scerevisiae.1972

^this. I think the game is a real grind now.

agree the combat is this game's "killer app", but as a PVP-enthusiast, i have to say GW2 PVP is terrible. I hate it. things i hate: * downed state. 8 years on i still hate it, it's some kind of annoying mini-game with an entirely diff set of skills/rules to the real game. just get rid of it completely and rebalance everyone's HP. * standing in circles to win sucks. * that gear/runes are completely different to the rest of the game. * the game/map design is janky and not engaging. it's not interesting to watch either. I think WVW roaming is infinitely more satisfying as a PVP game. GVGs also pretty good. I think Anet should stop wasting resources on sPVP and focus on the WVW/GVG format.

why are some people saying this change will make conditions less impactful - it's the opposite - instead of 100% condi dmg reduction (resistance), it'll only be 33% reduction. modulo PoP engineers ofc... but even still, i would expect overall condi dmg impact to go up, not down.

This. Unfortunately, rangers being bad in zerg is kind of a meme that continues to be propagated by bad/clueless players (ie: 75% of current WVW players). immobeast aoe pull/immob + axe5 combo is the most OP bomb combo for zerg play in the entire game.

so your argument is, why bother healing or applying boons? mmm ok... EVERY bit of class utility counts. meta classes are just lowest-common-denominator builds that can get results no matter how bad the player. metabattle openly states this on their about page - https://metabattle.com/wiki/MetaBattle:About -- "[meta builds] must be great in the hands of any player", ie: skill floor must be low. higher skill players can and will get better results on classes with high(er) utility and higher skill ceilings, which are usually not "meta". staff daredevil is a great example of a high skill floor, high skill ceiling spec that can be extremely effective in the right hands as it can dish out high damage, especially to squishy DPS backliners, while remaining very hard to kill, as well as good area denial and dmg mitigation through area blinds, poison fields and area weakness.

It's blatant market manipulation. High wealth individuals are propping up the market price of MCs to fuel RMT trading with gold sellers. I'm frankly amazed Anet are not doing anything. I've heard multiple rumours of people who do nothing but flip items and sell stacks of MC to RMTs for real world $$.

I'm pretty sure this is just about maximising server transfer income now. When was the last substantive improvement to WVW? When was the last substantive balance patch?

I think you hit the 2 main reasons it hasn't found (any) traction (at all): staff is crap at healing - staff #1 needs to chain to additional targets or heal in an area around the target, something like that.seed AOE is too small - should be 240 or 360 - even if the healing/cleanse amount downscaled with increasing AOE size (ie: 180 radius - 3 condis, 360 radius - 1 condi). too many times the seed bloom is too slow and small to heal anyone and is just wasted. the other big weakness is druid can't give stab except through the elite spirit, but (killable) spirits are total garbage.bad design and lack of care/attention basically.

Not to mention the Swordsman often gets stuck on all kids of world geometry so often doesn't even make it to the target to execute its attack.

It's because metabattle sucks. Builds are made by people with poor game knowledge and/or maths, and admins rabidly delete negative comments and ratings they don't agree with. It's not a true representation of the true meta or community sentiment. You're completely correct that MB's "support chrono meta build" is total garbage, but hey, some people can't think for themselves so it gives these kinds of people something to copy.

no, mesmer sucks in both wvw and pvpmoreover developers seem to be trying really hard to make mesmer unenjoyable on top of being really badbut some people like a challenge, up to you.tldr mesmer sucks for a while and devs dont care. yep basically this. mirage still ok in PVE and chrono can work ok as a boonstrip class in WVW, just don't expect to do competitive DPS or not to get asked to switch to a necro pretty often. mirage way overnerfed in WVW/PVP, it's total garbage.

i'm actually glad. wells were used by basically everyone, because nothing else came close. i still think wells are a bit too strong, corruptions a little too weak.

This. Metabattle builds are sometimes terrible and they routinely delete comments and ratings.

Boonstrip version is dom/illusions, with shatter GM and double F1 shatter plus null field. It's nearly 2x the strip potential of metanoob version.

Agree the metabattle support chrono is terrible for wvw. Power boonstrip chrono brings much more

Not in wvw it doesn't...

Agree the suggested changed in the OP are a bit much, but making the teal aura persistent or part of the weapon trail when swung would be nice.

Can't comment on sPVP side cause i don't play it but from WVW perspective, 1 dodge mirage is just terrible, really terrible. Feels bad and damage/survivability is well below other classes that are far easier to play, eg: flamethrower scrapper - top DPS in zerg fights, just needs to press w and autoattack and scrapper gyro on spikes. Probably the worst/least justified nerf/balancing decision i've seen in 20+ years of playin MMOs.

In WVW it was weak with 2 dodges. But then sweeping 1-dodge nerf came in (noone is sure why) which made it pretty much the weakest class/spec in that game mode. It's fine in PVE cause 2 dodges.

No. There is a huge tell, visual and audible before the pull occurs. Sounds like a "you" problem. I think the projectile pulls from the other side of the map from dragonhunter/thief/engineer is way more obnoxious because the projectile is very hard to see unless in a solo situation and there's no audio cue, and no delay. Also, mesmer is very weak/unpopular in WVW, mirage is basically non-existant. They need a niche.

I also just made it. I love the teal aura on weapon swap but it disappears too quickly. I would kill to have the teal aura persist while i am wielding the weapon. The glowy arms just isn't enough.

Mirage has been dead in PVP/WVW ever since the 1-dodge nerf. Which is weird cause mirage kinda sucked in WVW with 2 dodges, except as a solo roamer where is was "ok".

Agree with the OP. For the cost and pain of crafting this legendary, it's just missing a little something... i think the teal aura should persist or create a weapon trail when swung or thrown, and maybe change colour at night.

BL chest drops are garbage anyway. you'd have to be crazy to spend money on keys.

For sure there is a lot of spying/trolling so I'd be in favour of anything that makes it harder to troll pull tactics, waste supp etc