Daddicus.6128

As I said, I don't care about competitive modes. This idea would be for PvE.

Agreed. I wouldn't limit it to just one trait line, though. But, one would have to choose a single trait line as your elite. (Of course, there would be five, if you wanted to spec out five characters as one of each, but that doesn't seem likely for most folks.) The reason I suggested to upgrade 1 traitline, and a specific one, is because honestly otherwise this is just too much work for too little return. Considering how poorly ANet been handling balancing in this game as it is the last 4-5 years. At that point, you might as well just have a feature that says if you have a class with only core traits, gets a free +20% damage bonus, to compete with the elites. (Number pending depending on actual balance etc) Reworking all 5 trait lines to be both core trait lines and core-elite-traitlines (potential, if put into the third spot) isn't that far from asking for 2-3 new elites, in pure work and balance load. The scale of the idea becomes unrealistic.Yeah, that would work. (Assuming 20% is the right number. But, they would know that.) Different idea for the same concept. Thanks!

One thing might not be clear in my proposal: Characters would get ONE elite specialization, same as now. The key would be that one of them, instead of choosing what are the current elites, could be one of the original five, but at the same slightly elevated power level as the elites have. I THINK that this would mean simply math calculations. If the elites are targeted at 5% better, than make zeal 5% better. And virtue, etc. They shouldn't need to change anything else. (But, your character could only use one of them at a time, and would forego having an elite spec to do it.) NOTE: by "power" in all of the above, I mean general power level, not the specific attribute called Power.

You raise a good point. However, it goes beyond what you stated. Buying the expansions is not enough to get the elite specs. It simply makes them available. To get use the elite specs a new player must 1) purchase the expansions as you stated, 2) get the necessary glider / mounts for step #3, and level up said mounts and 3) get the hero points in expansion content - all this on an under powered (in most cases) core spec. Even the above fails to mention that following the typical game path the new player still will spend 80 levels and much of the Personal story on a - typically - less interesting/fun core spec. I would argue that the requirement for unlocking the elite specs - beyond purchasing the expansions - hurts the Devs business model substantially. Too many roadblocks are placed between the new/ish player and the coveted elite specs and all those fun looking game play videos he sees. PoF and HoT heropoint trains are being done many times during a week. Newbies will have virtually no issue getting all 250 required points. Correct, but if someone wanted to get all 7 elites (if all of this idea is implemented), they wouldn't be able to do it on a single character. Now, you can actually attain both elites without too much difficulty, but adding 5 more would require new "something" (to replace or add to hero points).

You raise a good point. However, it goes beyond what you stated. Buying the expansions is not enough to get the elite specs. It simply makes them available. To get use the elite specs a new player must 1) purchase the expansions as you stated, 2) get the necessary glider / mounts for step #3, and level up said mounts and 3) get the hero points in expansion content - all this on an under powered (in most cases) core spec. Even the above fails to mention that following the typical game path the new player still will spend 80 levels and much of the Personal story on a - typically - less interesting/fun core spec. I would argue that the requirement for unlocking the elite specs - beyond purchasing the expansions - hurts the Devs business model substantially. Too many roadblocks are placed between the new/ish player and the coveted elite specs and all those fun looking game play videos he sees. I understand, but disagree, at least sort of. My idea should come with requirements as well, and of a similar amount of work to attain as it would being a new elite spec. BUT, the requirements might be fulfillable in core or even in the LS zones. I suspect they would have to add some kind of hero-point-like structure to make the costs clear to players, as they are with current elites.

They should bring all the professions into the elite spec power scale at their core level, which would mean E-specs would become different ways to play rather than straight upgrades with little nuances. They shouldn't be stronger but should be just a different and potentially more diversifying portion of your class; This then would help with balance and future E-specs to be more nuanced. Exactly. Ele becomes a viable alternative to tempest or weaver.

Expansion or not doesn't matter. I personally would make this independent of them, but there's no reason they couldn't be part of an expansion.

Agreed. I wouldn't limit it to just one trait line, though. But, one would have to choose a single trait line as your elite. (Of course, there would be five, if you wanted to spec out five characters as one of each, but that doesn't seem likely for most folks.)

And elite specs where supposed to come with some sort of negative so that it wasnt a straight out upgrade, and they do not do that at all for most classes. I cant even play my Ranger without SB these days cause Ranger is so weak on its own. Anets balancing has never been great, but elite specs made it way more obvious. Same with my ele and weaver. That's my point: you can't play a ranger in high-level zones. Or, rather, you can't play one as effectively as any other class using an elite spec. This would level the playing field between the core professions and the elites, to make them playable again.

Then you do that. Makes no difference. You don't HAVE to be a healer; that's just what I want. The point is you would be a GUARDIAN, not a firebrand or dragonhunter.

I'm only discussing PvE, although some of this might apply elsewhere. Elite specializations have has one significant issue across the board: they reduce the ability to play the core profession. Elites beef up the character too much to ignore. It simply makes playing a core profession undesirable. To fix this, I think the core specializations should have the ability to be slotted as an elite, and receive a corresponding increase in power to match. I'm not sure how much more powerful a current elite spec is compared to non-elite ones, but devs must have access to that information. So, if they do, that would make it nearly trivial to do the calculations: just multiply by that percentage. Getting them to be slotted as elite might be more complicated, though. Perhaps creating a new trait line with the same traits, but a different name might work. Then, disallow using the old and the new together. I would really like to be able to play a guardian healer as a guardian, but having druids in the game makes that a stripped-down option. Same thing for warriors, necros, and most of the professions.

I have no idea. I've never completed it, so I've never received the rewards. Being impossible to complete makes it hard to discern whether the rewards are worth it.

Ummm, just choose a group that's towards the bottom of the list.

The wiki wasn't my friend for the chili node, because when I bought it, the entry was almost barren of facts.

It turns out the missing entries are because it only shows what is currently available. Also, it is manually updated, so it's going to be out of date a lot during sales.

I just added an entry on the talk page for that page. Usually gets results.

What tools in the gem store are 700 gems? Are they marked as discounted? There are bundles, and that of course tend to offer a discount compared to single purchases. Bundles such as the Unbound or Volatile sets costs 2700 gems, or an effective discount of 10% compared to buying 3 single tools. There's also a bundle of "plain" unbreakable tools that don't offer any special animation, and correspondingly is slightly cheaper than bundles of those that do: 2400 gems for the set, so 800 gems/tool. As for glyphs - all tools, infinite and regular, have a glyph slot except those vendor-bought ones that have a glyph-effect "baked in".The prices for gem store tools have not been updated after the Glyph system was introduced, so the cost the same as they did before, whether they include a glyph or not. Glitter Bomb Harvesting Tool, andThresher-Sickle 5000 Both are listed at 700 gems on https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Gem_Store#Utility (towards the bottom of the utility section). Strange, I'm pretty sure I've seen at least the glitter bomb at 1000.I note that the gem store history of both have their latest appearance as 30% off. I wonder if someone updated their price to what was actually the discounted price.Could be, but there's also the Chop-It-All Logging Axe at 700. Someone would have had to make the mistake three times. However, your post got me interested, and I looked at previous versions of the table. There are dozens of items missing from the table now AND the table a year ago. I'm going to flag it on the wiki for someone to take a look.

What tools in the gem store are 700 gems? Are they marked as discounted? There are bundles, and that of course tend to offer a discount compared to single purchases. Bundles such as the Unbound or Volatile sets costs 2700 gems, or an effective discount of 10% compared to buying 3 single tools. There's also a bundle of "plain" unbreakable tools that don't offer any special animation, and correspondingly is slightly cheaper than bundles of those that do: 2400 gems for the set, so 800 gems/tool. As for glyphs - all tools, infinite and regular, have a glyph slot except those vendor-bought ones that have a glyph-effect "baked in".The prices for gem store tools have not been updated after the Glyph system was introduced, so the cost the same as they did before, whether they include a glyph or not. Glitter Bomb Harvesting Tool, andThresher-Sickle 5000 Both are listed at 700 gems on https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Gem_Store#Utility (towards the bottom of the utility section).

Thanks! I think Ol Nik's answer seems correct, but I'm going to wait for a few more posts before marking it. Others might have more suggestions.

I've noticed that some infinite harvesting tools in the gem store are 700 gems, and others are 1000. What is the difference between those types? I can't see a reason from the descriptions. The all have glyph slots and animations.

The "farm it at a buddy's home" trick doesn't work. While the plant doesn't disappear, you can't farm it a second time.

That would be a massive bug. No wonder the ascended ingredients are dropping below 50 silver. I'm HOPING that the bug is that you have to replant if you harvest them (once). Unless that gets changed, I won't be bothering with finishing to 500, because it's just not worth it. I mean, you have to salvage twenty-five food items of varying levels, to get only ONE ascended item? That's absurd, IMO. Those 25 Food items are worth 10s in total? Come on, we're used to pay a lot more for food, and this is a dish you can share with even better stats and additional boosts. It's surprisingly cheap considering other useable dishes were like 1,5-3 gold. Sure, it's more expensive than the 2s-Non-Meta-but-some-kind-of-useable-food, but when you used metafood already before it won't get much more expensive for you(just takes a little time to craft). Making the seeds regrow without replanting would make all other food pretty much useless. Where do you get 10s? You have to salvage 10 level 80 foods for each seed. You yourself point out that they cost 1.5-3g each. And that doesn't count the lower-tier ones you have to make and salvage.

I wish I had paid better attention to him! My eyes were on the oven. :/ You can talk to him again. The dialog doesn't change (I think). His emote when he saw the new kitchen installed can't be triggered again by any means.Sorry, I didn't realize there was an emote. I guess I didn't see it, either.

That would be a massive bug. No wonder the ascended ingredients are dropping below 50 silver. I'm HOPING that the bug is that you have to replant if you harvest them (once). Unless that gets changed, I won't be bothering with finishing to 500, because it's just not worth it. I mean, you have to salvage twenty-five food items of varying levels, to get only ONE ascended item? That's absurd, IMO.

You have to farm with the character who is leveling chef. Another character can't do it.