Buran.3796

Do you think that the Warrior mainers having all the moveset from their weapon "stolen" from DD and Rev will be as happy as the Rev mainers having their scepter with entirely original animations that resembles a lightsaber? Regardless of the usefulness and practicality, having some differenciation helps the game, the same as in Tekken Kazuya and Heihachi started sharing most of their moveset but along the time the Mishimas have been evolving and Kazuya, Heihachi, Jin and Evil Jin move differently and even their EWGF is different. Also: balance is cheaper to get than animations, since you can make a skill weak or striong just changing some numbers.

I think that my point still stands: doing good animations is quite a task, and being done with either motion capture or by hand it takes a lot of effort AND money. Up to Path of Fire, that effort was noticeable (look at how detailed and intrincated were things as the mantras for the Firebrand), but after that ANet wasn't as clear about doing more expansions and when they finally released EoD it felt rushed and that is quite noticeable in animations: most of them were re-used from other characters and weapons (I can quote than over 80% of Vindicator skills came from other professions and when Mist Unleashed was redone they borrow up the animation from the Bladesworn and the Specter elite is from the Vindicator dodge, etc. Why? Because re-using is less expensive than making entirely new ones. That entirely aligns with a design philosophy which spents almost 0 in marketing sand is focusing in limiting the expenses made in the game to the bare minimun. You can see it in everywere: no new raids, barely any new fractals, strikes being solo bosses from the campaing asnd still took them months to add new mechanics to the challenge modes, no new content for WvW, no new content for PvP... Like it or not, this game is in crusing mode. I love the game, but this is the truth.

You think that the dance animations in this game were made by hand? You're delusional.

Because when they need to be practical they are maces.

Yes, but I heard that hMech is not that popular anymore. Is not like those builds aren't good (they are) but about that the kind of players which care about the wingman meta oftenly swap specs as soon as something gets buffed. Personally I think that the beta is the part of the game in which I'll use the scepter the most since I don't think it will outclass mace in damage at PvE and at WvW seems focused in group support.

Made the numbers, at current platinum prices would take me ~3.4 years to get the value it has in the market, so put on sale at 90 gold coins, got the sell in half a day and I'll use the profits to get the runes and sigils for my last three toons. Thanx for the advices!

I'm not sure about heal Herald; shield is getting buffs and this is a support build, but for the kind of players that run support builds (radiders) the current meta is using offesinve support builds with quickness (Herald) and defensive support builds with alacrity (Druid). Will be heal Herald able to compete with Druid, specially since means turning one of your potential quickness providers into a support with no alacrity?

At least they made effort in making the animation/effects distinctive. But I don't think I would use it outside the beta: a mele weapon with no mobility or defense outside barrier? I don't think it would have much use in WvW roaming, and for PvE I'm currently fine.

Ok, yesterday past some hours selecting some WvW fights in video and pasting them in a couple of samples; most of them are from October but added a couple of them just from this weekend. First the stuff: Build: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PmgAUFlZSMsTqjhScsUyjpSksSign1UVsF-D2IY1o6/QiUBlpUtXRhIvEkgA+bxMzKA-w Now the context: * WvW roaming, not duels, mostly random encounters while doing dailies/weeklies, so sometimes the target is surprised, others I'm the one unaware, others get involved, etc. Oftenly I don't even run food, but so far so good: is all fair. * Some people run builds designed to endure but able to disengage if things go wrong; outside when I use Willbender I usually don't do that (I don't have keys configured to use Riposting Shadows to chase, for example), tho in my experience if your foe can't kill your Vindicator in the first minute He's are going to lose. * The first video is mostly victories, the second one defeats, which are quite interesting to learn. My main weakness is the lack of use to swap to Kurzic, almost absent, but I'm improving at that. Still, cele Vindi has plenty of clensings with a single sigil and evades, thanx to the constant access to vigor. Notice also that I'm running Durability relic and not Antitoxin, yet condi management is fine. In good hands (not mines) the build is almost unkillable by other condi builds, which are most in the roaming meta nowadays. * Albeit most of the pressure from the build comes from the bow as in the Renegade unlike him has plenty of ways to win: the greatsword with cele stats does plenty of damage and just spamming reflections won't work as the Eles can confirm. You can see in the fight in the middle vs the Cata that he has sometimes more boons (6 vs 5), better acces to stability and higher burst of condis (6+ vs 3-4) but my boons last longer and Vindi washes cleaner. * I've found a Necro support which I wasn't able to kill but He wasn't able to kill me either and I was able to take down an enemy camp while fighting him so was fine for me. I think that most of matchups with this Vindi build are either in our favour or neutral, albeit is hard to evaluate all the spectrum since power builds are less frequent than in the past. Specs which gives me more troubles are well played Harbingers and Reapers along with some Mesmers and maybe Holo, but I think that my lack of knownledge about how those work at fine level weights more that the build being weaker than those. That's all, feel free to critize and showcase defects; I'm eager to be corrected and get advice. Greetings.

Was finishging Malchor's Leap with an alt and got a key, the chest gift me with a platinum mining ore for the nome instance and I'm trying to evaluate if I should use or sell... Most of my nodes provide 3 units of each stuff x day (plus some extra based on my tools), how goes with the platinum ore?

Go Bjora Marches, open the three large chest each day (3 minutes) and maybe do Drakkar (~15 min). Then use ice shards + karma in the merchant to buy any Season 4 token, including kralkatite.

I play celestial builds of Renegade (short bow + staff) at both PvE and WvW (have also Trailblazer/Vindicator builds and in PvE sometimes I run mace & axe), and celestial builds of Vindicator (short bow + greatsword at WvW and short bow + mace & axe in PvE). Renegade is easier to master* (in the sense that has a lower skill cap) but Vindicator is certainly stronger, and in PvE where going blue is rarely needed Vindi is equally easy to play while being more forgiving with mistakes, since you're under almost permanent vigor, regeneration and protection (along with fury and 25 might stacks). I'll up some examples later. (*) I don't claim to have mastered any of the two, just to be clear.

Citadel Bombardment is very important in PvE and WvW Renebow users since albeit was nerfed is still an AoE attack with burns as main damage, so as Shagie said can't be reflected; a well placed Scorchrazor followerd by Spiritchrush and then Citadel Bombardment means a ton of fire damage, which is very bursty in nature. I use it mostly in (WvW) builds with the Vindication trait, which makes it more effective. If I'm running a PvE alacrity build with Rigthteous Rebel I focus on keeping the boon and therefore usually don't use Bombardment unless I'm filled with energy and eager to swap legend and get Charged Mist or on the contrary, I just got the large bumb in energy and Bombardment is off cd ready to be spent. Orders From Above: I never run Righteous Rebel in WvW so the advantages of using it in WvW are minimal, specially taking in consideration that is not that cheap. In PvE running RR is the norm, so I press F4 asap to try to stack 30 seconds as soon as possible. Honestly, since in PvE I mostly do OW content, in most events maxing up the uptime is not as important since most of fights will last least (doing Palawadan or Drakkar or Dragonstorm champions each fight will last less than those 30 seconds). Alacrity dps builds aren't pupular, tho, since the meta currently is that the quickness providers (Herald) brings damage whereas alacrity is expected from support builds. Heroic Command: this is the Renegade "virtue" I use the least since in PvE oftenly I'm hitting the 25 migth stack "without even trying" even playing alone, and Kalla's Fervor is easy to refill. In WvW this buff is stronger since the boons last least, but using it has a cost of oportunity and my skill usage is more commanded by the offensive and defensive tools I need to use than for the boons. In other words: evades, breakstuns, cleanses, ccs and burst attacks have priority over spending half a second and ten energy units in a skill that at best will provide me a small increase in damage/sustain.

In PvE you can entirely ignore the blue part (and the F2). In WvW not using Kurzic puts you in a disadvantage that in tie fights could lead to a defeat, but is still fine most of the time.

Animation usually is done in external studios with state of the art suits for motion capture, software and cameras, unless your developer is big enough to have those resources (Anet does not). In a distant interview I remember they named that the hiring of those facilities were around 25k $ x day. So they are re-using old animations to save cost. Of course, damages the excitement about new weapons, but also we should be honest: some of the EoD specs were really poor in terms of design and execution. Is a race to the bare bones...

A Berserker press F2 and gets engulfed in flames, gains adrenaline, quickness, super speed and changes all his burst attacks. A Bladesworn press F2 and becomes root, but gains stability, flow and replaces its burst with a new one tailored in 3 differents ways, with two extra skills to enhance tactical choices. A Spellbreaker press F2 and procs full counter, which grants i-frames, stability, and a counter strike which does damage, dazes and removes boons. A Vindicator press F2, a mosquito farts, somewhere... I've just saw the first three videos of the incoming weapons; is like ANet is going 100% low effort mode: like 80% of the skills borrows (steals) animations from previous ones. They showcased some impressive lack ideas at EoD, pushed it hard with the SotO release, and seems that they will keep that low tone note. This is the equivalent of Game of Thrones kitty flute song...

Talking about Charged Mist makes perfect sense since is the only effect in the game outside swaping legends which provides extra energy, and ANet track on energy management with Revenant has been less than stellar. The new changes for Energy Meld are focused on using it to recover energy (in two of the three traits), so probably will ended nerfed and useless in PvP has happened with Charged Mist (not like I longer care about Rev in PvP, but that's still my point). Having insipid mechanics to mess with wouldn't be a problem if in the past they weren't introduced in the first time. Vindi's balance changes since the EoD beta have been a rollercoaster due the lack of proper testing, and we have ended with a spec with very little trait variance. Again: Energy Meld doesn't bring up mobility, doesn't block attacks, doesn't cc enemies, etc. Is not flashy, lacks character, doesn't add any flavour to the game. Compared to it, the relatively meh Ancient Echo looks like a horology masterpiece, and yet instead of removing from the game ANet insist in messing with a feature which I guess most of Rev players don't even use.

From the point of view of getting ascended trinkets there's some things to have in consideration: * Bitterfrost Frontier is the most farmable, since you can get over 50 tokens x day x character in a 5 minutes run, and the more expensive piece (the undewater breather) is like 500 tokens. It offers access to rieng, earing, back piece and respirator (remember that if you infuse a ring you can wear two (one infuse and other not) of the same kind at the same time. * Bloodstone Fen: gives access to ring, amulet and back piece. Those can get their stats re-spected at the cost of 100 unstable magic, a feature that is unique amongst any other ascended trinket. Used to be easy to farm but got nerfed, still valuable due the re-spect thing. * Sandswept isles: gives access to rings and earings, very good map overall with access to a 32 slot inventory bag if an achievement is completed. * Dragonfall: offers access to amulet, ring and earing and has one of the most lucrative chain event metas in the entire game. * Bjora Marches: after a couple of quest achieved will grant access to amulet and earing at the cost of ice shards + karma. This map is very special beacuse despite can't be farmed the same day from more than one character the large chest farming allows to get a lot of ice shards in barely 3 minutes. This is map also crucial since you can use the currencies to trade into other currencies of Season 4, so is very usefull if you want to complete the legendary trinket Vision. Those would be (were) my main maps to farm ascended trinkets until eventually I got most of them in legendary status (working in Vision, my last one!).

They removed the 6th effect on runes so now everyone uses the same two runes (except if you are a healer then you can pick a third one). Homogenization took 20 steps ahead with SotO (which is bad).

Less is more. If more were better then most of people would play Ele as their main, which is not the case.. And I don't care about the cooldowns of F2 since is a hotkey I'm not planing to use in this class. Current flow of evade > vigor > more evades is simpler and more intuitive than anything they plan for Energy Meld. Not to mention that the balance or energy already made some traits entirely usueless in some game modes (as happened in PvP with Charged Mist). That column in the middle of the Vindicator traitline will end being so bad we could run it empty with no disadvantages. Which by the way is what currently happens with most of Vindicator taits: half of them are useless and never taken.

Is hard to me to notice since I no longer run greatswords or power Vindi builds in PvE. Between the nerfs in the base damage for the greatsword skills, the nerf of cleave auto attacks from 5 to 3 targets (a -40%) and the fact that Eternity's Requiem was never a cleave attack (since it splits the damage against muli targets, the same as Unrelenting Assault) what you emd is having a power AoE build that in reality is mostly tailored for single targets. And the true nerfs are still to coming thanx to the gloriefied nothingness of Energy Meld (by the way, I don't known why people tals so much about the incoming Song of Arboreum sharing vigor: the current one already does it and last forever. You known what Vindi build rules? Condi/celestial build: you cleave as much as you want, you dont care a crap about Contained Temper no longer giving fury, and you can ignore the whole mid column of Vindicator traitline.

Meta builds which offer value relying in coordination are way weaker in pug games than meta builds which are good due played at high skill are outstanding on their own. As example: Untamed can be good at any level as long as is played well, whereas support Guard is useless if your team activelly avoids your help (fleing from your heals, constantly moving outside the range at which you aply your boons, etc).

This evening I just ended the qualifying matches for the Conquest Season; I did it playing just Willbender and ended with 6/4 w/l at low tier 3 gold, which my usual. In those ten matches I saw 0 core Revs, 0 Renegades, 1 Vindicator and two Heralds; the two later were way better than me and defeat my WB in both teamfights and 1 v1 (one was in tag with a support core Guardian and they were very good at enduring any kind of fight). So, in 100 slots Rev fill 4, but didn't seem to me that Herald was any worse that the other Rev specs (anecdotally, but that was my impression). Is Herald out of the meta? Yes, but also Renegade and Vindicator, so nothing special in that regard. Is Gaze of Darkness a bad stunbreak? No, because usually (at least me in the past) you run Glint with Fazet of Darkness active to get permafury, and is a instant cast wich breaks stun and blinds, inflicts 10 stacks of vulnerability and reveals in 600 inch radius, so is full of procs at 0 energy cost and with a 15s cooldown. I'm not that sure about Herald losing to WB tho, Guardian has the worst heals in the game at the moment. WB has its own problems: huge burst but really squishy. None of them are meta. Edit: just play something else.

Last few times I faced Auramancers and Scrappers in WvW they also though that a Vindi with short bow would be a easy meal, only to find out that reflecting and blocking projectiles doesn't work vs Scorchrazer, Spiritcrush, Scavenger Burst or Jade Winds, not to mention Eternity's Requiem. Short bow biggest advantage vs hammer is not the better dps (both sustained or in burst) but havings kills with functional cast times which allows to land both cc and damage...

Notice that not eveyone uses the same number layout for the skills; in inther words: if they stay to the "pre-defined" order you hurt the ones which change that one (as me); on the other had if you allow free alocation wit will be exploited to link the ones with the lowest cooldown with the ones with the stronger effect/higher cost. Being sid that, I'm fine about how Herald currently works, and I'f fine currently not using it.