Waldrun.8493

6 slots per character isn't enough builds for many players just for PvE, let alone all 3 gamemodesMonetizing them per slot is a shameful gouge of the players that needed build templates the most and defeats the purpose of them. I sure don't feel free to use a bigger variety of builds when there is a paywall to climb over for each new build I want to use more conveniently.Because we aren't actually saving anything for gear "templates" and have such limited space, having to change a setup when all slots are used means overwriting an existing one and then having to manually change it back....Forcing us to buy inventory space to store our gear setups is a slap in the face of everyone with legendary gear and those who already bought bag space from you to store their equipment. Having the slots so limited and monetized means they are worthless for storing relatively minor build variants, I can spend thousands of gems for full slots and still have to do manual adjustments all the time.Most of the people who wanted build templates wanted something similar to arc templates (or what existed in the first GW that was extended to swap equipment) but you guys just had to go with an inferior and extremely limited slot system instead so you could do this shameful cash grab. I want to pay for an actual expansion (CONTENT), not spend hundreds of dollars worth of gems on a QoL feature that is inferior to a free mod that you forced to be discontinued. But of course nothing will change because most people don't care about or understand how this screws over the your most dedicated players. Thanks for nothing.

It isn't that Anet isn't aware of PBM. Anet wanted it dead, and are happy that its carcass is rotting in the rain. Look at the series of events: New changes get announced, players complain it will kill holosmith.Anet implements changes, and kills holosmith. Players complain.Anet implements buffs specific to ECSU sword builds. Holosmith still ruined. Players complain.Anet implements a few very specific PVE related changes to traits. Holosmith is finally on the map again, but only the ECSU build.After months of feedback of players saying they hate that PBM is worthless, next update no changes have been made to make PBM better. The intentions are clear. Anet doesn't want the PBM builds to be meta, or even useful anywhere. Their intention is that holosmith players have to constantly watch and manage their heat bar, or else. Because that is "skill." They're not going to fix PBM. It would be sad if that was true, but I can't say I'm convinced of that. Outside of not doing the specific fix required to fully revive the PBM builds there isn't really any evidence that they intend for the trait to be in the crappy, incoherent state that it is now. They never even mentioned PBM in notes for the patch that ruined it and described the toolbelt lockout as a "slight increase to the penalty for overheating" which is ridiculous thing to say if completely ruining PBM was their objective. Since there wasn't exactly a huge uproar on the forums about PBM (well, nothing compared to the recent sand shade changes anyway), it's easy to see them not paying attention to it. Also, the Laser's Edge buff that disproportionately benefited the ECSU build did partially revive the PBM rifle build too, so while the utility/flexibility is still crippled by the lockout, it's not completly dead DPS-wise. While they haven't made their intentions for PBM clear at all, I think it's more likely that they aren't trying to remove it from play. That's not to say that I expect a fix or anything, but I'm not going to entirely rule it out either. I just feel that if they hated PBM as much as you say they would have just replaced it entirely (please no) or at least addressed it in the patch-notes. I still lean toward viewing the gutting of PBM as collateral damage of the toolbelt lockout, which was just the balance team's (completely unnecessary) attempt at forcing a new trade-off into holosmith like they have done with other elite specs lately. There may be some hope of a fix for PBM, just not much as they are probably don't care about it and are just going to ignore this thread like most of the other ideas/complaints. I do agree that if we we're going to get a fix, it probably would have happened last patch.

I miss the days when PvE Rifle holo could use its toobelt skills (well, more than half of the time...). If there's any one change I would like for holo, it would be to make PBM exempt from the toolbelt lockout. The nerf to that trait just came out of nowhere since it had already been out of the raid and fractal meta for months. And I thought my beloved rifle holo was safe since it was a little under-powered.

This change completely ruined the sand shade mechanic for much of PvE. Casting them in any situation where you or a boss are frequently moving feels like it's too much of a liability given that It's super easy to run out of charges with the current 15 second count cooldown and once out you're essentially locked out of your shade abilities. Tough luck if you place your last charge and the mob immediately runs out of it! It's like they don't want us to even bother placing sand shades at all which would be an outright dps loss given that we rely on them for ~10% condi duration. I'm probably just going to equip a malice sigil and forgo sand shades entirely on bosses like matthias and soulless horror and save myself the frustration (or just play a different build...). Scourge was already bottom tier in PvE and now it no longer has the versatility that made it special to begin with. Even on bosses that don't move in raids, we are now forced to place all of our shades on the boss now rather than spread them out to help take care of add's or a seperate mini-boss which defeats the original purpose of sand shades ("play the field"). Sand shades in raids now feel like their only purpose is to just boost your expertise on stationary bosses and not much else. They could still be usable on moving bosses, but they would have to be rationed rather than used to their full potential for utility and the expertise bonus. They could mitigate this nerf to PvE scourge by significantly lowering the cooldown to manifest sandshade, but it would still be annoying and overly restrictive compared to just reverting this awful change. Giving up your mobile PBAoE field (for 20s!) feels like too much of a trade-off for placing sand shades in much of PvE. Even with the reduced cooldown with sand savant traited it is still easy to run out of charges and be screwed over. RIP using my scourge with sand savant to farm labyrinth this Halloween.

I was desperately hoping that they would address the toolbelt lockout for PBM with this last balance patch but it's clearly not on their radar. It feels like they aren't even aware of the trait given that they never even mentioned it in the patch notes when it was most affected by the toolbelt lockout. As an engineer main it's really frustrating to me that they would nerf a fun trait that was already under-performing. Being locked out of my important toolbelt skills for half the rotation just robbed the rifle build of most of the depth that it had (And deleted the PBM sword builds). I can still make the build work okay dps-wise, but I often feel useless during break bars and it's never been as fun as it used to be. I really hope we get a fix someday, but I'm not expecting one. I just want my toolbelt skils back anet. :C The newer ECSU build doesn't even come close to being a proper replacement for me. Sword just isn't as much fun and having to preheat without being able to leave photon forge and lock my heat is super annoying.

The sand shade change is going to make dps scourge just awful to play against high movement bosses in raids. Scourge is already weak in raids and now some of my shade abilities will miss on moving bosses or I won't be able to hit them at all for a time if I run out of shade charges. This could discourage players from placing sand shades at all in these situations which would also be a dps loss. Also, the whole purpose of sand shades was to "play the field" and place them to cover a lot of area; now I'll have to place all of them on the boss to ensure that my shroud abilities can hit while still benefiting from the shades. This really defeats the supposed purpose of the sand shade mechanic. This change is going to make scourge even less desirable in raids and just feel really clunky to play on the bosses that move a lot (which is where I mostly play it). PvE Scourge really doesn't deserve this new limitation.

How is it nerf in pve ? In raids, where I really enjoy playing scourge, it's ability to land shade abilities is going to be awful on bosses that move a lot. If a boss moves out of your shades all your shade abilities become completely useless now there will be no pulsing AoE around your character. If a boss moves too much you will have to just not use sand shades at all to be able to use your shade abilities on the boss which would be a over dps loss for a class that's already underperforming. This is going to be painful on bosses like soulless horror.

Is the toolbelt lockout affecting overheating while using the Photonic Blasting Module trait for holo never going to be addressed or was nerfing (and making less fun) an under-powered trait intentional?

100% Agree with this post. Being locked out of toolbelt skills for half the rotation completely kills what versatility the PBM build had. Now the rotation is more rigid than ever and doesn't reward skilled play. I really hope they go back on this awful and completely unnecessary change. Rifle holo has been my favorite build since PoF launched; I just want to enjoy and feel rewarded for playing it well again.