[Questions about stacking and effects]

Its specific to each skill.  Some stack in either potency or duration, others don't stack at all.    In the case of non-stacking effects, the strongest version takes precedence. Banners, for instance, don't stack.  

 

The second question is confused.  Both of those skills are both fields and Collisions objects.   Collision objects are processed in order to impact.  So a projectile passing through both runs calculations as if it hit 2 different targets.  

 

Field effects operate on a different logic.   They pick up to 5 targets (at random) within the field to apply its effects to.  They are processed in order newest to oldest (based on age) when determining what gets triggered, and works through the whole stack top-to-bottom.  So a person standing in multiple overlapping fields can be affected by all of them.  Attacks with Finishers effects will trigger once on the top most field and ignore the others. 

 

Shield of Judgement is NOT a field effect.  Its a wave attack that covers an arc in front of the player.   All it does is damage enemies, and applies boons to allies if they are within the arc. 

 

You should read up on the skills themselves, and learn the difference between Boons, Buffs, and Effects.

[How to Fix Druid]

14 hours ago, Lord Trejgon.2809 said:

 

I disagree with removal of celestial avatar, it is virtually only thing that sets gw2 druids apart from overdone dnd copy-paste druid/shamans.

 

I could agree with overhauling CA avatar mechanics, as they are a little bit wonky as it is right now, but keep it in

 

14 hours ago, anduriell.6280 said:

At this point rework druid to work as a healing scourge would be the best thing they can do for this class. 

I can't see any other way where CA can be useful outside from raids otherwise. 

 

 

CA's real problem is that it has all of Death Shroud's problems, but none of the benefits.  In order to use CA, you need to meet 2 requirements IN FULL:   Off cool down, and full CE.   That second requirement is what hurts its work flow.  When fully drained, CE takes too long to rebuild without a large group to generate healing off of.  When not fully drained, the cool down timer makes popping it for one skill a huge waste.   And even when in CA mode, the skills VERY clunky and inflexible for such a huge commitment window.

 

This whole situation be explained in the parallels to Ele Conjures.  Its setup in a way where you only pop it for one or two skill casts, then try to get out of it as fast as possible.  But this makes it so unreliable, that you're either saving it explicitly to cast those 2 skills, or using it in a maintenance rotation because being reactive would be counter productive. 

 

If CA worked like more like Death Shroud, but CE and the skills worked like Rev energy cost, than that would go a long way to fixing the clunky nature of CA.   The next issue that would need addressing are the cast times of the skills. 

[Why does Ranger get no Love!?]

On 7/14/2021 at 11:58 PM, bigo.9037 said:

My issue is the lack of complexity ranger has. I understand the need the not powercreep the game entirely with new especs since HoT, but other classes got way more skills that are fun and useful than what ranger has from especs. 
 

holo has entire new weapon kit, has access to sooo many skills. Weaver got more skills. Firebrand got even more with tomes. Spellbreaker can use both regular f1 and fc. Deadeye has so many unique cool skills on new weapon.. 

 

soulbeast after nerf replaced pet swap with character skills, but still only has the same amount of skills. And MH dagger is terrible in pvp/wvw. No more complexity than core ranger…

 

i don’t want “buffs” for ranger, I just want more complexity so the skill ceiling isn’t so low. And at the same time the skill floor being very high means it’s easy for noobs to pick up and do well on but not much room to grow compared to other more complex classes.

 

 

I kind of disagree with the statement and premise, but want to modify the statement that Ranger's don't have skill ceiling problem.... they have a power cap problem.   I've found that Ranger as a class is "stupidly complicated" to perform actions that have very basic pay outs.  It requires very specific rotations to make any competent use of its traits, and the output of that effort is mediocre when its working correctly.  I am 100% convinced this is intentional, since every other spec this designer has worked on, all suffer from this basic issue of highly conditional trait triggers that output very middle ground performance.

 

And you can see this in how most of Ranger's OP combos came into existence.  In general, Ranger skills are pretty flexible in terms of utility, and good baseline damage, but struggle heavily on how we're allowed to chain them.  Whenever a straight forward combo or rotation pops up, the performance is almost game breaking due to how fast we can chain and execute those skills back to back when not forced to detour actions just to trigger traits.  That time Worldly Impact combo for SB was a thing, it was shocking how much damage it could unload in a short time.   Or that time the damage multipliers were easily stacked, letting the LB AA one-shot glassy builds in WvW. 

 

Its clear that the number of skills are NOT the problem....its that the way our traits work creates situations where taking advantage of them are very obtuse, or setup to specifically be mutually exclusive to a rotation decided by the designer. 

 

Also note that early Druid didn't have this problem either, until they changed the scaling of all the skills to REQUIRE Healing power investment to even be notable; and nerfed many of the non-support traits into near pointlessness.  Druid was already a DPS loss out the gate... but it slowly lost all of its non-raid healer applications, including its lock down capabilities, in the quest to increase Raid comp diversity. 

[Is condition druid a thing in raids?]

Yes and No... kind of.   The meta comp tends to look down on support hybrids given the last 2 years of balance passes have forced builds down really niche paths.  But this pick isn't particularly new.  The Condi Druid is technically a DPS slot; but can operate as a secondary support for short periods or in situation where a team needs to split and still needs the buffs given. 

[Mesmer or Necromancer]

Perhaps... but Mesmer is way more dynamic.    A Juggernaut Reaper is stable, but thats also its biggest draw back.... it can get incredibly dull if you're not already moving with purpose.   Mesmer has a higher risk factor, but that danger keeps you on your toes.  Makes you think more about engagements, how to use your skills effectively, more mentally stimulating, and makes you popular with all the Pugs given the variety of assistive skills in your arsenal, that aren't just kill stealing in the process.   

 

When I'm meandering around OW I usually leave one utility slot free to drop in fringe case skills to help randos struggling with something on the map.  A Reflect here, a cleanse there, jacking the crazy boon stacks from the Eye of Zhaitan, etc.   But I really do miss the old Inspiration Signet.   Generate some quickness on myself, and just spread it to everyone around me during a boss fight. 

[I would like some help with a profession choice, please.]

Plus Flesh golem is way more entertaining with its Charge attack being both hilariously potent, and relatively short cool down. 

[How Is Damage Calculated?]

1 hour ago, Akisohida.8963 said:

 

Allot of that went over my head. But I'm guessing it means this is not the best condition build I could do at level 80?
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?Pm1AUlflxQLMPaj1RaMOKjRSjMCygFzl7TD-zRIYcU/fKFIBSQB0lYQh9NBB6Ihwe4B-e

And I am planning on going Renegade because I like bows, so it has to be Renegade.

 

For the sake of argument... lvl 80 is the only context that matters.  So stating level is kind of a moot point.   Same goes for gear, since the difference between Exotic and Ascended is not enough to be a deal breaker for the math in 99% of build.   As a side bar: Most of us just assume ascended gear with no infusions, since (over time) full ascended gear is relatively easy to get with all the available sources from LS3 and onward. 

 

Quick side note... the reason you don't see the bleed duration bonus is because its contingent on Fury.  On the second bar at the top theres a list of boon and buffs that you can click on.  Those activate the effect for the editor's calculations. 

Second Side note.... I wouldn't add infusions into the mix, because they're insanely expensive to obtain.  Plus you don't really need them unless you're doing high level fractals. 

 

........

 

So heres one of the meta builds for fractals focusing on condi damage.

 

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PmwAUlflhQLsIajJRaMIKjBSjMBygjuk5TF-zRJYmR9fhEXGEZIUZBI8A-e

 

So the 2 basic problems with your build is that you have a lot of Power focused traits, but all your attacks and gear are condition heavy.   This basically means everything you took in devastation is going to waste, because it only applies to strike damage.  The build I linked has 100 less condition damage, but averages 20% condition damage per attack, and double the direct damage (even if its minor).  Using Corruption trait line also gives you access extra conditions and makes all of them more potent.   Secondly, I'm not sure what the intent was with using Retribution, but you took most of the close-range traits when you said you were shooting for more of a ranged build.  

 

 

Theres also an open world variant that trades Invocation for Devastation, and uses that trait line to give yourself a ton of life steal for self sustain. 

 

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PmwAUlflhQLsIajJRaMIKjBSjMBygju1/TF-zRJYmR9fhEXGEZIUZBI8A-e

[How Is Damage Calculated?]

1 hour ago, Akisohida.8963 said:

Umm...That does not seem right.

Using the calculator, I had over 1,000 more damage stacking Con Damage (Around 2500 bleed damage), which I lost if I decided to drop Con Damage for Expertise  (Where it dropped to 1,000 Bleed Damage.)

Check it:
Expertise: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?Pm1AUlflxQHMPyh1RNMO6hRSfMCKgFzl7TD-zRIYdUzGjCJQiCobMEkQYPAA-e

 

Condition Damage: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?Pm1AUlflxQHMPyh1RNMO6hRSfMCKgFzl7TD-zRIYcUzGjCJQiCobMEkQYPAA-e

I do over 1,400 more bleed if I stack con damage instead of Expertise?

Unless I misunderstood, since Expertise = Con Duration...

 

 

Ok to kind of demystify this...... theres a non-specific quirk of the game's equipment and upgrades where Duration is easier to obtain per option then Condition damage (which is only given as a stat bonus). 

 

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Condition_Damage

 

In short... flat bonuses tend to give better yields then stat bonuses, due to how the Devs balance those numbers.  So if its a choice between 10% duration vs 10% Condi damage (which is always as a stat): the duration bonus scales better (automatically 10% more damage overall), because the Condi damage stat has to deal with both a low starting base value (rarely goes above 1000, where other stats at 1000) that the 10% scales off of, combined with damage conditions themselves all having low damage-coefficients.  So 10% extra condition damage at 1000 Condi stat (from your build) is, at best 100 condition damage bonus, which then translates to an extra 6 dmg for bleeds, or 15.5 dmg for burning. 

 

To get an idea of that scale.... at 1k condi damage you get 82 dmg per tick on bleeds.  At 1.1k its 88 dmg.  So its not even a full 10% extra damage.  With Burning its 286 at 1k stat, and 301 at 1.1k.. which is 5% difference.

 

The few cases where condition damage is more directly effective over longer duration is when the enemy purges conditions, or HP is too small to get a full ramp up before dying.    Remember that condition builds are usually back loaded, and take several seconds to ramp up to full DPS.   This is why you favor duration bonuses to hit the cap if theres contention between the two options. 

 

The above is also why Expertise is a often in a weird place in damage calculations, because its got that same scaling bonus issue as all the other stats get hung up on.  But this is considered a non-problem in most builds, as Expertise has so few sources that trying to optimize the stat makes everything else more difficult.   And since condi builds all default to Vipers anyway, its just easier to use that as the starting point, and close the rest of the duration gap using flat bonuses. 

[How Is Damage Calculated?]

9 hours ago, wolfsblut.9435 said:

The important effect of duration is simply that you are able to stack more condis on to the target.

 

High stacks don't change the total damage output.   The numbers just look bigger, because its condensed into fewer ticks. 

[Tyria Mastery points]

Silverwastes spawns are both randomized and linked to the map's meta status.   Basically if you wanna maximize your chances, you need a map willing to advance the fort upgrades, as that directly increases the chances of the Legendaries spawning.   Otherwise, you'd just have to bum around and hope RNG eventually scores, and that enough people care to come help kill it within the time limit.     I don't know how active SW now since IceBrood saga has a lot of farms pop up since its introduction. 

 

That said...  you can always pay for a fractal carry to knock out the majority of those points, or hire a memser to portal you through the JPs.  Options are there if you're willing to enlist other players (and pay them). 

[Questions About Gear Ratings]

Ok, to really understand this part of the culture, you have to become familiar with a couple things about the overall design of the game.

 

The game caps your level at 80, and that all Gear (regardless of rarity) are scaled based on level.  There is NO random element to gear stat numbers.  The Devs also balance the majority of content around Exotic stat magnitudes.  Ascended and Legendary gear are only +10% total over Exotics.  All of this was done with the intent to flatten the gear system, and prevent a BIS gear treadmill...... which was one of several reasons the Anet devs originally left WoW's development to start their own Company. (Yes, Most of Anet's founders are ex-blizzard employees) (also, ironically, the Raid team for Fosaken Thicket were also from WoW)

 

So with that in mind, this the table of stat distributions for gear at level 80

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Attribute_combinations#Attribute_bonuses_at_level_80

 

They're divided into 3 categories;

 

3-stat, (1 major 2 minor) which offers highest peak value for the major, but the lowest total bonus across all stats

 

4-stat, (2 major 2 minor) which offers moderate peak value (15% lower), but a 15% higher stat total, and more easily enables an off stat without significant loss to your primary ones.

 

All-stat, aka Celestials, has low peak value, but contributes to ALL of the primary attributes, and has almost double the total point bonus of the 3-stats.  This is popular among hybrid builds, because the stat distribution is basically impossible to replicate with 3 and 4 stat gears without being 50% worse. 

 

---------------------

 

Next, in terms of significant stat distribution, Gear only makes up about 30% of your overall performance values.  In buildcraft, it mainly serves as the baseline number to which the class builds themselves will scale off of.  The build itself constitutes "at least" 50% of the your DPS output, with the last 20% coming from boons and buffs.  Defense works on a similar concept, but doesn't scale as high due to there simply being less defense traits to stack. 

 

Within Gear, Trinkets make up roughly 50% of the gear stat total, with the Amulet alone being 10% of your gear bonus.  The weapons making up almost 20%. Which means the armor is only 30% of everything.  This is incredibly significant when you consider armor costs more then triple the cost of weapons (if crafting), and that trinkets are mostly gained through secondary currency/tokens. 

 

When put all this into perspective, Exotic gear (which was the original top tier, and easily found at vendors in late game areas) was set up to get a player into Max stats as quickly as possible, and plateau to make PvP/WvW balance simple.  PvE itself was meant to be casual and side content between PvP seasons.  ...... if its not Clear yet....  GW2 (just like GW1) is PvP centric in its design.  Even more so in GW1, where even the enemies were designed the same way players were. 

 

Ascended and Legendary gear were an after thought to work as a gold sink for post-80 content.  Ascended itself actually didn't get a stat bonus until around a year after its introduction.  And Legendary gear is basically identical stat wise, but has the ability to change them on the fly.    Exotics cost like 30g for a full set of Berserkers.   But an Ascended set is around 700g.  And Legendary gear is around 2500g for either a Weapon or an Armor set.  Legendary Trinkets.... those will cost you a couple years of your life. 

 

 

------------------

 

 

So with that out of the way......   if we're thinking about the leveling process......   Gear doesn't contribute anything worth even considering until over half way through the game.   Partly because you level so fast, low level gear is obsolete without a couple of hours (tops), and partly because the number scales aren't significant enough to make any notable difference in damage or sustain.  

 

There are 2 major spikes in difficulty in Core Tyria (everything past core Tyira is lvl 80 as a base line).  Level 45, aka the Start of the Act 2. And again at lvl 65, around the time Act 3 starts.   In the original leveling system, these were 2 major milestones where your trait points totals were enough to spec deeply into certain trait lines..... and were supposed to be reflective of the buildcraft opened via having an additional trait line open.  The enemies were also overscaled to you at this point in the story, to help sell them as a threat... but the changes to the leveling system by the Hero point era further misaligned the difficulty at these jumps.  As a cumulative result, they are insanely tough to fight.  And this misalignment carries all the way up through level 80.... until you can finally piece together a properly optimized build. 

 

So until lvl 45, gear basically doesn't matter beyond keeping the armor value in tow so you don't get whacked too hard.  At lvl 65 and up, you can start caring about the primary stat bonus to beef up your damage, and better had already learned the value of the dodge roll (cuz you aren't soaking damage without a bunker build from here on out). 

 

Once at at level 80, and can start using gear that'll be relevant more for then a couple of hours, only THEN can put serious thought into stat optimization.   Because gear can only invest in 3 or 4 stats per piece, and each piece contributes a relatively small % of the overall, it ends up being extremely common to focus stats into one synergy combo for damage or healing.  Bunkers are extremely rare outside of PvP, because in 90% of situations, ending a fight is safer then trying to outlast it.  For the first 2 years, the Meta Tank for Raids was a DPS Memser with just enough toughness to cheese the AI aggro rules.  And it makes perfect sense..... why heal through damage, when you can just avoid taking damage in the first place?   And Mesmer's duelist nature, and 6 Invuls through Sunday, made it the perfect candidate to do 3 jobs in team one slot. 

 

Now if we ignore the Meta, which already does the math for you......  there are a few rules of thumb for optimization in open world scenarios, where team support is not a given.   And the meta math is partially based on these thresholds, so these serve to understand what the Meta Comps are doing as an aggregate across multiple players.

 

For power builds, Berserkers are the ultimate trifecta of how power damage works.   Power, Precision and Ferocity.  AKA, Damage, Crit chance, and Crit Bonus.  So generally power damage builds have a target of 2500 Power, 75% passive Crit chance, and whatever crit bonus you can muster.   I say Crit chance instead of Precision, because most classes access to cirt chance modifiers that give a flat bonus in some form or another.  The Optimal target is 2800+ Power (if the class even allows for it), 100% modified Crit chance, and at least 300% Crit bonus.  Modified Crit includes Fury, Buff bonuses like Spotter or Tactics banner, and any conditional traits that bump up crit chance total to the cap of 100%.  

 

Necro specifically has 2 huge crit chance modifiers in Soul Reaping and Reaper trait lines that, when combined, add +50% to crit chance.  Enough that you can shift parts of your gear to stats without precision to pump up other useful stats.  Like Valkyries replacing Prc with Vit, which increase both your HP total and Life Force total; allowing you to soak enough raw damage in Shroud mode, that tanking is actually option for them.    This was actually a very solid open world Reaper build for a few years... until they messed with the shroud uptime.  Its still decent... but before the nerfs, you could self sustain through almost anything.  From solo champ fights, to just standing in world boss AOEs like it was nothing. 

 

Anyway.....  outside of power builds, other useful threshold values are:

 

2500 Armor (toughness+defense), for whats considered "no longer glass"

2800 Armor for tanky

3200+ bunker with no damage potential

 

900 Condition damage for Condi builds (because condi damage has no baseline attribute)

70% passive Crit chance gets you 95-100% crit chance with fury and incidental buffs

You still want at least 70% avg crit chance for condi builds, because a lot of traits tend to trigger on crits. 

 

15-18k HP to not die in 2 hits. 

Toughness factors in initial aggro, but damage factors more and will lock it in at the start of combat. 

 

With most damage builds, you can trade 10-15% of your DPS potential to double your self sustain.   For the vast majority of classes, you can make this trade off purely through traits. 

 

Hybrid builds work on the idea of leveraging 2 damage vectors to bypass the strongest defense of a target, but has a lower peak DPS.  Power builds being front loaded, while condi damage is back loaded (ie yields over a longer fight).  As of now, only half the classes have the right type of quirks to properly abuse a hybrid buld.  Even then, they tend to be less directly effective to either pure power or pure condi builds due to external factors scaling better on higher baseline numbers.  They're only really seen in PvP and WvW, where surviving an opening burst from a Glass Cannon is the only chance you have at fighting them.  In all the PvE sectors, its a game of attrition... and the mobs out pace you by default. 

[Will soundtracks ever be released on CD?]

• Since it seems no one here knows....  let me tell you the tale of the Composer and the Story teller. 

 

In a time long ago, when the ages of Tyria were slightly younger then they are now, there existed two muses.  Neither Gods, nor dragons, nor mist walker, they are more primordial than primordial.   Storyteller was tasked with compiling the history and future of this world.  In pictures, in writing, thoughts, fears, hopes, all that is and all that will be.  And to the composer was tasked to give that story a voice.  Every emotion, every sensation, a tangible quality to which the writings and artistry of Storyteller could not accomplish alone. 

 

And for a time they were successful.  But when these two first came together to begin their work, there was a contract.  One that defined what each was to do, and what each would decide the fate for.  A split that was seemingly uncommon for its time.   Thus the Composer and his Guild, "The Directsong", would facilitate distribution of his music in places where the Stroyteller's guild had not included as part of the Chronicles they had pressed.   However, each would contribute to a compendium for this project.  And thus the first master works was given to those who sought it. 

 

Years would pass, and again the two muses would meet again to continue their work further in this world.  For there were new stories to be recorded, and too were new voice to accompany it.   And again a compendium was constructed. But when the time came to release this master works to the world, many were without a voice.  In the time since, many have sought answers as to why this was... but answers remain few and cryptic.  Some have managed to obtain the sacred Disks of Songs; but all there is now is perhaps all that will ever be.  The Directsong guild has since disappeared from the light, and is now spoken only in whispers of forgotten tales.   The truth possibly buried beyond reach of even the most daring of Priory Scholars.  A Frustrating situation seeing as the Composer still creates to this day; but through him no answers have been ever obtained.   At least not ones that satisfy the questions being asked of him.   But for what its worth, the Composer has made his thoughts known of the Ethereal Bandits; ones who would gathered his works against his will, and offered to any who seek it. 

 

 

Not much is known in that time until Mordremoth's awakening.  Though in the era since, a new guild of Muses has taken up the mantle of "voice giver" to the storyteller's chronicles.  And the Composer has not been spoken of since.... at least not in polite company. 

 

But in my travels I HAVE heard of other tales of the Composer.  And it seems his history is long and storied.  Others have sought him to aid in their works; many of those well known legends among many circles.  Last I heard, he was traveling the NORTHERN lands to write his DIARIES.  But that too seemed to have been wrought with peril, shrouded in mystery, despite several chapters of which have been sung by the ethereal mist ways that connect all in our modern life.  Whats to come next is unclear. 

[Strictly pve solo]

Condi is a waste of time for "strictly PvE'. 80/20 Zerk/Maruder split and Power damage builds.

You must be asking yourself "what about weaver? its got condi". Weaver is Hybrid. Burn Holo, Firebrand, Condi Ranger, all hybrids. Vipers gear? Got power damage. Zerks anything will knock most enemies down in under 2 seconds. Anything that lives you just unload, kite then unload again on cool down. Simple, cheap, efficient, doesn't require constant upkeep- and nothing like full condi.

You know who went full Condi? Shortbow Renegade. Some of the Highest DPS in the game.... but only if the target stands around and lives longer then a minute. And you need a whole group built around you to be really effective. You go full condi, you go home empty handed.

[What would each profession smell like?]

It smells like Cartoon Planet.

[Old Player back - what do I play]

@"Merlin.4058" said:Two people brought this up;

I mean, if the trip up to level 80 isn't fun, why does it suddenly become fun when the difficulty and expatiation is ramped up? I'm not going to play all that time in a class that isn't fun to suddenly be told "Oh it's fun now if you know what you're doing with this high end build that you surely followed to the letter".

I want a Profession that's fun to play for the trip not the ending grind that I'm probably not going to stick around for.

You're operating on misconception. Most games tend to operates on a linear power progression, usually entirely vertical. Guildwars 1 and 2 is designed mostly around Tournament PvP, so the leveling process is incredibly fast, and power designed to plateau once you hit level 80 (which has NEVER been raised, nor the lvl 20 cap from the first game). The entire Core Content block for PvE was created as a way for players unwind between PvP competitive season, and used generate resources for WvW guilds. PvE was never its main focus, but intentionally made expansive and interesting enough to keep players busy either solo, or with guildmates. But one major benefit of how the loot system works, fosters an environment of general cooperation and a lot of Ad-Hoc grouping. This dismantled the problem of kill stealing, and actually benefits everyone when events scale up. Its these factors that ended up causing Open World PvE to explode in popularity, while Anet's Esports aspirations died on the vine due to how they managed it.

The reason I bring this up is because this explains the entire class system design premise, and the majority of its quarks in PvE specifically.

With the pre amble out of the way, the first thing you have to understand about classes and the Especs is that each are design around facilitating certain play styles FIRST, and role fulfillment Second. Core Specs (baseline class) have the capacity to fit any role a team might ask for, but their specific play styles are what create the massive performance gaps. Guardian and Elementalist had dominated the Pre-HOT metas because of how much built-in self sustain and group buffing they had baseline access to, giving them natural force multiplication. Engineer and Memser had strong group utility, but lacked the natural damage output of the above 2. While every other class had most of their power focused internally, but only averaged the same damage output with none of force multiplication, and huge variations in the level of self-sustain. Most classes had a niche they could excel in..... but Speed Dungeons and Open world farming was were the real money was being made. So while Thief could gank in PvP, and Rangers Pet-Tank in open world roaming, if you didn't have access to Front loaded AOE damage, you were severely under performing in the long run.

All of that can be attributed to how poorly PvE enemies perform, and the huge reliance on HP/Damage scaling to make them threatening. We know for a fact that the AI can support a hand full of "intelligent" behaviors- but were all canned in beta testing because play testers couldn't handle (and were getting frustrated with) enemies that moved around, made use of defensive skills, moved out of AOE damage, targeted support heavy players, and ran when getting their ass kicked. What was left is the brain dead AI behavior we have today, and is the foundation for a problem seen in nearly every other game where enemies are easy to bunch up and AOE to death.

Adding to the situation is the game's build system is heavily weighted on multiplicative power amplification, along with a number of steep mechanical advantages. Where this creates issues during leveling is the massively inconsistent value of individual skills, traits and stats, verses a fully synergistic build. The problem is that a lot of classes have their build defining traits in the Grandmaster tier, and requires at least 2 fully unlocked trait lines (along with complimenting utility skills) to have any form of cohesion. Without that, most classes perform extremely poorly, and immediately struggle at the difficulty spikes at lvl 35 and 60, with no clear external indicators as to whats happening. But the difficulty spike is only frustrating due to it being unexpected; and once players finally master dodging, the majority of that threat is marginalized.

Its been quoted by the devs that their internal metrics show that the performance difference between an average player and a competent player is easily a factor of 5 or higher. With a skilled player, this gap increases to a factor of 10. A lot of this comes from being able to run riskier builds without dying, keeping attack rotations going while maneuvering around damage, or being able to shut down/counter an opponent by knowing a given vulnerability. Since specific skills or traits are what enable these strategies and builds to operate, players that understand buildcraft tend to be ahead of the power curve, while players who don't (or stuck in mind sets developed from other RPGs) tend to get frustrated by being far behind it.

Meta builds focus on end game content because its the only part of the game that demands it for a pay off. Its actually less strict then it looks;- But the cultural ignorance that surrounds the Wiki-Warrior (IE people who copy builds or guides on the internet like instruction manuals, but put no effort into understanding the underlying reasoning in HOW it works) is what contributes to the toxic "speed clearing" culture typically seen every MMO's End-game content block. GW2 isn't free of this either; but because the game doesn't actively funnel players into things like Raids and Dungeons as the only path for advancement, a lot players never bother with it. However, because meta builds are specifically focused on end-game content, and meta builds being the only easily found resource on buildcraft, this has convinced a significant chunk of the community that its a divisive line between good and bad. If its not obvious yet.... that notion is false.

With all this in mind, it is absolutely TRUE that most classes don't actually make sense until everything is unlocked at level 80, where you have access to all your skills, traits, and can directly craft/buy a complete gear set with a properly aligned stat block. On your way up to level 80, if you pick skills, traits and drop/karma gear haphazardly (or picked only on face value), any class will perform very clunky. But with a proper build, meta or non-meta, not only is the performance much higher, but mechanics suddenly start to make functional sense. And its almost always universally more fun to play, because being able to properly understand what you're doing, and being able to adapt on the fly, creates a huge amount of Agency in combat.

Building on this further..... the reason you see this sentiment with the Xpac being kind of divisive, calls directly to what I've trying out line across this whole post. Core Tyria, which is the original Open World maps and Personal Story, have extremely easy enemies. Insultingly easy. It was made this easy for general accessibility.... and has been nerfed to be even easier on at least 5 different occasions, because the playerbase's lowest common denominator still doesn't know theres a dodge key. Most casuals are not "that" bad.... but its still pretty bad. The Xpacs takes off the kid gloves immediately; to where even the preamble to Heart of Thorns (the Dry top and Silverwaste maps, which technically part of Core), will absolutely destroy any unprepared player within 100m of leaving Camp Resolve. But any half way competent player with a decent build only has to worry about getting severely outnumbered. But its in the Xpac maps that things get serious. Enemies are far more varied, and readily compliment each other in combat. AOE attacks and Defensive abilities become more common, the game introduces mobs with specific counters, or can directly counter types of player attacks, everything hits harder, hits more often, and almost always attack in groups.

In order to simply not die, much less kill things, players need a strong understanding of several core game mechanics (such as dodging, debuff conditions, CCs, and Boons), a competent build that gives them the damage and defensive options necessary to be in the fight, exploiting enemy weaknesses while compensating for their own, what order to fight things when they gang up on you, and doing all of this while avoiding ground AOE, heavy hitters, enemy CCs, and not accidentally positioning yourself in spot where they can get chain going on you. Succeed in that environment, and its a thrill of a well earned victory. But if you die, most people would feel cheated and frustrated, not understanding (or even wanting to understand) why their getting their ass handed to them.

The way Especs play into this is how they change the class's MO. In core, each class has some kind of limitation that their play style has difficulty with. Core Necro for instance is very spotty when it comes to fighting groups of mobs, as they don't have a lot of consistent front loaded damage. However, the vast majority of Especs are designed to cover down a class's inherent weakness, either working around it, or directly giving them a solution to that problem. Necro's Reaper spec is a front line brawler with melee cleave, front loaded damage, and a much more consistent attack rate.... things core necro lacks or struggles with. Dragon Hunter addressed Guardian's poor mobility by giving them tools to deal with Kiters, and be able to Kite themselves. Dare Devil gives Thief a versatile melee kit with defense options that don't revolve around stealth. Some simply double down on a class's existing strengths, such as Weaver's increased damage bonuses or Mirage's mobility. Some specs are even drastic changes to a play style... like Druid being a straight up healer, or Holosmith being incredibly streamlined for damage.

I'd argue that the Especs offer so much to build diversity, that game doesn't even really start until you have access to them. And even if you hate the way a Core class works, one of the two especs can potentially be your favorite out of the whole class line up. We're looking at whats effectively 27 classes, with at least 2 viable builds for each.

[best class for solo build?]

It really depends on how good you are as a player with certain build types. Thief and Ranger have the highest potential for Kiting, but building them for damage leaves a very small margin of error against the kind of damage Champs put out in POF. Necro, Warrior and Guardian have the best options for sustain at melee range, but their damage to durability ratio varies heavily, and specing too far away from damage actually makes fights harder. Ele and Mesmer are strong damage options, but the way their builds scale when not running pure glass requires a higher level of player knowledge to work effectively. Revs have solid damage output, but all their builds do not afford mistakes well, and hybridizing them is incredibly difficult without a party comp to build them around. Engineers (more specifically Holosmith) are generally solid. But they've suffered a series of serious damage nerfs that leads to many fights now being drawn out, when they used to excel at it.

I've seen people screw up using builds back when they were still overpowered..... But the direction things are heading, a good build can't carry a bad player anymore. And a half way decent player can succeed and improve an any half way serviceable build they come across.

So the real question is, how are you approaching those fights, and what are the things that get you killed the most. That'll arm you with enough information to figure out which builds has a play style you can operate correctly. Thats assuming you're not pulling a Dunning-Kruger, and believing you can beat champs you have no right in believing you could solo. Bounties especially, as their specifically designed around the damage output of 5+ players.

[Should I server transfer?]

First, before we get any deeper...... Servers no long matter outside of World vs World. They removed the logical barrier between "worlds", and upscaled the game's overflow system to become a unified "Mega server". When a map gets full, the game simply spawns a new shard of it, and sends incoming players to it. When people move off, the shards count down and expire, and move any remaining players to another active shard.

The only reason WvW still uses worlds, is it being a major organizational unit in match making. But this too is going away in favor of Guild Alliances, as the "world" unit is currently too inflexible, and too easily prone to population shift. So conceptually, the only division that exists on the PvE side is between NA, EU and China regional servers, as they correspond to physical locations for consistent performance.

Moving on.... what you're seeing is NOT a "low population" problem. The way the game's content is structured and released lends toward a problem of "map popularity" getting the majority of activity. The issues you're seeing in LFG are a specific problem of the Raiding and Fractal community being very hostile toward Pugs, and instead favor "static groups" of regulars they play with. Thus the only people advertising in LFG are Fractal Daily runners (which are the most casual of the bunch, but only focus on Challenge modes for the bonus loot), PUG raids which may or may not be properly organized, and Raid Sellers. Dungeons have not been popular in years, as Anet has been using reward systems to lure players into Fractals and Raids..... with the subsequent community barrier for entry causing many to give up on it entirely.

Open world Pugs don't bother with LFG outside of scheduled/opportunistic world events, because there is literally no other reason to call player attention to it. Thus most just wander around soloing stuff until an event worth doing pops up, and to which they join as an ad-hoc participant. World boss and certain Meta events require certain tasking..... and its in those events you're more likely to see Commander tags, squads, and sub-groups actively organize for the sake of success.

We're coming off the tail end of a major Holiday festival, and a week away from a new Story chapter drop..... so most people are on break, or moving at a relaxed pace, in preparation for next week's hardcore AP and rewards farming. When that content block goes live, 90% of the player base will be funneling into that map, spawning multiple shards to handle the load. It'll peak for about 2 weeks or so, and once novelty wears off, and people got the skins they've wanted, they disperse back to their normal farming routines. That will NOT change the LFG situation, since thats caused by different factors... but the other popular farming maps will get their populations back to normal.

[Assuming any known magical effect can be combined with 1+ others what do you want to see?]

@Daniel Handler.4816 said:

@"starlinvf.1358" said:Magika logic

https://magicka.fandom.com/wiki/Spells

I've been meaning to buy that game. Is it good?

The game itself is a parody of the entire fantasy genre.... so expect everything from stupidity to blissful camp. Mechanically its by far one of the best magic systems every thought up for an action game..... but its design also makes it one of the most chaotic systems to use under pressure.

Spells are cast by invoking a sequence of spell elements (11 total, and 3 of which are combinations of 2 elements), which outputs 1 of 2 types of spells based on how its constructed. Each spell element has a set of traits associated with it, such as damage type, and both constructive and destructive interference with other spell elements. When casting spells, you have different buttons which control how the targeting behavior works, which also factors into how the spell is cast. Increasing the number of spell elements (up to 5) increases the magnitude of the spell. Mixing elements dilutes the effects based on the ratio of compatible elements and the casting type. Some effects interplay as well. So hitting someone with lighting when they are wet increases damage. But water and lightning are opposing elements that cancel each other during spell creation.... however, you can combine fire and water first to get Steam, which can wet the target, and then add lightning to that to get a spell that wets and hits with lightning.

https://magicka.gamepedia.com/Spell_Combinations

The second type of spell output is what people normally associate with "spells", known as Magkics. By arranging elements in specific patterns, you can cast very powerful spells that are greater then the sum of its parts. Like lighting storms, volcanic fissures, or just causing a Rain shower. However, these types of spells have to be obtained through the course of a game by finding scrolls or books on the maps or via drops.

What separates Magika from most games is the that its EVERYTHING has friendly fire. Enemies included. This was intentionally done for Coop play, because you have to be a lot more careful in how you cast spells (which is hard considering since AOE is everyone's go-to for damage spells), but you can actively support and heal each other by casting defense spells with allies in the effect area/path, divide up spell duties where one wets all the enemies while another positions for a strong lighting beam, or cancelling effects to save other players (such as using water to put out players that are on fire, just in time to get zapped by enemy lightning). This game is famous for being able to suss out friends who lack situational awareness, or are so single minded they don't realize how much collateral damage they're creating until someone dies (if even then). We're talking MarioKart/MarioParty levels of "you know who your friends are, when....". Despite how it sounds, the game is waaaay better in coop BECAUSE of it.

For anyone who remembers Richard from LFG (who is a total dick, btw), they were making a video game for the comic some years back. To quote the developer about how Richard, who both canon OP and an alignment of "chaotic asshole", has the strongest abilities of his party; but also does ridiculous amounts of collateral damage with no regard for other people....... "With great power comes no responsibility". That phrase is Magika Coop in a nutshell.

I highly recommend the game just to experience what its like. But a minor health warning. Do no play if you suffer from a condition known as "stupid fingers".

[How would I explain a human, but noble necromancer?]

To build on whats been said in the thread so far, Necromancy's social standing falls into this purposeful blind spot shared with a modern Mortuary, or Undertaker in older times...... As in People don't like to think about, but their services are important to the flow of society.

The day to day job of a Necromancer revolves around caring for grave sites and shrines, handling services and rituals involving the deceased, investigating super natural phenomena, and laying the smack down on those that would cleft the delicate order of the Cosmos in twain!!!!! Humans have long feared death, and the very subject makes most uneasy. Nobles in particular exist in a perpetual state of denial, actively avoiding conversations involving anything perceived as being uncomfortable or offensive to their sensibilities.... face to face. Behind people's back, Nobles gossip like its their job. For some, it probably is their job.

In the case of a Noble being a Necromancer, the default state of uneasiness is high just because small talk would be difficult when Family, Work and Weather are the 3 things the conversation gravitates toward. But given the Noble's culture in DR, and how it revolves around status, propaganda and political maneuvering... its entirely reasonable for a Noble to pursue Necromancy, while avoid being a social pariah, by way of charm and conversational skills. Avoiding topics that make people uncomfortable or depressed, while also spinning the nature of their work as something they'd find endearing if not inspiring- such as bravely facing off against spooky ghosts, enacting justice on any who would disturb the peaceful rest of those who've passed on, and selectively softening details while embellishing the heroics. Dressing nice is also not mutually exclusive for the profession. One can also play the allure of a secretive life; outwardly sparing others from the gory details, but also becoming intriguing due to how little is known about it. A simple offer to join you on your routine would be enough to disarm most who had entertained the thought of prying further.

Such a person would have to be very careful about how they navigate conversations.... But one could still realistically operate in noble society. After all- with all the power and fear that surrounds evil necromancers, who better to restore order then one who wields that power to protect life from the darkness? And as a bonus, no one would ever ask you to do party tricks with your magic.

[Mystery: Analysis of Mister E]

What if E part of a split personality in another character? But who would be the Edward Norton to E'sTyler Durden ?

[New Weapons]

@JohnWater.5760 said:

@"starlinvf.1358" said:Guild Wars: Gauntlets and Grimoire - Coming to iOS and Android this spring.

Wiki: "Foci are primarily used by scholar professions and are characterized by having powerful defensive skills and utility"Grimoire would be offensive instead.Some RPGs grimoire is a weapon, nothing unusual. Some movies and tv shows too.

List of RPGs with Grimoire:Aura KingdomEden EternalFinal FantasyA lot...

But thats being a little dismissive of how the mechanics and lore in THIS game operate. How do you separate it from Staff, which is 2 handed, highly associated with magical classes, and lacks the benefit of a physical application? What makes it different from the 1h magical weapons? You also still haven't pitched a hook beyond "other games have it, so why not?"

It would be like trying to separate Shurikens from Short Bows, since the Short bow's abilities have already been shown to go beyond physical limitation. Even the difference between Short bow and Long bow is pretty minimal on paper. But has managed to get away with it by using the conceptual difference between Pistols and Rifles, and applying it to the bows in order to give them a personality. Something else thats been bothering me is why all your examples feel like weakly repuposed ideas, when both of these feel like they should have more leverage thematically and mechanically. I think its partly because you've overreached by trying to get every class have something, which exhausts the creativity in order fill the quota.

See..... gauntlets I can totally get behind, because theres enough (as in a few decades worth of pop culture exposure) examples of unconventional uses in stories and games, many of which people are familiar with at this point. This affords it a very strong identity that easily separates it from other blunt melee weapons, with minimal convincing, and even comes with expectations of entire fighting styles built around it.

Grimoire doesn't have that; and most easily looked up information immediately found is either "Spell book" or describing what Foci already represent in this game. So it raises the question of what physical structure does a Grimoire have other then "Spellbook" or "Scroll" that can conceptually separate it from Foci? And since we're here....... What can simply having the Foci go Main hand (or even 2 hand) "NOT DO" that the Grimoire can? As presented so far, its incredibly bland/generic; and is the main reason why I'm criticizing it so hard.

Just think of the many ways we could use a Hoop to design attacks in Melee, Ranged and Magical contexts, all while having a very distinct physical profile. Pole Arms and Whips can as well. Giant Fan is another one that comes up rarely, but could work here as well.

[ArenaNet should rename word "Raid" into something else]

@LadyKitty.6120 said:

@"Vinceman.4572" said:Even just a renaming would be flogging a dead horse.We're done guys, totally done.

Sad to admit but that's becoming a very true statement. Sometimes there's no LFG raid squads in either region and NA rarely has anything but raid sellers in LFG (on some rare days it gets a bit more active at NA primetime). EU still has somewhat active (though way less than before) LFG between afternoon and midnight EU time.

I would attribute that to everyone simply sticking to static groups. Way less overhead, and player weaknesses are known ahead of time. The entire concept of Raids as we think of it is antithetical to Pugs.

Raids are very community driven, despite the amount of mechanical work that goes into them. If the community isn't willing to cooperate, either with the game or among themselves, the whole thing rapidly falls apart. The Raid community shutting out new players is whats causing the stagnation. New players unwilling to conform their culture is whats causing them to shut people out. Raid culture being judgemental and unwilling to foster a stronger community dynamic is why new players are unwilling to conform. When Raids were new, the raid community had an incentive to be welcoming and willing to invest in training up new players. Once static groups stabilized, all that incentive was lost, and its been nothing but entropy ever since.

Not all players are cut out for raid content.... but a lot more ARE then is actually participating, because the Raid community has no interest in helping to lower its barrier for entry. To quote House Stark's family motto.... "I got mine"

[Elder Aurene renders and size comparison]

With any luck, once shes a bit bigger, we can have a straight up Shadow of the Colossus/God of War 3 "wild ride" across the back of a giant beast.

[ArenaNet should rename word "Raid" into something else]

@Melech.4308 said:

@"Xar.6279" said:Current "raids " are fine for average PvE players which likes to do same things over and over again. For some reason it's not boring for them. Their main reason is to do anything together and socialize meantime with others. It can be "raids" but they will be fine with any PvE content. Like dungeons, fractals or even open world stuff.

But current "raids" in Guild Wars 2 have nothing to do with real raiding experience which is focused on progression. And very organized group content.That's why most of the real raiders quit gw2.You can't keep raiders interested when there's just 3 bosses per year and game is missing meaningful rewards.

IMO word "Raid" should be renamed to something else. Why?

• Real raiders feels cheated by ArenaNet.

• Average PvE players don't like this word. They don't like raids from other mmorpg's so they avoid this content in Guild Wars 2.

It would be healthier for both groups.

"Super Strike Missions""Voyages""Adventures"

Any of these sound better?

Or go with something more descriptively accurate...... Like "Breaking and Entering", "Burglary", "Homicide and/or Assassination", or "Grand Theft Larceny".

[New Weapons]

Guild Wars: Gauntlets and Grimoire - Coming to iOS and Android this spring.

But on a serious note...... Grimoire is just a word used for magic books and scrolls that Teach you magic and artifacing. But the professions already operate in a way that any weapon is entirely usable as a magical focus, and requires no other special properties. A good chunk of Focus weapons are also modeled as scrolls, books, artifacts, and keepsakes to keep with the flavor of being a strictly magic user tool, but can turn any martial weapon into a magical one by virtue of their profession's training.