Dediggefedde.4961

In my opinion and from a WvW (zerg/guild) perspective, most of the nerfs are justified and expected. However, I would have liked a smaller step to adjust to the problem instead of halfing numbers. The barrier was almost on the early vindicator level and support-scourge level, which were also nerfed for the same reason. Some might even argue, that barrier itself is a broken mechanic, but I think it's fine if not overwhelmingly applied. The shortbow is new and did overperform, especially the 3. A ranged, non-projectile dark field that heals and cleanses 4 AoE conditions on a semi-short CD is pretty overpowered. Also, with life sigil and buffs, healscrapper had 3.5k Barrier (1.3k+1*2.2k Healing power) on Essence Of Animated Sand. With it also being a ranged blast finisher that stacks 5 might on a very short CD, this overperformed drastically. It still has strong synergy with Kinetic Accelerators, combo effects, and relic of Karakosa. Photonic blasting module did absurd AoE burst-damage without really telegraphing. I agree that builds with this trait, which required them adjust to it, lose their selling point. However. I always felt this trait was working against the specialization anyway, limiting the time spent in forge and allowing to mostly ignore heat mechanics.

So, you would always got for Ex Machina for the second Function Gyro? We often have trouble when circling in close combat to maintain high stacks might. Fury can be a problem with strips. Also, when doing smoke blasts in a organized setup, it's nice to be fully stacked on first engage while oof. So, from my experience, the fury and might is very noticable in our setup, but that probably depends strongly on the setup. ^^

I recently saw more builds for WvW support scrapper that use Ex Machina (2 Function Gyros, no increased CD, AoE barrier {1k +1.0*Healing Power} ) and Mass Momentum (Funcion Gyro applies stability {2 stacks, 3s}) or System Shocker (Function gyro dazes 0.5s, disabling enemies applies AOE barrier {700 + 0.1*Healing Power}). With a standard build with life sigil you can get up to roughly 2.2k Healing Power and 69% boon duration. This makes Ex Machina have 3.2k barrier, Mass Momentum have 5s stability, and System Shocker have 960 barrier. The downside is, that you loose superspeed on the first gyro-pulse/Function Gyro (Gyroskopic Acceleration) and the might/fury from blast finishers (Kinetic Accelerators). Also, you lose one blast finisher to trigger Relict of Karakosa. The decreased gyro range isn't much of a concern for me. In my opinion, Gyroskopic Acceleration and Kinetic Accelerators is the better pick. Superspeed is still one of the main advantages of scrappers and life-savers in zerg fights. The free might and fury is noticable with the recent nerf to mesmer, now allowing to maintain 25 stacks of might and perma fury during the fight and even during first-inc in case of smoke-field blasts. Additional sources of stability are always nice in zergs (Mass Momentum + Ex Machina), but with FB and chrono in the group, and bulwark slotted, this seems to be a bad tradeoff. While the shortbow-5 skill and chain can interrupt niceley, System Shocker requires lack of stability at the enemies. In ideal case, you can quickly gain 5-15k barrier, but during bigger zerg fights/outnumbered CC often only disables 1-2 players. What is your opinion about these trait combinations? Are they mostly picks for GvGs or do I underestimate the effects on larger enemy numbers?

I have the feeling as if grenade barrage lately is not hitting enemies correctly in WvW. I'm on full berserker gear, with dps-traits and food, but against single targets the damage value of a full crit-hit often reads around ~2k. For one or two grenades this looks fine, given they use some dmg reduction traits and are not completely glassy... Looking at some of the Math, Damage done = (Weapon strength) * Power * (skill-specific coefficient)/(target's Armor) So we have (3000 power * 0.4 coefficient +106) * 2.3 crit damage * 1100 weapon strength * 1.3 trait modifier * 6 attacks = 25 772 604 raw damage On the defense side I assume a bunker with 3000 armor * 1.3 protection * 1.2 some reduction traits, so a raw armor value of 4680. In this extreme case, six hits would still be around 5k damage. I suspect that not all grenades hit, maybe only two. I'm pretty sure I had the enemies on each occurance in the center of the splash region. Did you also encounter something like that?

I also have to admit, this is among the story chapters that I was the least invested in, including the map. I liked some characters and the overal plot is fine with me, but at during the instances I was already impatient with following the dialog. With a skip-button I would probably not have listened to most of the talk at all. The map somehow happens. I think I finished the wyvern five times now, which might be the meta. You get things, something with screams and coughs... But I'm actually not sure why there is a wyvern after the events of Eventide's March... On other maps Meta, or at least the bosses, felt more integrated into the story. Or is the fighting happening on the map basically Eparch's retaliation? I'm also growing a little concerned how many times the main character (MC) is frozen for several minutes by surprise attacks. It made sense with Palawa Joko, since he had all day to prepare a trap in his throne room. But having all enemies do that to get the MC to listen to their monologe bears the question why they don't just kill us at any time in the later story. Also, that the queen's army and elite guards basically politely formed a queue to fight the MC individually or in small groups was pretty absurd.

Because they performed fine on dps builds. WvW-DHs were played with staff for some time for ranged DPS. Symbol of swiftness and holy strike dealt massive damage and can be layered (power coefficient 1.25 for strike and 0.5 for symbol) They nerfed both skills by halving the coefficient in WvW-only. As for druids/rangers, a lot of dps builds use staff to utilize the solar-beam ranged, piercing, non-projectile, pulsing damage. This was also nerfed by 2/3 in its power coefficient. But I can still see short bow being taken by dps builds for its utility in group fights. Since holos deal most damage with solar beam, kits (I use grenades and acid bomb) and forge, it's not a huge dps-loss. For roaming, though, the reflec, block, jump finisher (e.g. lightning field-combo) and evade of hammer is missing too much. ^^'

I actually like the new shortbow version. The damage-modifiers could be better (doubled in some cases), but it feels very good in WvW group fights, as well as for dps-holo as for support scrapper. Of course, the hammer has more damage and better personal defense, but the shortbow feels like a very reliable group utility. And since WvW zerg-Holos rely on forge, laser and kits for damage, it's not that a dramatic decrease in my opinion. Regardless of your traits you get a ranged double-stun, strong AoE-cleanse, two instant-blast-finishers and access to AoE Aegis and protection as well as a 4 AoE cleanses and a dark-field. And as a healer you get a short-CD AoE barrier and nice synergy with relic of karakosa. At least you can take it as an off-hand weapon for quick blasting. What feels strange in WvW is the 3 impacts of the 5-skill. Since it stuns, WvW dictates that it does not deal much damage. However, the two last hits also don't do anything else, so it feels weird. ^^' What is also strange for a support weapon is the lack of regeneration and direct heal.

I learn a lot of new Spanish in our DE-ES linking. Which is quite easy, since I don't know any Spanish. ^^' Spanish servers also have the coverage advantage, since a lot of Spanish-speaking countries are in South America.

Legendary weapons and sigils actually have a disadvantage over ascended ones in WvW. If you want to switch out a weapon, all stats are reset and sigils removed. You can alleviate it with templates, but it feels like a waste to have another identical template sheet, just for a changed weapon. And especially in guild setups, where e.g. firebrands switch in hammer for a blast before quickly switching back to their original set, this only works with ascended weapons, not legendary.

I wouldn't mind a dragon guarding the SM castle. ^^

For WvW zergplay I don't really see much impact. Bandage-blast aiming is nice, but healscrapper isn't the healer of choice anymore as are druid/tempest/vindicators. I also don't really see support tempests using sword or support druids using something aside from brown-bear/turtle/smokescale. The birds would have been a nice choice, if the movement-impeding condition cleanse would be on the F2 instead of being triggered by the pet KI. I was getting excited when I read scrapper barrier is shared with allies for my power scrapper, but I confused System Shocker with Impact Savant. ^^' The "Smash Brawler" change for berserkers could be a nerf, since they usually only hit with F2 in berserker mode. Since it is 1s extension per enemy and skill, they either need to use weapon skills in between or loose berserker duration in WvW. The relic changes are nice, but also not with much impact. Relict of resistance might be worth taking for HFBs, but still has strong competition with zephryte and monk. I don't think any of the other changes has any impact in WvW zergplay.

I actually like the changes. Guild setups leaned towards dps-vindicators and berserkers, and from my recent experience and logs some of the biggest sources of damge were now nerfed. For the metabattle-build for berserkers this nerfs corresponds individually to Blood Reaction=-3% dmg, Fatal Frency=-5% dmg and Arc divider =-16% dmg, combined something like -8% for scorched earth and -23% for arc divider. Now glass-canon builds, can also survive an arc divider hit! Before, it was a bit ridiculous at times. Until recently, One wolf pack didn't seem like an issue to me, but then I met a soulbeast that hit me with 4k with each hit of rapid fire on a cele build. Sadly, I didn't play reaper at the time, so I didn't have a 40k+ HP pool and no reflect ready. Now I hope rangers need to press at least to skills to kill me 😉 I'm still playing grenade scrapper, which hits great and bursty when layering acid bomb, thuderclap, shredder gyro and grenade barrage and has no trouble to get close to berserker dps, if you mind projectile hate and aren't too greedy. ^^

I recently tried out a zerg support ventari vindicator (minstrel) and I'm a bit confused about its advertised burst-heal, burst-cleanse and barrier. Evading provides 600 barrier, cleanses once and heals 1200. (+ outgoing modifiers, ~100% with urn, 50% without, here and further down) Treesong clears 3 conditions and heals by 1k per condition, purifying essence clears 3 conditions and heals 600 per condition, both 5s CD. There is also renewal wave for 2 cleanses and 2k Healing, natural harmony for 4k heal at 2s CD, urn for a 800 heal tick and a 1k-2k heal, selfless spirit for 5 times 1k pulses and energy expulsion for 1 and a 2k heal. In the past, tree song had 5 cleanses, but now it's hard to call it a burst heal in my opinion. I only see the burst heal from natural harmony and selfless spirit as bursty. From my perspective, vindicator compared to druid has a higher sustain heal, fewer cleanses, lacks offensive boons, alacrity and a rezz ability, but can provide projectile defense and stability with the charged tablet. Maybe I'm missing some skill combination/interaction? What do you see as its advantage over druid/tempest in a WvW zerg setup?

I'm currently mostly using the condi-mech variant with p/p, but m/p also works. Enhanced signet trait and four signets with grenades. Typically, you use viper stats, but more defensive stats with vita/toughness also work in open world. I recently soloed a group-event with a champ and lots of mobs with that, but it took a few minutes and I had to use F6/F7 to navigate the mech out of the attacks sometimes. ^^' However, quickness-scrapper also works surprisingly well now in HoT. Probably because of power creep. I remember having a bad time back then, but now most vets just drop. I would recommend two stunbreakers, then, though, since your barrier from outgoing damage keeps you alive in fights with lots of mobs.

As a side-note: "complete meta event" to me sounds like it should also be fullfilled if the meta event failed. Maybe change it to include a "successfully"? Or does completing by failure also give the reward? On one hand, requiring to finish the meta successfully for the weekly achievement sounds a bit harsh (much playtime for full meta or high risk for failure at later joining). On the other hand, joining 3 minutes before maps are closing to get the achievement for a failed meta sounds pretty cheap. To bring it more in line with the "defeat great jungle worm in Caledon forest" weekly, I would propose changing it to something like "complete 5 events counting for meta progression in Dragon's Stand".

I joined a Dragon's Stand map when it opened, completed Events in the west lane, got max participation and we killed the dragon. Granted, we were really fast. I think two or three attack phases were enough. But I didn't receive any progress in the wizard's vaut. Later I joined another map that were almost at the commander, joined the middle lane and completed some events for 60% participation I think. Then we killed the dragon and I got credit in the wizards vault. Some other players also complained about it not counting or trying for the fourth time already.

To me this sound like you run along the beam. I expect it to use wall mechanic, so it pulses every time on touch without or very low ICD. I would honestly prefer a lesser well of corruption with two ticks on 5 targets. But damage, strips and conditions are probably not the purpose of this relic, but the massive red eye and laser show to distract and scare enemies. ^^' ... I want my old orbital strike animation back...

There are some fun relics, actually. Personally, I always found the passive +% effects pretty boring. Instead, now with Fireworks on dps-scrapper, you get a constant +10% bonus up, if you switch use the right skills to trigger the effect with correct timing. It feels challenging, but also rewarding with the little icon. could have gone without the visual firework, though. ^^' The elite-skill triggered relics, like pack, zyphrit and ceres feel also rewarding in some of the playmodes and classes. Most relics are too weak, though, in my opinion. Ceres could hit more than 5 times before vanishing, since you can easily avoid it. Even just standing still would make it hit you only once. Maybe 1 rotation with no target limit? Wizard Tower has a 2s pull delay for a 240 radius and a 1s duration of reflect in WvW with a 30s CD. Improving all the numbers by factor 2 would still not break anything. Durability could affect the group instead of only you. Others are pretty strong already, even though they are pretty boring because passive (antitoxin). Or there is a trigger-condition, but there is no way to adjust the play to optimize its effect, since you do that by playing normal anyway (thief, monk)

I can buy the relics in WvW if I received them in PvE before. Apparently they also drop randomly while doing events. I also got relic of Cerus and Wizard tower there. An Isgarren relic came from completing the meta event on the third map. Not sure if it's random or a fixed reward there. On my dps-scrapper, I prefer firework relic, since it is also triggered by grenade-4/-5, and mortar-4/-5(bug?), as well as F5(bug?) and hammer-5 on each pulse. Not by grenade barrage, though (bug?). On most other dps builds thief/isgarren seems to be best. ^^ Still, for group play I would like to know, if the eye needs to be caused by me or my allies and if it has a player target limit or an ICD.

I have a lot of question marks on the listed relics. Last time I checked, the wiki didn't give me much information. I would prefer them on the relic tooltip anyway. I'm looking at it from a WvW perspective, but am interested in information about the relics in general. Cerus: From my tests, there is a target limit. The rotating attack stops depending how many enemies are hit. In a WvW-zerg, this stops almost instantly. It seems to convert one boon to a condition per hit. However, I also noticed that the inflicted conditions and direct damage are pretty strong. Some more details of how many targets, which conditions and how much damage would be nice to know. ^^' Isgarren: If you evade, you inflict the "eye of isgarren" status on the evaded opponent, which increases your damage on them by 10%. Do eyes caused by other players also count when checking for the 10% dmg buff? Any internal cooldown for the eye? Otherwise, you can probably keep the eye effect constantly up, even in an WvW-zerg environment, where half your players use support or other relics. Wizard Tower: This would be nice in WvW, adding random projectile hate and hard-CC, for example at a support-FB How large is the pull range? How long does the reflection stand?

Thanks for the reminder! However, those affect all necro specializations, right?

Someone stated recently that the WvW ezrg scourges had their boon strip and corrupt nerfed in on of the last patches. However, I don't see much at first glance aside from dagger-5. The reduced sand shade duration does not necessarily mean less trips, right? Can you please remind me, which were the scourge -pecific nerfs that would meake reaper or harbingers prefered in w WvW or guild setup?

Sometimes in WvW, in zerg fights, when playing support druid, I encounter an object labeled "black hole." Those are not mine, since the black holes caused by natural convergence in the celestial form of a druid has no label. It's just a dark spot on the ground without any label for me. Are the labeled black holes caused by the opposing team's druids? Does the label imply that they can be destroyed with damage? The black hole seems to pulse 3 times to immobilize for a total duration of 8s. Does it remain at the spot even if the target gets away (cleanse/blink/resistance) before the third pulse? Does it catch another target that walks into the black hole? What is the target limit?

I really like the sword changes on WvW support druid. Much more mobility and evades that can be used to rescue stragglers and catch up with the commander. The previous 2 and 3 hardly helped me in zerg encounters.

I like the idea and change, but to me this makes legendary runes even less interesting. Currently, legendary runes are way too expensive in my opinion. I got everything else to legendary level, even the three sets of armor, except the runes. Buying multiple sets of superior runes for all my characters is still much cheaper and hardly less convenient thanks to build templates. Now, with relics, the runes bring less for the same price. Since the main fraction of the price comes from gifts of condensated magic, might and clovers, it will likely remain the same. So, a set of seven legendary runes for 380g each is about 2660g for a stat increase in the order of a chest armor (~400g). To me, the 6th rune bonus (and 4th back then) was always the main reason of the runes. Especially with the legendary armory I will try to get my hands on a legendary relic once it is release.