Kris Knives.8513

My personal preferred solution would be to rebalance the kits as ammo skills and then give the engineer a weapon swap like other classes. I think this could play our similar to the Firebrand. Preferably this would part of a larger kit redesign. If we're going a little outside of the box each kit, when empty, after a short cool down the skill could flip to a reload skill where the character re-arms the weapon and gaining a small buff effect, similar to a mantra. I think this could make an interesting cadence to combat and allow for larger more impactful kit effects due to the risk reward. ---------------- As for elementalists I'd suggest giving them a swap, but have it share cool downs between the weapons so you couldn't spam out fire and then swap to lay down even more fire attacks. In order to balance this with conjured weapons I'd like to see those similarly turned into ammo style kits with the intent of them being weapons to switch to quickly for a situational burst of power. The weapon in questions only regenerates ammo when you are attacking with the corresponding element, equipping a kit now counts as changing attunement for purpose of triggering abilities (counting as fully attuning to a new weapon for weavers) and no longer summons a second bundle item for allies. Greatsword in this scenario becomes a four element weapon which only charges when you change attunements. That or replace them entirely with a new line, I've always felt they were an awkward fit with the elementalist. ----------------- Really though adding any sort of resource mechanic could work and they could go in some more interesting directions if they wanted to invest the time and effort. If heat wasn't already already the cornerstone of the holosmith that could have been a very cool way to manage kits. All these transform effects which replace your skills are basically just extra fancy kits when it comes down to it. We currently lack a two stage resource mechanic such as you build up static using your weapon powers and then your utility powers consume static (we have a few which check the resource state such as Heat on holosmith but don't actually consume them). That could be a good space for kits/conjured weapons to play around in if A-net was looking to make larger changes at some point.

I think this conversation is over looking something; minions are a valuable noob feature. When your first start playing this game, it can be over whelming. It takes a while to master GW2, particularly when coming from other games. Many skills and buffs operate in a time frame of 1-5 seconds and seem worthless to new players just learning how GW2 combat works. Minions are something new players can see immediate value in no mater what terrible stats they have and help survivability while leveling. I myself couldn't really master dodging until I played necro and could focus on damage avoidance and positioning. The fact that they have little value in high end play is, in my mind, a feature not a bug encouraging new players to eventually move past them and explore other options. While I think they could be improved and it would be nice to both shut down AFK necro farms and make minions more interesting/exciting, I don't think it is fair to say they have no place in the game currently. If they do decide to improve minions, I hope they keep this in mind. I know for a fact at least two players whom would have quick GW2 if not for minions acting as training wheels until they were ready to take more active abilities having mastered the basics.

Well the issue is any new feature like that would be part of a new expansion and would have be something that would draw people into the game. At this point, with GW2 being an older MMO primarily funded by direct sales basically every release is like a comeback album. Housing has already been little more than a nice to have in most MMOs, not something people join games for. Unless they come up to revolutionize housing in a way that would make people sit up and pay attention, it probably isn't worth it since housing it fairly resource intensive and would require long term support. Without a bold new idea, their probably just isn't enough there for the devs to decide to invest time into it over new, more original ideas that would make GW2 stand out. Particularly not in the current, tight one year development schedule. I see what you are going for, and it isn't without some merit, however would anyone new read about this and decide "I have to join GW2 to get access to those stables!"? I unfortunately don't think so. Side content which doesn't add to the core GW2 experience is necessarily going to need to be fairly smallish, safe and in fairly high demand like fishing was. Unless you can think of something pretty revolutionary, the most I think we might get is a QoL update to the guild hall system such as making it is easier to expand a guild hall without a large group of people to run guild missions.

I'm okay with the rifle actually but if we're just talking about cool design fan fiction for its own sake: Behold, the variable mesmer Rifle!!! Theme: Togglable Rifle between attack and support. The concept would be the attack side is mid range but very quick, while the support is slower and long ranged. Like the Ranger Hammer, both sides would share cool downs. It has a toggle just because I think that is a cool mechanical theme for rifles and wish they all had it to help give them a mechanical identity. I tried to constrain myself to abilities I think could be done realistically while still being unique but admittedly some of these might have run into practical limitations I didn't consider. ----------------- Theme for A Toggle: Animations and character would show the rifle being slung low and rapidly fired. All effects would be at short 600 to mid 900 ranges with quick casting times. 1a: Repeated Fire: Fires a bullet which inflicts confusion at close range. Ambush: Mesmer rapidly fires several bullets in a row. The bullets initially only a small amount of damage, but leave the target with a "Marked" condition. If the foes is hit with a shatter while marked it enhances that shatter. Shatter 1: Increased Damage Shatter 2: Attack Converts 2 boons into a conditions Shatter 3: Becomes a fear effect Shatter 4: N/A Shatter 5: N/A 2a: Trick Shot (Clone) (Blast Finisher): Fire a bullet which applies bleeding, if it hits from the Side or back it produces a clone which performs a larger attack inflicting slow when it first appears. 3a: Phantasmal Rifleman (Phantasm): Apples Stealth to the Mesmer and drops a phantasm which unload the rifle rapidly inflicting a different damaging condition which each shot Torment, Confusion, Bleeding. 4a: Baleful Portal - Drops a portal on the ground for 3 seconds, any enemies who step on the area as teleported (mechanically I think this would just be a pull the way teleports are just jumps with different animations) towards the caster's original location and tormented. 5a Toggle to Support mode. AoE heal for each clone you currently have. (Triggers any weapon swap effects.) ---------- Theme for B Toggle: Animations would show long range more elegant attacks. All attacks would take longer but also have a longer 1,200 range. 1b: Cover Fire (Ally Targetable): A shot which applied bleeding to foes and regen to allies in a small area. Ambush: Swaps a condition on you for a boon on the target. If a condition is transferred it applies to all foes in a small area around the foe, if a boon is stolen it applies it allies in a small area around you. 2b: Duplication Gun (Clone) (Ally Targetable) (Blast Finisher): If enemy target it simply create a clone, attacking the target as normal. If allied targeted the clone is a copy of the ally. The clone targets the allies target or attacks the closest enemy as per cloned made by non-targeted effects. The clone gives a random buff to the ally whenever it attacks. 3b: Phantasmal Bugler (Phantasm) (Ally Targetable): A warhorn Phantasm runs towards the target and creates a chaos storm. 4b: Benevolent Portal: Same similar to singularity shot but can be used by down players, if used on a down player the recharge time is increased by 60 seconds. 5b Toggle to Attack mode. Gain fury and might for each clone you currently have. (Triggers any weapon swap effects.)

I'd like to request the various teleportation items be consolidated into a master item. They currently take up a LOT of my shared slots and it would be nice to just have that be a single item rather than one for each expansion/living world.

Just a suggestion but I would really like it if the next time we have a beta it is made into a community event like the World Boss Rush where the more events we do with Beta characters the more prizes we unlock for the community. If you made beta 9 days long you could have each day focus on a different profession. I like the Betas a lot but always feel pulled away to go back to working on my legendries and achievements. It would be nice to have a little community incentive to play with the Beta characters longer and I think it would encourage people to engage more deeply with the beta experience.

What would Kneel do on short bow, give you access to a different set of arrows?? Stand: Arrows explode on contact? Kneel: Arrows wait to be detonated?

Looks like this needs an update to match the new style of annual expansions.

I think its fair to say I don't get the necro-swords and I'm not really sure about it is core risk/reward concept with burning your HP. Negative: 1.) Feels like a "win more" mechanic. If you are gaining more life then you are loosing, you'll just use the sacrifice powers. I rarely felt like I was left with an interesting choice. It made easier battles easier and didn't really help difficult ones. I found myself quickly switching away from them as soon as things got dicey. 2.) Pointless Leap: Why do we have a leap on a ranged weapon? All the powers except the leap are 900 so it isn't like you need to get in close for any reason. 3.) Life Force generation feel really low. I hardly got any life force using swords which is critical for many builds. 4.) Skills 2 & 4 feel dull. They just are damage spams, nothing interesting there. The Damage and then more damage activations feels uninspired. 5.) Lack of synergy. The various swords skills don't see to set each other up in anyway. Nothing. Not even simple synergy like the well of darkness on long sword and the pull to drag things into the pool. I'd like to see something like moving chill off auto attack and onto other powers, then giving auto-attack a bonus where it heals more against chilled foes. I'd also like to see range be relevant in some way, such as turning of the sac powers into a close range nova around the necromancer, if we are going to have a leap on a ranged weapon. Positive: 1.) Skill 5 feel very good, and is enjoyable. It feels very rewarding and impactful to fire and then recall the orb. Further it creates positive tension as the fear effect can give you a breather forcing a player to decide if the cost if HP is worth it or not in a way the other powers do not. I wish at least one other power had this kind of positive tension. Overall: I strongly dislike necro-swords and would like to see them given more depth. Despite concerns above I found them to work just fine with reaper, Scourge and Harbinger. Lowering your total HP pool didn't seem to impact much as you'll either be healing up from your attacks or just not using sac powers. None of the seem like must use abilities that create a strong tension about whether to use them or not except skill 5.

I though the axe was fun and well designed. Negatives: 1.) It was very easy to move out of range of the axes. I feel like the pull range should be a bit larger. 2.) Doesn't seem very strong as a power weapon even though this was stated to be an intended option. Positive: 1.) Synergized very well with the initiative mechanics giving me reasons to use all my skills. I loved this element of it. 2.) Love the shadow step on 3, giving me and easy way to trigger my shadowstep traits. 3.) I liked the various pressures the weapon applied forcing me to move around and use several different skills depending on the situation. Overall: I like the Axe and it seems very well thought out in the context of the Imitative mechanic. Seems viable on Daredevil and Specter but a poor fit for Deadeye.

I very much enjoyed staff and cannot wait or its release in 2024. Negatives: 1.) Glitchy had several instances where things failed to animate or execute properly. 2.) Stun break on 3 is almost impossible to time. I don't think I'll every successfully execute a stun break with this power. 3.) Defiant Roar seems like it should be a shout. I mean, come on, what is the difference between a roar and a shout? It should synergize with tactics. 4.) As noted, a lack of combos. Positives: 1.) Movement - I really enjoyed this aspect of the staff, I always felt like I was right where I needed to be in the center of the action supporting everyone. 2.) Great mix of buffs, debuffs, healing and damage. The weapon felt very versatile and useful. 3.) Regen from Auto attack felt great Overall: I am so excited for Staff Warrior. The staff felt very good on Berserker and Bladesworn but didn't feel like it offered much to Spell Breaker but I'd rather see Spell Breaker change rather than the staff.

The scepter feels very bad, has no wow factor and lacks a strong identity. Nothing seems to connect to anything. The negative: 1.) Nothing synergizes The weapon has no identity. The unique element here is the tether but it doesn't have any connection to the auto-attack or 2 attack skills nor any meaningful synergy with the rest of the revenant. 2.) Visual Noise As a rule the bigger and more intrusive the effect, the bigger impact it should have. Big visual draw the eye and should therefor be large effects that take priority. The tether here doesn't seem to have a big enough effect, particularly on allies, to justify its visual noise. 3.) It is not fun, nor impactful. I spent only a minimal amount of time on this one, I saw no reason to stop using staff and start using this for support. I rarely say this but I'm in the total rework camp. I'd love to see this weapon redesigned around a new core mechanic. If they are keeping the tether it needs something special. I'd like to see the pay off for the tether be summoning a spirit that provides an AoE buff/debuff effect based on the target which then performs some kind of attack when you use you #2 attack. I feel like that would be both uniquely rev and properly impactful. Additionally since the tether is draining a good chuck of energy it would be great if you got an extra pip of energy while auto-attacking. 4.) The sword visuals are bad I've heard people suggest this should be more like a whip and I strongly agree. The positive: 1.) The auto attack is okay. 2.) Being able to spam weakness on 2 synergizes well with Dwarven Battle Training. 3.) Tether offers some CC potential. Overall: I strong dislike this weapon and it is design does not really show any unrealized promise that I can see. It doesn't seem to have strong synergy with any elite and it is high tether cost makes it particularly bad for Herald despite the their many upkeep traits.

Mace feels like a workhorse weapon set bring a little bit of everything to the table and plays extremely well. Negative: 1.) The one negative I can say about the mace is the "grow large" gimmick while very useful, doesn't feel good when running off hand mace and is visually sub-par. I'd prefer to see a different visual used here and slight adjustment to how it is generated to make it a bit more viable for off hand mace and with druid's astral form which right not it is hard to switch into to take advantage of Force of Nature. Also effects which frequently cause characters to get big and then shrink are annoying. It is fine for when they stay large for a healthy amount of time, but for effects 5 seconds or less I find it to be frustrating. I'd much prefer a different visual effect be found. 2.) This is not unique to Mace but any weapon which doesn't have some synergy with your pets feels like a missed opportunity to me. Force of Nature could have easily been an effect that empower your pet in an interesting way and once again there is no attempt to capitalize on what makes the ranger unique. It is a shame that mechanist gets Rocket Punch but we still have no such even basic combo attacks for the pet class. It is an opportunity not just missed but aggressively avoided for some reason. Positive: 1.) This feels like the tightest and well design weapon set. It is immediately useful and fun to play. It just works really, really well for the Ranger. Overall: Mace just seems amazing. It plays well with all classes and gives them a lot of really, really useful tools. It seems to play well with all elite specs but played best with Unleashed which could ambush easily to take full advantage of Force of Nature and has least synergy with Druid due to the trouble of getting astral form to combo with Force of Nature.

Generally I like the mez rifle I think it is a sound support weapon which is already fun to play. Negative: 1.) Clones or lack there of. As others have noted clone generation is low and the fact that you probably don't want spam its phantasm makes the problem worse. I'd prefer to see the CC moved to skill 2 and the phantasm become a support power so it can be spammed more freely. I'd love to see this become a warhorn phantasm which toots out an ethereal field of some sort. 2.) I want Aegis. This is a personal preference but I just want to hand out Aegis to my friends, I'd love it on the ambush skill when you have the Mirage Mantle trait rather than fury which feels a bit lack luster but I assume that level of AoE aegis would be too strong. 3.) I want to save people with the singularity. I really, really like this power in theory but in practice I never found a situation where it was useful. If you could portal someone in down state this would be amazing. I'm sure it will see use with jumping puzzles and be useful in fractals to help with mechanical sections such as moving the cursed treasure so by no means bad but it is a bit more situational that I would like. 4.) I hate some of the visuals I'm just not feeling the Phantasm or the mist portal shot. Positives: 1.) Like the design, particularly skills 3 & 5. I really like the choice to detonate the beacon, that feels exciting and impactful. The way the portal is tucked into another support power great! It takes a situational power and gives it a nice home with bringing down the larger design. Kudos on the weird healing flamethrower ambush skill also. 2.) Feels good and impactful on support. I definitely felt like the rifle was having an impact the battle field, though I did find it it a little challenging to build around. I found myself only switching to rifle when healing was needed. Oddly I didn't feel super great paired any of the other power weapons, I found myself wishing for mesmer warhorn for the first time. Overall: I like the rifle and think is largely solid as is and I'm excited to take it into fractals mostly, though I imagine this will get a lot of numbers fiddling post release to balance out it strong healing numbers and low damage to make it a more flexible weapon. I felt like it played best with Chrono and Mirage but slightly less with Virtuoso but over all viable with any elite spec.

After playing with pistol I have to agree it currently feels lack-luster. The bullet mechanic feels very "Meh", and isn't very fun on it own. If this design is indicative of the final release I don't see myself playing pistol often. I think the design was intended to avoid static rotation and force players to consider the order of their shots strategically but it doesn't seem to achieve that end in practice. Negative: 1.) Generating and spending bullets doesn't feel great, nor did it lead to many interesting combat choices. This style of play isn't very interesting on it own and it doesn't tie into anything else going on with the profession. Further the "generate a bullet/spend a bullet" pace is not very fun. Worse spending elemental bullets feels very clunky at the moment. I hate when I switch away from an element and then that bullet is just left stranded till I switch back. I'd like to see ammo generation triggered by something else like switching attunement or generating an aura rather than what it is now. Further this one bullet per element system feels awful. I'd much prefer to be able to generate a stack of elemental ammo and then spend them as I see fit. 2.) Too much overlap with Scepter. I agree with the feedback that in its current form it would work better as an offhand weapon rather than a main hand one. 3.) Dull auto attack This is probably on purpose but the auto attack feel so disconnected from the rest of the weapon in a very odd way. While this is typical for Elemental weapons, it seems odd on the pistol given its ammo theme. I think my ideal version of main hand pistol would see you build up charges with the auto attack, then when you switch attunement those become ammo which you can use strategically similar to the flow of Pyromancer's Puissance. This way you could stay on one element for a while a build up ammo for a big pay off or rapidly shift through elements but only getting one or two shots off. 4.) Bolder Blast feels out of place I know for the most part elementalist weapons are a grab bag of powers but getting barrier off a pistol shot doesn't match theme. Am I shooting myself persona style? This doesn't seem right on an aggressive ranged weapon. Positive: 1.) I like that the auto attack lays down conditions. 2.) Some of the effects are are cool things we haven't seen before, particularly the cluster grenade like fire splash. 3.) Soothing Splash really captures the aggressive feel of the pistol with its increased healing per effect stacked on an enemy. 4.) I like the 4 shot special, even if I don't think it is likely to get used much. It is a nice touch and since it doesn't take up space in the weapons kit it can just be there as an odd option that comes up now and then even if not something you would try to spam deliberately. I really like how it was tucked into the design without taking away from the limited space on the pistol and I feel like it adds a little something extra. It just like it, its a cool little extra! Overall: While far from unplayable the Ele pistol is mostly unenjoyable and sometimes even frustrating with its ammo gimmick. It doesn't seem to have any special synergy with any elite so it seems to play equally mediocre with all of them.

I enjoyed my time with the pistols a lot. They feel like they need just a little bit of clean up, but are already very good. Negative: 1.) Symbol of Ignition as noted above feels bad at the moment dropping at your feet. I would like it to have a boon as well, but it doesn't really need a boon. 2.) I found myself rarely using 5 except when I needed CC which I don't think was the intended play style. 3.) The attack on 2 didn't have great sound or visual feedback. I don't think the visuals match the current gameplay and at least one person I know didn't realize it was a multi-hit attack you are supposed to hold on. Positive: 1.) Love the visuals on 5, just fantastic. 2.) Felt good, fun to play and successful in filling the missing nitch. 3.) Seemed viable as Duel Pistols but also just as main hand or off hand. Overall: I strongly enjoyed the pistols and cannot wait to use them regularly. They will probably become my favorite ranged weapon for the Guardian. Seemed good for all elite specs though had the least synergy with Dragonhunter.

Personally I really like the concept and want to play with it as I did have fun with the shortbow but feel the current execution is lacking as others have said. Negative: 1.) I hate how the short bow doesn't interact with anything. I expected the arrows to be explosive and at least one to be an elixir to allow us to interact with those trait lines. 2.) The arrows need something more. The amount of work/time to set up arrows is not worth the pay off. While doing group events most enemies would be dead before I could put down my third arrow much less execute a chain attack. I didn't feel like I was adding much to the fight aside from barrier and the effects lacked a unique "wow" factor to make them stand out. In theory that is the blast chain mechanic but at the moment I don't really feel that at all. Personally I'd like to see either on hit effects added so we're not 100% locked into chain explosions and/or the arrows act as minor turrets, perhaps on par with Mesmer Clones, until detonated. 3.) Given the pace of GW2 combat, the bow seems very slow. The time to drop and detonate a single arrow means it can often just be walked away from without even forcing your foe to use a dodge up. This is probably unrealistic but I would prefer that some or all of these these be quick horizontal skill shots (like Guardian bow 3) that drop off the payload (and have some on hit effect depending of if it hits friend or foe). This could also allow for the arrows to leave a fuse trail behind them which could make linking up explosions easier and more interesting. We don't have many of those sorts of skill shot and it would give the short bow some additional personality. 4.) I feel like auto attack could be doing something a little more here. Maybe something like it gets a bonus after you detonated a skill (allow it to have turret synergy) similar to what we see on the Lava Axe. It feels odd we have these turrets which already have a detonate mechanic and now arrows with a detonate mechanic but no synergy between them. I'd love to see trait tie these two together and enhancing the detonate effect of both. Positive: I'm relieved to see that cool down starts after the arrow is fired, not after detonation so major kudos on that point at least. I feel it would be unplayable otherwise. I do enjoy its combination of buff and debuff effects. Given how hard it it to get targets into the AoE this helps allowing me to get some benefit as long as anything is in the blast radius. I didn't have any survivability problems, I was able to solo elites and duo to Drizzlewood camps with shortbow support. Overall after spending a few hours in PvE both playing with it and being supported by it: I like the shortbow and hope we get a refined version of it at full release. It felt most at home to be on Holosmith where I could toggle between DPS and Support, okay Mechanist but felt worthless on Scrapper.