Nothing.8564

Normally I do not post my builds but in order to cure the metasheep population of their preconceived notions here it is 😄 ============================= Valor - 1 - 1 - 1 Honor - 1 - 2 - 3 Firebrand - 3 - 3 - 3 Rabid amulet Rune of the Druid Relic of Lyhr(Or Relic of [Defender/Monk/Herald] if you do not know how to make use of Lyhr without dying) Staff | Sigil of Transference/Smoldering Mace / Shield | Sigil of Transference/Smoldering Utilities Signet of Resolve Signet of Mercy "Stand your Ground!" Mantra of Lore Mantra of Liberation =============================

A choice of any existing grandmaster trait from any class. ... At least then theorycrafters would be busy.

ty, 10/10 for ANET for giving two skills the same name on the same profession.

The only class thats been bursting me down lately is ranger so I've been looking at my combat log vs them more and noticed in my last fight Maul double hit me instantly. This was a 1v1 fight and combat log shows two instant 5,046 hits of maul from the same player. He was a soulbeast, so I read over their traits and whatnot and do not see anything that stands out to make this possible. My build has perma regeneration which ticks every 1 second, the double maul hit me instantly within this 1 second window, not even quickness + alac paired with #5 combo or quickdraw trait could pull that off so I'm probably missing something that makes this possible. Thanks in advance for the info to whoever knows.

More content has been removed from PvP than added. This continues to happen and is killing the game. Give us back all of the removed sigils, amulets, damage on CC, traits/skills/utilities that were gutted for PvP, in fact, just give us back everything at this point.

From what I've seen the only changes to combat are: Weapons no longer restricted to elite spec New weapon for each profession 6th piece armor rune bonus mechanic separated from rune choice Isn't weapon choice the easiest and first part of theorycrafting? As someone who's made pretty much every single build I've ever played in the 10k hours since launch, weapon choice is often the most boring part of theorycrafting as its generally the first step in making a build. I also happen to main engineer and our weapon choices are bad on top of not even having a weapon swap. As for the new mechanic splitting off from existing armor runes, this will actually make theorycrafting easier as now you have less of a balancing act to perform when trying to chose the best options. I've often spent days testing and optimizing builds for PvP and have had amazing success(until the build gets deleted by 'balance patches'), meaningful theorycrafting challenges comes from having meaningful options. Every profession I've played is still being watered down into a bland boring shell of its former glory. It's like being a cook in a kitchen where everything tastes the same. Maybe if they threw in utilities in addition to weapons, that would have had much more impact on build creation but to be honest I was hoping for something along the lines of giving all builds access to 4 specialization choices instead of 3. (I remember in vanilla GW2 when you had access to all 5 specialization trees at once, so builds would be something like, 10/30/0/30, or 5/15/30/30)

A few good points brought up here, just a reminder that this suggestion is for core engi only. 1) Double heal Yes this would be strong for personal survivability, but how many other professions have immense survivability? Additionally, I don't think anyone would feel pigeonholed into this as there are amazing diverse options for the F1 skill, AED(dmg), Toss H(boons), Regen mist(water field), ect. I personally would pick up the AED stun. 2) Core is bad in competitive modes Build diversity would instantly be through the roof specifically for this under performing core profession. Engineer historically has always been a swiss army knife, capable of a vast array of different things at once. Its why I played the absolute kitten out of the class. Once Elite specs rolled out, an 'identity' was attempted to be ironed into the profession which gutted so many utilities for the sake of 'balance'. Core would be able to find a place in competitive modes if this change were to happen. 3) Cheese builds becoming cheesier Historically Engi has had many different cheese builds and I do see some potential for some new ones to pop up under these conditions, but nothing OP or nothing that other elite specs couldnt cheeze harder. 4) Toss X Toss X is nice, and we used to be able to double cast it at one point thanks to a trait, but in times where you want damage, orbital strike is better, or more healing, Med pack drop. I dont see any ability being 'locked in' as a necessity. 5) Some skills would never see the light of day This may be true, however, it would be true only for core engi. TL;DR version: Core engi would return to being a swiss army knife of options, and I dont see this outshining anything else that exists.

I miss the old school engi feel before its identity began to erode away. If core engi exclusively could choose its toolbelt skills independently of the utility chosen, core engi would return in all its glory.

These patch notes will cover only 3 topics: 1) Alacrity & Quickness reworks 2) Introducing new mechanics exclusive to Core builds 3) PvP(HotM) - 'The Great Reset' 1) Alacrity & Quickness There is no doubt in their current iteration these two boons have significant impact and play a significant role in not only group composition but also build design. Having permanent uptime on these two boons creates two gameplay experiences, one with them and one without. Without them, players experience begins to feel slow and sluggish for most builds which created a negative experience. Trying to make these two boons work in terms of balance has begun to sacrifice profession identity which is the opposite desired outcome. Alacrity is being phased out, all traitable cooldown reductions will be applied to players skills as a result. Traits that applied alacrity will be reworked to offer other benefits. Players access to Quickness will be reduced and no longer be shareable to other players. This boon will still play a role in players builds and play-styles, however it will return to its origins of being applied intentionally for quick controlled bursts. 2) Introducing new mechanics exclusive to Core builds Many players have voiced their desires to see core builds compete with elite specs. The changes listed below will give the core variant of each profession a unique gameplay element, some of which are reminiscent of their original design while others will emphasize the core feel of their profession. Elementalist: While attuned to an element, every successfully completed attack with the weapons #1 skill reduces all of the remaining cooldowns of that elements abilities by 1 second. Necromancer: Every third completed #1 attack will corrupt boons in an AoE radius(1 second cooldown), if no boons are present then a condition will be applied based on the weapon that triggered it. (Death shroud #1 is also included) Mesmer: Phantasms remain active and will repeatedly attack in the same fashion as their original design. Engineer: You can select your toolbelt skills independently of your utility skills. Warrior: Every 5 seconds gain a buff that makes your next weapon skill cooldown not trigger when activated. Guardian: Granting boons to yourself or others increases all of your stats by 1% for 10 seconds, stacks up to 15 times. Revenant: Legend swap CD reduced by 3. Ranger: Both pets can be out at once. Thief: Initiative cost reduced by 1 for all skills. 3) PvP(HotM) 'The Great Reset' In order to restore and maximize build and plays style diversity we will be adding back all amulets, sigils, and runes, and additionally reintroducing damage on CC skills.

The human element mixed into the complex system does make it exponentially more difficult to balance. Before diversity was 'balanced' out of the game, the amount of build diversity was insane. I often would take breaks from the game and return to a meta that could easily be broken by creating a counter build. The main issue PvP faced back then was that the human element consisted of too many sheep that didn't break from the meta which gives devs the difficult choice of either breaking the balance or telling players to try new things. A very long time ago the devs stated warrior was in a good state when the class was poorly received by the community, then a hammer warrior build popped up out of nowhere and smacked the meta into a new phase. Around this time I made a condi 1vX warrior build that dominated the meta and even won a few tournaments with it. Honestly, throughout most of this games history the main balance problem was the community flocking to meta builds and ignoring the possibility that they had counters. What I absolutely loved about GW2 was that I could spend a few hours theorycrafting a build and end up with something amazing that I could play for months and months while being unmatched and unmirrored. This game has immense potential but 'balance' seems to be a spotlight that randomly moves to different areas highlighting the good while leaving the rest in the shadows. Its only nowadays that the light the spotlight casts is shrinking leaving us with less than we ever had.

I agree, the original rifle was one of the reasons I've spent 1,500 hours on engi. When stability was up, the launch+jumpshot combo was so insanely satisfying that it was the most iconic GW2 weapon experience for me still to this day. I honestly havent been able to use the 'new rife' as it just feels like a cheap knockoff of the original.

Both Quickness and Alacrity are 100% bad game design when they can reach permanent uptime. Fundamentally it is bad to change the tempo that players are playing under, this will never change. To highlight this principle take an extreme such as Sword Weaver DPS. Attack speed AND cooldown reduction significantly alter the speed in which you the player have to perform under, AND the rhythm of your cooldowns which you have keep mental tabs on. The nature in which you're playing the game shifts dramatically under these two boons, which causes a huge problem for actually enjoying the game as a Weaver as now you're experience is split into two experiences: One with these boons, and one without. As weaver cannot provide either of these boons on their own, playing solo will now feel 'slow and sluggish'. This is fundamentally a bad experience to give players. To those that remember quickness before it was a boon, its role was to execute a quick 'long cast' ability such as 100 blades, heartseeker spam, pistol whip, ranger longbow 2, ect ect. This felt great and rewarding as your access to Quickness was severely limited but you could make an attack which already felt great, feel even more satisfying. This doesn't adjust a players tempo but instead offered a high intensity burst that was short lived. This was when Quickness was a great game mechanic. Alacrity is just bad design with no room for a balanced spot. Why? Circling back to the tempo aspect of game design, how are you going to balance a blanket cooldown reduction that doesn't dramatically shift the rhythm of your gameplay? Its going to feel great when you have it and awful when you dont, and as a player you'll have to become accustomed to these two modes of gameplay. On a side note, I'm actually surprised to see so many voices of reason on the forums regarding these two boons being problematic, it gives me hope that a change might happen.

What actually prompted me to write this thread was that they removed almost all of necromancers corrupt boons in the preview for this upcoming patch. I don't even play necro anymore so this on paper would be a 'win' for me as Engi and Ele get hit hard by corrupts, but instead its a super depressing change where they're just further marching towards stripping classes of their identity.

Yeah. Its crazy to think about, but really the game's new balance design boils down to literally what boons a build can/cant give. What happened to a class being defined by its kitten abilities/art/playstyle/uniqueness.

From someone who's seen every state of the game, from its best, to its worst. 10,000 hours /age, I started a few months after launch. 16,500 PvP games 4,600 on Engineer 3,645 on Ele 3,400 on Necro 2,000 on Thief 1,000 on Warrior Speaking only for myself, it pains me to see the direction game 'balance' is heading for this game. Removing amulets, sigils, & runes. Removing dmg on CC skills. Removing class identity by nerfing or removing what made a class unique. When this game was at its best, amulets such as vipers and diviners were in the game, high boon up time but necros had a significant amount of corrupt. Classes felt unique, I remember reading a dev post when they increased necro's corrupting capabilities saying that it was an essential part of their unique design and they wanted more emphasis on it. They tried emphasize each classes unique aspect and it was great. From a veterans perspective, everything feels watered down or gutted. The S tier builds now are just braindead beefy brawlers. When this game was at its worst, probably was after HoT's release when the 'nothing died' meta began, where nothing would die. However, this new era of PvP balance is like watching the life be drained out of what was once amazing, which feels worse. Its too late to do anything for this new era, but hopefully someone on the balance team will come along that can do this amazing game justice.

Your post leaves too much to the imagination. If you're implying that Classic WoW somehow failed to cultivate an audience, I'd recommend referencing any source that has an estimate of its player count. Not to mention that Vanilla classic WoW had its own natural resurgence without any content update thanks in part to community HC challenges, which once again, were popular enough to gain official support. Even Oldschool Runescape has managed to grow its already respectable playerbase, and once again, its Ironman(HC) challenges were implemented and amassed massive views on social media platforms. HC gameplay makes for great steaming/video content which would put GW2 on the map for a much larger audience. Anyone here can look up viewer counts of HC modes implemented in MMO's and see the interest viewers have. Generally the only videos that get views for GW2 content are large channels that post a single video 'Let's check out GW2 in 2023!' or something of that sort.

Often times people are unable to see the benefits of things that are not directly related to them or their interests. Hardcore World of Warcraft was just officially announced yesterday due to the large audience its amassed over a short few months. Blizzard, a company that has arguably blundered almost all of its announcements over the last decade actually received an immense amount of positivity with this one. Almost everyone I've seen post online about GW2 is that its a 'hidden gem', if HC GW2 was released during this trend in the MMO community it would undoubtedly put the game on peoples radar whether or not they're interested in that specific game mode. HC content makes for great streaming and content material for viewers, GW2 has maintained a respectable player base but will likely always remain a 'hidden gem' to the larger MMO community.

Planning on cheating? My original post mentioned adding a new 'Realm Location' for fresh start, I guess I should state the obvious that transfers to the realm location would be disabled. As for HC in WvW or HotM, those game modes would either have to be disabled or be an exception for perma-death, even I don't see a HC PvP community being viable. The few exclusive rewards from PvP could be made obtainable elsewhere, there's only a hand full if I remember correctly.

I too agree. I'd turn 90% of the 'anti projectile abilities' into 'Damage reduction from projectile abilities'. Straight up preventing range attacks should be way more limited than it is now.

From a PvPers perspective: I played a significant amount of every class over the years since launch, and the biggest issue with trying to apply hindsight is that you might have ended up even more disappointed if you did pick a different class even one that's been 'good' longest. For me, I've immensely disliked the 'redesigns' many of my favorite classes have gone through. Engineer was my main and so many amazing playstyles were flat out removed, same with necro, and ele, and dragonhunter, and thief. Stuff I miss: Back when necro's were gods at corrupting boons.(PVP) Back when Dragon Hunters actually had reaction time on LB#3 and dmg with CC's.(PVP) Back when Engineer had fun traits(dodging preventing CD on toolbelt skills: 60s cooldown, HGH: Condi cleanse), Elixir R being a stun break, day one mortar kit before they gutted the dmg by 23% or something) Back when Ele's could do burst dmg with their AoE field attacks before the 10% stacking dmg reduction per hit(PvE). Also some of their support traits gutted.(PvP). I could go on for days about what was taken from classes that leave them feeling like an empty shell of their former glory. So my recommendation is to look on whatever bright side there is for your situation and roll with it.

Reward and risk are perspective, I don't expect any exclusive rewards for HC content, maybe a title or something easy to throw in as someone mentioned GW1 had. Trivial rewards under normal conditions can feel monumental under challenging conditions, like making it all the way to level cap and unlocking some mounts, or helping others unlock theirs. Standard account progressions and clearing challenging group content for gear would fit my definition of high reward.

The fact that most events have timers before you fail I think is an overall positive. Thanks to stat, trait, utility and weapon diversity, if you wanted to be 99.9% unkillable you could, but this comes at the cost of damage output. If enough players didn't balance their damage output with their ability to survive, they wouldn't succeed in timed events. This type of player diversity has benefits as not everyone needs to be DPS heroes but some do. Those who want to participate in content they might not have the skill level to perform in, could find themselves in the tanky support role and still be able to participate. This is true especially for players learning content, they can start off with the 'training wheels' of a tanky set, and ease into more damage as they become more confident with encounters. I think this would also be the opposite, too many quality of life items exist that would complement HC playthroughs such as the convenience items I referenced in my earlier post. Additionally, a new realm location does mean existing Gem Store obtained cosmetics/items would not be transferred over.

An ancient proverb for you: If you build it they will come. The original idea of HC World of Warcraft would have had the sea of nay sayers, but thanks to some modders who built it in as a feature, people came, the mode thrived, official support from the devs began.

While HC realms are naturally for a smaller audience, GW2 has many elements that naturally compliment a HC server setting. Releasing a game mode that would fail is never good for business, but when has that stopped GW2 devs? lol. Hardcore World Of Warcraft is right around the corner and we all will get a glimpse of if it succeeds or not. While these are two completely different games, I still think a HC GW2 would have way more to offer as its fluid combat design makes for much more thrilling fights and the idea of account progression helps keep long-term HC players involved in the game mode. Here's a few existing elements that I think would make a HC GW2 server succeed in the MMO market: Account progression/unlocks. -Mounts / gliders After reaching max level content and obtaining mounts the world becomes greatly more accessible and gives your alts/reset characters an easier progression. -Cosmetics armor unlocks & Dyes Fashionwars remains after death, so you can enjoy your reset in style. -Legendary equipment Those looking to push end-game content can retain the gear they've upgraded to legendary thanks to the existing legendary wardrobe system. Gem store -Gold/Gem conversion The balance between earning gold and converting it to gems has always been amazing in GW2's history, there are undoubtedly advantages to buying Gem Store items in a HC environment but with the generous conversion rate I see this being a win for both the players and ANET. -Convenience items Shared Inventory Slots, Teleport To Friend, Teleport to Hub passes that have teleports to all major cities, these would become a necessity for HC players which again I think is a win for the players and ANET due to the gold/gem conversion rates. A large world with a fresh start The world feels smaller the more waypoints you unlock and the more veteran status your account gets the less you need to do to obtain anything. I do like and prefer GW2s progression system which is horizontal instead of the vertical system every other MMO out there has, but after a decade of sitting on the best stats it'd be nice to have a fresh start world to mess around in. Support roles There are awesome support roles that currently will never see the light of day due to the meta being dps race. Putting the Guild back in Guild Wars No doubt there would be a lot of active guilds trying to fill specific roles that the HC environment makes more challenging. The fact that you can be in multiple guilds at once is nice. Risk Infusions, non-legendary equipment, inventory items, mastery points and levels all go down the drain with death. None of these are light losses and are enough to keep people on edge throughout their content exploration.

Honestly converting all normal mobs to elite or w/e higher tier is called is something that I'd want to see, but I figured for a forum post i'd start light with the idea since its already going to appeal to a minority of players.