Lucinellia.9247

"Invest" has multiple meanings, not just making a purchase. You could replace the word here with less useful alternatives relating to dedication or commitment if the meaning is unclear to you. Only it is different in functionality, as I pointed out in my post.

By the way: are you sure you want to support this kind of cheap monetization and flawed system? Buying those slots you will be sending a message you're okay with it. Buying those slots is somewhat essential for me if I want to continue playing the builds I do in PvE. Thankfully, I'm only converting gold to gems to purchase them.

I don't know. Thankfully, as a player and customer, that isn't my issue. I'm not the one that is paid to work these things out. On the other hand, I am the one getting less for my money because I invested in the game previously. That isn't a particularly enjoyable situation! At the minimum, I would expect at least parity however I've already explained that my purchase provides me with a smaller gain of inventory space and no fashion functionality. I have the gems saved up, so I'll be getting my slots. It is a pretty sucky situation as a consumer and supporter of the game though. You mean, make legendary armor and ascended armor completely equal with the former only having a skin difference? In that case, you are suggesting penalising players that have invested into legendary gear more.

No, it still applies - as a player with legendary armor, I don't even gain that functionality unless I then invest in multiple ascended sets. So what advantage does the gold, time and effort that I sunk into legendary gear get me in that case aside from less benefit from the money I will spend on equipment templates?

TL;DR - Equipment templates are worse for gained item storage, convenience and fashion wars if you invested in Legendary items but you'll still pay exactly the same. If you want the same feature set as players in ascended gear, you'll need to invest in further ascended gear sets, removing a previous QoL of your legendary gear and effectively making it an ascended set with a ~2000 gold tax for different skins. A player storing three different builds and using legendary items gains no skin swapping feature for every legendary used and gains less item storage spaces for every legendary used. As a solution, at the minimum legendary armor should be able to store different skins per template at no additional cost beyond setting the skins. The boring work stuff out bit. Oh no. :# I'll be discussing two fictional players and their characters. I'll also be omitting legendaries that aren't armor. If you include them, and they are shared across sets (such as The Ascension or other legendary trinkets) then the value of equipment templates for a legendary-using player worsens further. To avoid complications, builds will be presumed to use 2 x MH/OH items and underwater gear won't be considered. The main point is to show the disparity in what is gained from equipment templates for players in ascended gear compared with those in legendary gear. Player A bought into the solution of legendary armour. They have three builds - power, condition and support. All use the same armor but load out to different runes, infusions, weapons and trinkets. They purchase enough equipment templates to have three to use for this character. Player B doesn't have legendary armor. They have three builds - power, condition and support. All use different ascended items. Runes and infusions are not swapped. They purchase enough equipment templates to have three to use for this character. When player A comes to set up their equipment load outs they use their legendary armor over all three sets. They have one set of weapons (4 items) and one set of trinkets (6 items) in each of the stored templates. Since one template is being worn, this means that their total storage gained is 10 items per template not in use. Player A, who invested in the legendary armor, gains 20 item storage slots from three build templates. When player B uses their ascended items, they wear one entire set with the template being used and in each other template store armor (6 items), weapons (4 items), trinkets (6 items). Since one template is being worn, they gain 16 items per template not in use. Player B, who hasn't bothered with legendary armor, gains 32 item storage slots from three build templates. Finally, we've seen from the Icebrood Saga announcement that equipment templates will also allow for swapping of skins. Since these haven't been announced to be tied to a template, they can likely be presumed to be tied to the gear in the template. In this scenario, player A does not gain any skin swapping fashion ability. Meanwhile, player B can store three hot-swappable fashion looks. This is a distinct loss of functionality for players that have invested in legendary armor yet they still pay the same to purchase the build templates! This is a major disadvantage to players that have invested in the game and purchased legendary armor. Either these players will need to be happy with their gems (and therefore potentially real world currency) buying them less features (item storage space and fashion convenience) than people with ascended armor or they will need to invest in multiple ascended sets, completely removing major selling points of legendary armor. The boring work stuff out bit has now ended. Yay. :3 I personally think Arenanet have dug themselves into a really awkward hole here. There is no situation in which players with legendary items are not getting a worse deal - they either need to miss out on features, yet pay the same, or invest in ascended sets anyway! The situation also becomes worse the more you have invested into Arenanet's legendary system (you relatively gain less inventory storage space) and with the more build templates you buy and use those legendary items in as you miss out on more possible inventory space savings and more fashion templates. I don't think people should be penalised for being dedicated enough to make legendaries and also wanting to spend to have multiple equipment templates. As a stop gap solution I would suggest allowing legendaries to have different skins when used in different build templates. This should be at the cost of no additional transmutation charges beyond initially applying those skins to the build template. Doing so would provide some parity between the fashion abilities of build templates for those in legendary armor and ascended armor. Hopefully Arenanet realises how poor their current implementation appears to be from the perspective of players that have committed to their previous solutions. [04/10] Updated in response to feedback from another source.

Seeing as there still isn't a viable alternative to what Chronomancer can bring to raids in terms of boons, utility and role compression, I doubt a group is going to be without one :p I'd also hope that people who are hoping to raid have at least done the jackal. Thank you for the heads up though!

Lucinellia Lyndra doing some posing in the Mistlock Sanctuary

So, I agree - somewhat! The reason you always need to play the same profession is because Druid is that strong - it is a balancing issue and one that Anet has had three years to fix (along with Chronomancer being 20% of a necessary raid composition and the necessity of Warriors because they too bring overpowered passive buffs). It is clear that this is a real challenge for Anet to resolve as even after this period of time and the introduction of a raft of new Elite professions (that could have brought non-stacking Banner- or Spirit-like buffs or offered an alacrity plus quickness combo) there hasn't been much advance aside from making balance decisions regarding Grace of the Land that should have been resolved in HoT beta and entrenching Warrior and Druid by creating unique 10 man buffs. So without the option of balance that is anywhere close to equitable (and I guess Thief is on the absolute cusp of viable), an easier mode which wouldn't require wonderful boon uptimes or banners and could allow for off-meta comps for people to mess around with on a Friday night following clearing on a Monday would be quite nice - especially if it meant being able to involve less experienced family and friends. Sure, you'd still need a handkiter but perhaps with the reduced damage and mechanics of an "easy" mode that could be pretty much anyone rather than that Herald I get to pull out for Deimos and River of Souls before she gathers dust. Of course, I wouldn't encourage an easy mode without, at the minimum, repeatable CMs.

While I'd be in favour of more raid difficulties (at the minimum, repeatable CMs for slightly less loot), the biggest barrier I'm facing as someone that can get into groups and has seen all the current content is the expectation that I'll be happy not playing my main (Thief) and rerolling to Chronomancer or Druid as the group needs. This is particularly unfun when both of these professions have been staples for three years and there aren't alternatives for the Chronomancer role and only variation in secondary healers, not Might provision. The raid content is becoming stale due to lack of meta shifts, equitable balance in both dps and especially support and a lack of alternatives and I'm seriously considering leaving GW2 for a game where I can actually play my main in high end content without constantly being asked to switch to something else. Though it wouldn't fix the issue, I'd happily take an easier raid difficulty if it meant I could legitimately experience the content with off-meta compositions or professions and playstyles I truly enjoy instead of needing to switch to Druid or Chrono. While I'd adore to run Might share Deadeye and two non-Druid healers in "normal" difficulty raids alongside a Chronomancer alternative (whatever that might finally be), I'd settle for being able to do that in easier runs if Anet isn't willing to properly balance because PvE is becoming dull, restrictive and frustrating currently.