Buran.3796

I woulkd like to see examples of those runes which currently have a mix of stats so unconvenient with a powerfull 6th rune feature that barely are worth of use.... Things as Scholar runes giving you healing power or Monk and Water runes with all those Ferocity stat points wasted... The reality is that the runes which are mostly used and meta in most game modes (which are a very few ones, as I said) are overall well though and have stats properly selected to the roles that would perform. Again, I don't see why a company which has been trying to homogenize and simplify (and nerf) so much runes and sigils along the years and didn't rekease a new rune since PoF? would enter in the headache of making a more complex system if is not to make cash from selling solutions for the inconveniences that we will face Is like EoD in which they implemented a new set of Masteries which is only unlocked for the characters that complete the story so you have to waste time with alts if you want the abilities that in HoT or PoF are shared across the whole account (by the way, I only did it with my main and entirely ditched my alts from EoD's story mode). I see Relics as a way to make the game worse to (in any, undisclosed way) sell us the convenience to restore the "natural order".

No, I didn't. Perplexity still do wonders in OW for my single celestial Mirage, Balthazar are dirty cheap and had been the best for fire focused builds for ages. Pack, Strength and Eagle are unexpensive, Nightmare ones comes free with PvP dungeon chest rewards and after the nerfs in Durability and Leadership (which were bought mostly with tokens with no other use, not raw gold) the replacement were quite cheap. The most "expensive" runse which I've bought in the last two years have been Fireworks, and if you put orders that's less than 25 golds for a full set...

That's not true: in the past a nerf in a given set of runes would mean that at worst, you'll need to replace it by a new set, and the most expensive ones didn't push beyond 18 golds x piece, which means 108 gold coins for a 6 piece set (126 includig underwater). I'm entirely sure that a single Relic won't be as simple to get as paying ~20 goil coins to recover the honest work you already did. If that wpould be the plan, albeit still abyect, Ruby wouldn't have been as vague in their latest "clarification". Again: in a game as full of bugs as currently GW2 is, I don't see a reason to implement a 19th gear slot and make all even more spaghetti-codded with the risk that inply UNLESS they plan to cash plenty of money with it.

I paid 0 gold to re-learn the traits or skills after the changes in each balance patch. Relicswon't even be remotely close to being free. Most of changes in runes in the past barely affected the meta, which has been static and focused in half dozen of them for most of the liufe of the game, specially in instanced game modes and PvP (by the way, in PvP most of runes has been remover/nerfed so hard that the main rule is "use the least bad ones" and that's the main reason why everyone uses the few same). Relics will be as static as the runes in the current meta, but you'll be forced to start it over. Best case scenario, it will be a convoluted way to force players to grind and remain attached in a game famous by content droughts; in worst case scenario they'll find out a way to implement paywall shortcuts to speed up that grinding as they did with the gathering tool system.

Roamer shortbow + satff Vindicator. Same tankiness as Vindivcator but now you can pressure at range as Renebow. Also, now you suddenly have 4 hard cc skills in a Vindicator.

Cele Vindicator > Cele Herald > Cele Mirage > Cele Renegade/Cele Reaper > Cele Mechanist. If you want to play at range Mirage or Renegade, tho.

After reading all the coments, I'm amazed by the level of copium in some of them lets adress some of the problems which I have with the Relics: The first thing that must to be said, is that the game already has some clear "pay to win" features. Expansions bring up more content and variety in exchange of money, but that variety provides min-maxing tools to earn gold in more efficient ways (since all content has time caped or date caped diminishing returns, and expansions bring up more way to earn money avoiding those caps). An of course, no core profession breaks 40k dps benchmarks at the golem (a full squad of cores won't even geat perma alacrity or perma quickness; expansions are power creep galore). So, in exchange for money, expansions bring up more and better ways to earn money and more power; this is not ideal or in line with their original roadmap for the game but at least you're paying for extra content, so is fair... 1) Now Relics: the change will remove effects we already have in the game and which we earned. There's nothing fun or amicable about that. It was not much but it a honest work and now will be stolen. And since is a global change will affect every player no matter if you're a f2p player or a Baron. 2) The "variety we gain" argument: There was a time in which you could min-max runes, but ANet chose to nerf them stacking the most valuable features at the last rune. It helped them to homogenize balance since they reduced the interesting iterations Overall, was a BAD choice: meta running players use a rune or two for power dps builds (oftenly Scholar) and the same for condition dps (oftenly Nighmare, unless your condi damage is monochromatic). Same with support. So now we have 5-6 runes in use and vast majority of the others are garbage. Same in PvP: 22 runes available, barely half a dozen has any use. We had no new runes in EoD; the new relics bring up some new features, but at the ent it will be the same: meta stats for power, condi or support, then the extra effect of desire. For min-maxers t will be the same 0 variety that we currently have. The DIFFERENCE will be that we will have to re-earn the new meta in this "no vertical progression" game... lol 3) A very simple example of how the change is bad. I have 18 characters; most of them with 2 gear templates, some with 3 gear templates, 1 with 4 gear teamplates, and 8 gear templates in my main. In total I have ~32 gear templates. Most of the slots are legendary (armors, trinkets and weapons) albeit I din't crafted legendary runes (armors allows to swap runes without wasting them), and runes are of supoerior quality and selected to bring up to the characters the things they benefit the most from the nuilds they run. One of my Guardians has a DH roaming build, a FB celestial roaming build and a condi PvE WB build. For the DH the runes of choice are Trapper due the synergies, for the FB I use Fireworks due the nice extra boons and because moving at 100% pace instead of 125% (at leas) is just lame; the WB runs Balthazar runes because WB already have 25% increased movement speed and Balthy makes us tankier and helps to cap the fire duration. With the Relics I will lose the 6th rune bonus (which are the main reason I made those choices) that I will need to grind/farm again in exchange of the USELESS ability of being able to combine the same final features with any stat points of choice, which is DUMB because those runes ALREADY have good stats that match very well the builds I'm running. And I would have to do this ~32 times for the features I will lose... So, I don't see a single reason to implement Relics in the game (a game which din't release any new rune in years and homogenized into irrelevance 80% of the ones that still exists) unles they plan to monetize the Relics in any sort in the Black Lion Game Store the same they made the gathering tools a pay to win feature included all those tools with better speed animations and ultra-effective glyphs for farming. So anyone thinking that this move will made the game better hasn't been payin attention...

...Your 6th rune will add stat progression and a new gear piece (Relics) would have to be grinded in order to re-gain the 6th bonus and not fell behind handicaped. Or you could buy gems, convert to gold and aleviate some of the grind for the recovering the convenience of something you already had. That doesn't sounds like "horizontal progression" at all to me. The power creep has been present for years since with the expansions the specs always add options, and options would provide further optimizations. But here we are talking about extra stats + losing convenience which has to be gained back again. In a game which didn't bother to release new runes in years and deleted most of them from PvP as a fast and lazy alternative to trying to balance them... I'm really surprised of the course this ship is taking...

I would like more mainhand axe. Well, at least we dodged the bullet (pun intended) of something silly as pistols or rifle.

S tier: old PvP Herald., the one which was, you known, the one which didn't made a dramatic pause before releasing Surge of the Mist, the one which didn't had to pay 40 energy units for most of his breakstuns or 35 for a teleport. Obviously is dead (and didn't touch a Herald in the last 18 months) but mas was fun to play... A tier: Power Vindicator, maybe cele Vindicator. Bunker/brusier builds to melt solo content... Is what I main after being thrugh Warrior and Guardian until HoT. B tier: cele Renegade (most of game modes), power Bladesworn (mostly PvE), cele Mirage, condi Reaper (PvP). Willbender (condi at PvE, power at WvW/PvP). I'm worse playing those but still enjoy them a lot. C tier: Spellbreaker, Dragonhunter, Deadeye, Virtuoso? I like them but not enough to main, and I'm quite bad at playing them. So I like the mechanics and gameplay but perform poorly using them. D tier: most of everything else. I don't ne

As I said, with Reaper I find out the greatsword too slow gfor my tastes, so at both OW and PvP I run a staff + scepter & dagger when I ride that spec. For OW PvE I use this build, based on Lord Hizen's one: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PmzAExzlxQmMP6k1RpMOClRSqMCqkn1kfsF-zRZYiRNnHcQgzBFcIZKF6VEUhCQxHAB2D9JF4W0f0CqA-e Essentially, marauder gear until reaching the 100% crit chance (with fury) and 200% crit damage. The build essentially has perma fury, vigor, protection and 25 stacks of might. Has also wide access to quiockness and regeneration. Salvation 3,2,2. Invocation 2,3,3 and Vindicator 1,3,2.; greatsword + swords. Can solo ~65% of bounties, and the ones which not is mostly that can't kill faster enough due mobility or cc (Rabbit in Desert Highlands, or the Goat), but can survive them (ceslestial Vindi is stronger, but the gameplay is slower and more boring). A couple of samples of gameplay:

From the ones in light armor Mesmer (mainly Mirage) is the spec which is easier to play in relation to the effort that demands for the performance that delivcers. Hizen has soloed every legendary bounty in the game just with Mirage and a couple of staffs. ç In heavy armor both Rev and Guard have plenty of flavour. Guardian used to be the best ("go to") for any game mode, specially at instanced contet, in which his array of tools fit any need. BUT albeit still very good both DH and WB are a bit one-dimensional. I enjoy them at PvP and roaming, but at OW they have some clear weakness. By contrast, Rev builds are brutally effective in OW, very solid in WvW and ok at PvP (after 7+ years of Herald dominance there's no longer a Rev "meta" for PvP, but the specs are still very capable). I would say also that for leveling a new character with no boosters or tomes the easier of the named would be Mesmer>Guardian>Ele/Rev, but once you get the specs Rev and Mesmers are stronger/easeir to play and deliver more punch in most game modes.

Virtuosos maybe takes more value from dagger, and for that spec I prefer a condi build (Mesmer's greatsword is mainly a power weapon). Spellbreaker with greatsword + hammer is fun in PvP, albeit dagger + shield along hammer si "more meta". For OW PvE I prefer Bladesworn tho, and the builds ditch greatsword. Seems that Reaper is now in a good place, but my fav Reaper build for OW and PvE run celestial, not power, and do most of their damage in shourd. Not fan of the slow cast times of Reaper's gs skills. Yes, quickness helps, but that boon is very restrained at PvP. So my vote will go Vindicator: the gameplay with power greatsword is quite intense, you have plenty of mobility and huge sustain (albeit not as broken as with cele Vindi). In PvP didn't like the spec for the last year and half, but now with Salvation buffed and Invocation in good shape I can ditch Devastation, Retribution and even the Alliance and make a very functional bunker build which runs berserker, hits like a truck and has good sustain and support tools for teamfights.

A bit of background here: I have 18 characters with 3 Revs and 2 of almost every other profession; my main has 8/8 gear teamplate/build template slots, another 7 characters have 3/3 templates and the rest the vanilla 3/2 which comes as standard. Also, full legendary armors (and trinkets very soon). My main has plenty of WvW infussions to play with: mighty, malign, precise... even concentration. I'm now "completing" some of the alts I play the most and I'm wondering which WvW infusions would fit the best to a character which only runs Renegade builds, for OW PvE and WvW roaming mostly. I don't want to spent large amounts of tokens in each alt as in the main, but select one which would fit better for most of uses. I was thinking about malice (+5 condition damage) due I mostly run either celestial or viper/TB stats with Renegade, but I'm wondering if mighty or precise would be better. Power seems good, since in PvP I run a power variant and works well, anyway, whereas condi damage seems more sensitive to nerfs. Precise would be an option since with full endurance + fury I only have 90% cc in WvW, but the extra 90 stat points would only increase the cc to 96% (so no 100% and evades would crush that number anyway). Another point vs Precise would be that If I move to power stats 100% crit chance is easy to achieve... To add more context: with celestial + Fireworks runes in WvW the basics stats are 1844 power, 2952 armor, near 23k HP, 69.85% cc 192.6% cd 669 condition & healing and ~60% boon duration. So, what do you think, power or condi infusions?

I would add also to my previous comment that Nomad Advance extracts the animation from Guardian's hammer Mighty Blow that in the Charr race the animation from Guardian's greatsword Leap of Faith is also the same, but the cast is only 0.5 seconds instead of .75 seconds as in Mighty Blow or Nomad's Advance. Same range, also.

For power Vindicator, Invocation and Salvation, at any game mode, including WvW roaming and PvP. For hybrid Vindicator, Corruption and Salvation, but only at PvE. Is the strongest solo build, albeit I enjoy power more. Hybrid Renegade with Corruption and Salvation (PvE, solo and groups) but Invocation and Salvation (WvW roaming). At PvP the same traitlines but with power (zerk) stats. So, very little variation: with condition/hybrid builds Corruption sometimes replaces Invocation in some game modes (PvE). At WvW/PvP is just power stats with both Invocation and Salvation. The same happens if I chose to run a power Vindi in PvE. Retribution and Devastation are as meme as hammer and the shield: I don't have a clue of what they are supose to do or serve to, and Anet neither...

I was concerned about Forced Engagement and Aggessive Agility, but the more I play with Salvation outside PvE, the more clear becomes that Salvation > Devastation. So I no longer care how much the Resistance boon will last in the AA trait. The whole Devastation traitline has become a meme which does nothing.

To complement this: if you kill a foe in the time window you have a 25% chance of surviving. There's a trait that grants you 100% chance of surviving if you kill a foe in the time window, BUT usually is a bad business to make plans for "if I go downstate" instead of just trying to avoid being in downstate.

Gathering tools: Mining: either the unbound magic pic, the skyscale or the choya. The unbound magic has the fastest animations, the other two mine 5 units x movements, which means 2 animations at rich nodes. Glyph of use: industry is the overall best one in my opinion. Chopping: unbound magic axe (fastest animation), o glacial or firestorm (highly affected by quickeness). Best glyph: industrious. Gathering sickle: Molten or Consortium; fastest animations, avoidable aftercast. Best glyphs: Reaping or Volatility depending of the goal. Also, very useful:

Close the in game chat and problem solved. The only reason why WvW is "less toxic" is because the game mode doesn't able players to directly comunicate outside their own server (and event between players from the same servers, sometimes there's frictions). I don'r even understand why the chat isn't disabled for default in PvP: you can't play in a squad outside Automated Tournaments and the game doesn't support voip, nor playing with frieds outside duos. So if you can't form your team, and you'll be with randoms, why don't just diable the chat? It won't affect the quality at all (probably would improve, since people wouldn't waste time and eforts being salty in the chat).

PvP. Not even close. The main difference with WvW will be that you will progress and get tomes even if you lose 100% of the matches, whereas in WvW the progress can be much slower if you are in a group which is constantly wiped or if you're constatly farmed by gankers.

Depends. In WvW the most powerful Willbender builds are based in physical damage, not conditions. In PvE, condition Willbender is stronger. For DH, in both PvE and WvW the power variants are stronger (condition ceased to be a thing when the burn procs from the Sword of Justice were nerfed).

Again, Resistance DOESN'T remove Blinded/Chilled/Crippled/Fear/Immobilized/Slow/Taut/Weakness, only suspends its effects for a duration. That means that the aftermath of the changes in Aggressive Agility will entirely rely in how is implemented in WvW. How long with last? If is only 1-2 seconds, it will be a nerf, since currently entirely removes Immobilized. For context: a typical power Willbender has at WvW 3 seconds of Resistance using Crashing Courage (F3) in a ~25s cooldown, which also highly benefits from Flowing Resolve (F2) entirely REMOVING Immobilized, Crippled and Chilled two times every 17 seconds. So: the change can be good or garbage just based on how much Ressiatnce lasts in WvW.

True, but will be an improvement? Prior to the changes qHerald remains popular at instanced PvE, whereas aRenegade, which is even simpler in terms of delivering the boon, not so much. The change opens the quickness to any legend, at the cost of demanding a lot of energy and therefore limiting the use of skills. Will qHerald remain popular if is bonded to just auto attacking?

Copy & paste from my thread (wasn't aware of this first one: happened while was writting it 😛; I hope mods remove mine): My thoughs: I only care about this two changes: * Forced Engagement: Reduced number of targets from 5 to 1. Increased range from 600 to 900. Is a step in the right direction, but we are still nerfed. The original range was 1200, and using it well was almost the only way to have a chance against roaming necros in WvW. The Necros still have the advantage of 1200 range with the staff skills (oftenly traited to be unblockable), and aside staff a Harbinger still has the pistol + dagger with 900 range (1200 if is running focus) to equal our short bow plus the advantage that when enters in Shroud gets stability (Implacable Foe) and can corrupt all our boons at 900 range (Dark Barrage + Path of Corruption trait). And is now worse because Harb's elixirs have now granted a 20% cdr for free in PvP and WvW (of all things!). A Dark Barrage + boon corruption ususally is enough to to finish the fight, whereas a Forced Engagement + Scorchrazor + Sevenshot doesn't. So we are still in a massive disadvantage. And that with our only ranged build, mele doesn't even have a chance (Vindi doesn't even have any cc to land a single hit). * Aggressive Agility: This trait no longer removes immobilization, and it instead grants resistance. I don't understand if this will work as a buff or a nerf. In theory, Resistance removes for a limited time 8 non damaging conditions. The only reason I play Vindicator in WvW (or any power Rev build in WvW, if that matters) is because Agressive Agility. Is the only asset to grant us a chance against the perma-root roaming Druid: the Vindicator has cleanses enough, mobility enough, damage enough and the hard counter againts one of the absolute top predators (and lamest builds) in the food chain of WvW roaming, and ripping of the skin of the face from a surprised Druid with the help of this trait was one of the very few pleasures Rev still could bring me in WvW. I'm not sure if the change will be better, because albeit could do good things as prevent blinded or chilled for a while, if the duration is low in WvW it will be entirely useless against perma-root builds. IF ends being a nerf, I will never touch a Vindicator inWvW again (the same as entirely stopped playinmg Herald at WvW and PvE 16 months ago). It will greatly depends on the implementation, but I'm pesimistic. Aside from that, support Vindi got nerfed, which I don't care. Rest of the changes are meaningless to me, which is good. @Sonork.2916: Largely depends on implementation. A 4 seconds Resitance at WvW (won't happen) would be a buff, a 2s Resistance would have been a nerf, since as I said is very different remnoving a 12s root than being immune to 8 condis for a second or two and then remain rooted/chilled/dazed... for the rest of the fight.