) was not enough to sustain the gamemode. Anet has the opportunity to follow their design philosophy of wanting every player be welcomed by realizing that players are the most important resource to any server, if handled properly. When you fester in rangers and taggers that die after one push, you're wasting potential good wvw players. improve shattered aegis, c'mon

Impact savant only works with high power builds, making it compete with quickness and extra power seems like a recipe for making either of the traits never used. At this point we might as well make impact savant give a flat amount if barrier when performing a blast finisher or something like that, so it can interact with non power builds. If adaptive armor is going to give toughness Inthink it should give it only when you have barrier, and add the extra condi damage reduction. Rocket charge imo should be improved in how the skill moves you on the map, because it does not interact well with some lag, sometimes you just jump in place and dont advance at all. If anet fixes thst I dont even care for more evade frames, all I want is tha the skill does something consistent and to know exactly where I'll end up after using it. Missing from your ideas is what to do with function gyro, as it is right now it is a glorified lightning field with the potential extra effect. I muvh rather have the ape reveal, given how rampant stealth currently is on wvw.

I was pretty unhappy with the changes to scrapper, pure melee specs have a tough time outside of sPvP due to how easy is to kite people around. I don't think the spec is dead, in fact I would say that the support build kind of improved, superspeed on blasts and how bulkwark gyro works now is enough to warrant taking scrapper over some core line. Said that, the spec itself doesn't feel support oriented, the infamous impact savant does nothing for either support or condi builds, and the traits are very underwhelming. I've played for the past couple of weeks with a ton of different approaches, from glassy to tanky bruiser, and being a melee oriented spec is tough. A thief should never die against you unless they're focusing on another enemy, a ranger can easily not just escape you in every way possible (from invisibility to the plenty movility skills they have access to) but is also capable of downing you without you even having the chance to produce barrier. Revenants, elementalists and mesmers have an easy time doing the same, and the only classes you can engage in similar combat are warrior, necromancer and guardian, as they are also melee oriented in most current builds. I don't believe that in this game every class should be good against every class, but even when you compare it with similarly oriented classes, the scrapper feels like a niche spec, not very well designed around the strenghts and weaknesses of the core class. See for instance how well flamethrower synergizes with the lower line of traits on scrapper (might on stab, extra damage with superspeed, swiftness and stab, access to quickness on might), all of this works pretty well with flamethrower, it has access to the right amount of stab and might to proc those traits, also swiftness and blasts to produce superspeed. It should be the goto skill to bring with a scrapper, but the autoattack is so diluded in multihits that unless you go full glass, you receive more damage from retaliation than what you do against the enemy. The damage is consistent, yes, but too low to synergize well with impact savant, making the synergies it does have, to feel underwhelming. So lets say that you want to make it work and be the promised juggernaut with scrapper, you bring firearms, it works well with close quarters and flamethrower, and you bring the mandatory alchemist line, to reach the 25 stacks of might, have some stunbreaks and extra stab. It should be a working build, if healing gyro is improved back up, flamethrower gets its hits number reduced and the damage increased, maybe even increase the radius on some skills (FT 2), imo make flamewall be a straight line from the caster and not perpendicular, and a bit wider.I can see it bringing something different from core and holo, with consistent damage output and barrier to compensate for the lack of health and regeneration.