Caine.8204

I made the suggestion of changing mesmer's distortion to a block instead, and was met with outrage. but yeah, completely agree, "invulnerable" is a bad status and should be removed with something that you can play around.

I had no issues with any of the game modes I played, and I know for a fact that PVE was still heavily populated as well. What killed the GW1 community was the rigidity of the movement (no jumping, fixed maps and pathing) and GW2. Guild Wars 1 was heavily populated in PvP, and I firmly remember queueing as dervish over and over again for random 5s. KvL faction wars were super fun too, and again, I never had an issue getting into KvL either. This thought process that "more game modes = split playerbase" is such a narrow viewpoint. More game modes attract different types of players. If I want a 15v15, but the only thing available is 5v5, I will only play the 5v5 because "it's all there is", or I decide not to pvp altogether. Having a few different game modes is healthy to attract different types of players, and allows variation for the players who enjoy all the modes. Not to mention, the "split playerbase" issue can be solved EASILY with a rotating priority week for a certain queue type ; say, one week you get increased rewards from 5v5, the next week you'd get increased rewards for 15v15. It incentivizes playing multiple game modes as well as drawing new players to PvP for the rewards. Any dev that uses the excuse of a "split playerbase" to not develop or create new content for their game is copping out heavily.

GW2 combat is a joke now compared to what it was. Vanilla GW2 PvP was the best it would ever be. When I started playing this game, I incorrectly assumed it would have the PvP support of Guild Wars 1. I assumed there would be game modes, solo queues, and balance. Boy was I wrong. They dropped PvP within the first year. There are better PvP games coming out. Unfortunately, I'm not allowed to name the game without a forum ban (lol). But it comes out on Feb 11.

Make sure you check your characters' inventories thoroughly; I was awarded a top 50 title in a previous season, couldn't find the item, and when i did find it, it did nothing. Support refused to help for 2 years. find it or lose it. it stops working eventually and support can confirm you earned it, but will not give you the item.

Players tend to migrate towards bunker builds that stay in nodes better than other classes. The problem with "build diversity" in this game stems from the one, single game mode that pvp has to offer, which is conquest. The player that stands in the circle better, wins. Such is why things like Soldier Amulet, Harrier, and Mender's have been removed in pvp. It takes developmental resources to balance PvP, which they have none, so they resort to the blanket removal of amulets in a last-ditch attempt to stop players from a bunker meta that they cannot balance around.

Harbinger is actually more mobile, does more damage, and sustains better than the willbender. Willbender is actually clunky as hell, and deals less damage than core in exchange for mobility, which core was balanced around not having. Trading core for willbender is going to be a damage or sustain loss in exchange for mobility. Necromancer is blessed with having very good and synergistic trait lines. With the added mobility and sustain that Harbinger brings, as well as three great CC abilities (pistol and shroud 4+5), it easily outshines anything the willbender can bring to the table. Its probably even capable of more power damage. Willbender traits just aren't impactful enough to create something powerful, same with virtuoso. Harbinger traits, by comparison, are all impactful and POWERFUL. 240 condi damage on a trait, plus an additional effect of torment in an aoe? thats huge. The trait line has a LOT of damage baked into it.

I am not surprised at all. They have said multiple times in the past that they will increase the pace of balance updates, and each time it comes out slower than the last patches. Whenever you see communication from ANET, just assume they are actually telling you the opposite, and you will not be disappointed. I am not purchasing the next expansion, because why would I? PvP and WvW is in such a sorry state for the past few years. The only thing they care about is making faceroll PvE maps and consider that as "content".

i know when to dodge against a stealthed opponent and they just do it again 2 seconds later. im really rewarded for my good gameplay! good thing i delayed his 9k backstab for two seconds, now i survived! just kidding he spammed me with auto and killed me

I would prefer a system that doesn't allow you to add more damage, only resistance to a specific type. such as burn resist, fear resist, bleed resist, -15% crit to you, etc. or something like "When you are stunned, gain stability 3 seconds" with like a 60s cooldown so you cant be stun chained ONCE and die. stun chained twice sure

see, and i like diversity. this has the potential to add several unique tweaks to builds, and it may even make certain unviable builds somewhat viable by taking away a certain weakness. it would make everyone "different" in their own ways. obviously metas would emerge eventually, but given enough choices and appropriate number balancing, they wouldnt be axed out of the meta completely, as they could counter-meta. say a power meta emerges, where a holo could stack 25 might... you could make him much less effective, and a meta might even emerge that counters holo completely, so now the "meta spec" holo is being countered by players who dont want to deal with it... pushing him down in the meta while technically being a strong build. it allows players not only to toughen up certain aspects of their build that are lacking, but even counter a specific type of meta that emerges. from game-to-game, you could see your effectiveness waver, and there wouldnt be a "one size fits all" build. actually, if they just made it so they were weapon sigils, you wouldnt even need to tweak the game to add that additional slot. they could do as you said: add a sigil that reduces incoming condition damage while you have that weapon set, or makes you immune to chill while you have your greatsword out, etc. even a movement speed sigil or something, where you have you ranged weapon you dont need it, but you whip out your melee weapon and the sigil increases your speed by 25%. diversity is good for mmos. this would add more diversity, and completely throw a wrench at the meta. with lack of choice, metas pop up extremely fast. with additional choices, it would take much longer for metas to emerge, and when they did, people could counter-meta and send it right back to the start, and a new meta would emerge just from player interaction. tl;dr diversity = constantly changing meta = balance Except with the rune effects, everyone just piles onto additional damage done. whichever rune does the most damage, is the one that wins. look at meta battle you will see what im talking about. Rune of Traveler. Rune of Lynx. Rune of Resistance. Rune of Revenant. repeat for infinity. if everyone picks movement speed, that isnt exactly diversity achieved. if everyone picks the rune that gives Resistance and lower condi duration, that isnt diversity achieved either. I would be more in support of a system that targets specific aspects, rather than a blanket buff or nerf to one type. the examples i listed below that specifically target Chill, Cripple, Bleed, Poison, Burn for example, whereas if your build has a real issue with burn core guardians, you could choose to counter it. If your build has low condi removal, you could add a Ring that says "Clear yourself of Bleeding effects when you have more than 5 applications" if you can never deal damage because you're getting weakness spammed on you, you can choose to reduce the effectiveness of Weakness. I would love a system that lets me target a certain aspect to counter. That necro tries to fear lock you? Too bad, I have a "ring" that makes it so Fear effects are inflicted upon the caster instead of myself. All it would take would be 1 fear for him to realize that he can't do that to me. They could even add the effect to the buff bar, so if an enemy player targets you, you have a buff that says "Fear Immune" or "Chill Immune" or "Critical Resistance", or "Bleed Resistant" for example. they could easily add it in the game, and give it a very obvious tell or effect, so that you know what you're going up against as soon as you target the enemy player. They wouldn't even have to add an additional buff slot to the game; they can use the existing one, and just make it gold or something. so "Fear Immune" would just be a gold "Fear" condition on your bar. you would know instantly that fear doesnt work on this guy.

I don't know what a molasses is but it better be fast af, because the necro I know outruns mesmer the rune that buffs swiftness is not a necro-only mechanic, and they reduce their damage done by taking it instead of something else. take off their swiftness = slowest class in the game. should be pretty easy considering they only have access to like 3 boons, and two applications of swiftness altogether if they are running warhorn + spectral walk. you remove the swiftness once, and they cant apply it again for a long time. and dont come at me with the "they have a swiftness trait that gives it whenever they activate shroud". that competes with unblockable staff skills, and no good necro player would even bother replacing that trait.

I'm tired of hearing all these suggested changes from misguided players who got boogered by some condi build, so they decide to come here and ask that "Weakness should reduce condi damage" or "toughness should reduce condi damage" or "rework the entire condi mechanic and make every player relearn how to play this game". You want more ability to resist conditions. OK. Here's my suggestion, and here's how you would do it correctly. Make another item slot in PvP similar to amulet, but here's what this slot does: it allows you to choose a resistance to a specific type of damage. Lets say they open up a "ring slot" in SPvP. Here's examples of how this would work: Ring EX 1: Reduce the duration of Cripple, Chill, and Immob by 25%.Ring EX 2: Reduce the duration of damaging conditions by 25%.Ring EX 3: Reduce the damage of incoming conditions by 25%.Ring EX 4: Reduce your chance to be critically hit by 15%.Ring EX 5: Reduce the duration of daze/stun effects against you by 33%.Ring EX 6: Increase the duration of Boon effects on yourself by 20%.Ring EX 7: Increase the healing done to your character by 15%. this would allow you to further tweak a build to push a certain resistance. for example, if you're a thief, probably want to reduce condition damage taken. If you want this slot to be more unique, it could look like this: Ring EX 1: Cripple cannot reduce you below 100% movement speed. (but will reduce you from 125% to 100% if you have a move speed buff for example)Ring EX 2: Chill no longer slows your movement speed.Ring EX 3: Chill no longer slows the cooldown of your abilities.Ring EX 4: Poison no longer reduces your healing taken.Ring EX 5: You now ignore damaging conditions if they have less than two applications. (1-2 burns deal 0 damage, but full damage on 3+)Ring EX 6: You now ignore the first stack of damaging conditions (1 burn deals 0 damage, 2 burns deal the damage of 1 burn, 3 burns deal the damage of 2 burns..)Ring EX 7: Burn effects now deal 33% less damage to you.Ring EX 8: Bleed effects last 50% of their normal duration against you. also, it could be a give and take mechanic, which would look like this: Ring EX 1: Increases your movement speed by 25%, but Cripple and Chill have increased effects (reducing your speed as if you had 100% movement speed)Ring EX 2: Poison no longer reduces your healing taken, but deals 15% increased damage to you.Ring EX 3: Burn effects now deal 33% less damage to you, but duration of burns on you are increased by 33% (so, the same damage, but spread over a longer duration)Ring EX 3: Damaging conditions deal 20% less damage to you, but your movement speed is slowed when you have more than 4 applications of a single damaging condition.Ring EX 4: You take 25% less damage from critical hits, but deal 33% less damage with critical hits (making your criticals deal 100% damage if you have no ferocity, basically removing the crit mechanic unless you have ferocity)Ring EX 5: You are immune to Weakness, but your power damage is reduced by 10%.Ring EX 6: You are immune to Chill, but your movement speed is reduced to 90%, (so with swiftness, your movement speed would be capped at 123%, instead of 133%).Ring EX 7: Your attacks still land with Blind, but Blind reduces your damage done by 33% while active, and is not removed until the duration wears off. (or is cleansed)Ring EX 8: Attacks against you deal damage as if the target has 8 Might. (so if they have more than 8 Might, its a damage reduction, but if less than 8 might, a damage increase) these are just examples obviously, but it would add additional ways to "counter meta" without huge sweeping mechanic changes to the game. in addition, it would actually allow you to spec into reducing a specific type of damage, whether it be power or condition, or reduce the effects of certain conditions.

conditions were never a supplementary source of damage. condition builds have existed since the start. increasing the duration would just make conditions stack higher than ever before, and make them deal higher dps towards the end of fight (where they deal most of their damage anyway) removing the healing reduction from poison would just make it into bleed. any other blatantly incorrect or misguided suggestions?

good players make these calculations without thinking. a quick glance towards your condis tells you everything you need to know. i don't know how much information you need. and yes, mechanical changes for the pure sake of mechanical changes is a "nothing" change. if they just made it so higher condition damage stacks conditions higher, EVERY player would have to relearn how much damage X amount of conditions deal. if 10 bleeds went down to 3 bleeds, you don't think that would cause mass confusion? where i previously wouldn't cleanse 3 bleeds, now it deals shitloads of damage, so i have to cleanse it. it would make people have to relearn the entire condition mechanic, for the sake of "additional information" that you don't need in the first place. your change will basically reset everything i have learned about the game over its lifespan, how do you possibly think that would benefit anyone but the noobs? it literally would ONLY benefit new or unaware players. everyone who has been playing this game for years would be understandably enraged at this. im going to stop refreshing this topic now. bad suggestion is bad.

Like I said, it still works. Only that now you made the 3 traits even more mandatory. So you can congratulate Anet on it rather than properly balancing the issues. sounds like it got balanced, then. now you have to spec into maximum resist uptime, where you didn't before and it was still effective? congrats anet, i applaud you for this patch, probably the best one i've seen in awhile. you actually made people have to build into something. Because forcing players further more into traiting for Resistance rather than remove it is a /good/ idea. Gj. Kill all the options.it lays the groundwork for increasing the effectiveness of other traits; so you can choose between taking the 10% damage reduction trait, or torment on chill for example, rather than there being one clear choice (like when the trait was -20% damage when you had resist, it was the obvious choice, now its a choice between bunker or damage) if certain trait picks are overperforming, they should get knocked down. it makes the other traits more viable, and increases the options if they bring up the other traits to be more useful. the only issue being that they knock down traits, and kill entire playstyles, and then take 6 months to a year to change anything else. i'd still rather they kill the entire build, than to leave it OP for another year until they make those adjustments. but obviously, the better solution would be to knockdown the overperforming traits at the same time as buffing underperforming traits.