Buran.3796

And will remain op. Which key FB skills were distributed amnongst other professions in the new patch to make you think that FB will become less meta than currently is?

After the Firebrand reboot they are probably planing to rework the Ele so cooldowns will be shared across all the attunements...

Self boons aren't exclusive from qHerald or power Herald in general: both Vindicator and condi Herald builds easily achieve permanent fury, 25 stacks of might and other valuable buffs (a lot of them shared, by the way). In that context, power Herald/ qHerald is significantly worse at OW PvE than the condi Herald variants, Renegade iterations and even Vindicator. And obviously I'm not running qHerald in OW, as I said I didn't touch power Herald in the last 6 months. But you're right: qHerald is perfectly fine in instanced content and it will be even better after the buffs. I still won't touch it. Going again to instanced: ANet nerfed Renegade and Herald pre-EoD to release a new spec which isn't as hot in PvE and instead has been a constant balance kitten in PvP; now ANet completes the full circle buffing Herald again...

That's true for instanced content, but at the same time qHerald is largely unappealing for solo PvE content since his fantastic single target dps escales poorly while facing multiple foes (not forget also how Unrelenting Assault keeps attacking unanimated objetcts). I haven't touched pHerald in six months and I doubt I'll ever play it again... I'm utterly feed up after playing that thing non-stop for 7 years.

I enjoy it but is significantly worse than Herald or Renegade if the foeas are challenging. A simple example: go Drizzlewood and face a couple of groups with 5 veteran charrs (usually each one has a thief with blinds, a engineer with knockbacks, some warriors... ), the numbers you proc at the begining are fun, but after a few interrupts you end bodied, because the spec has 0 native cc to set the damage. Meanwhile, condi Herald casts axe #5, Chaotic Release, Elemental Blast, swap to Mallyx > Call to Anguish > Embrace the Darkness and voila!, either everything is dead or you already out of cooldown to repeat it again. Renegade isn't as tanky, but has the advantage of range to deal with foes. Vindi is great vs regular enemies with not much threat or single bosses with well telegraphed attacks, but vs crowds or bosses which are very nimble or rich in cc is way worse. Is a kamikaze gameplay style. Love the mobility and self buff ability, but if I really want the task to be done in a single attempt is not my main choice.

The main objection I have against the patch is that they are dealing with Vindicator overperforming in PvP/WvW while buffing power Herald in PvE and condi core Rev/Herald in PvP (this for second, unsuccessful time in a row) , whereas what Rev players asked from EoD was a new power spec for PvE. So: no one is asking for PvP buffs and no one is asking for Herald PvE buffs, yet they insist in pushing that while Vindi remains below 1% usage in instanced content...

My impression is that they have 0 intentions to make a viable dps Firebrand build for PvP: is all oriented to try to replace core support Guardian, because having a class with no specs meta in PvP looks ugly from outside. Not like I care for that dead game mode, anyway. For sure, as the changes were listed, the new Firebrand will probably be a worse performer in WvW roaming, since it was kinda mediocre, only pushed by celestial stats. The changes could maybe improve the dps, but in terms of cc and defensive abilities it will be way weaker. But probably won't matter because a) they care 0 about FB outside zergs, and b) ANet is in the path to kill WvW in 2023 the same way as they killed PvP in 2022.

Not sure about the flexibility: with skills costing up to 3 pages for the more dramatic ones you're extremely limited in ANY choice you make to be more specialized; probaly ballast traits which never were used as the extra pages will now be mandatory if you want the tomes to make any impact. I mean: swap to tome, release 2-3 skills, then camp auto attacking with axe for the next 12-16 seconds.... Yep, super fun. Instead I would chose just to run rifle Mech: you will use the same amount of F skills but you have range and if a foe with projectile hate emerges you just swap to flamethrower and you already have perma stab built in. That for the dps builds, I don't enjoy pure support so I don't care about healing FB... Edit: by the way, they should re-order the three last traits to match the retain of the passives with the F keys itselves, because as currently they are placed as 3,1,2 instead of 1,2,3 as it should. Also, to provide structure to the changes (currently the upper line of traits improve conditions and cc, the mid line quickness and aegis and the bottom line enhancements in the tomes) they should probably swap the order of the rest of the traits so the quickness/F1 line is in the upper line, conditions/F2 in the middle and tomes/F3 in the lower line. Follow the logic of the Mechanist, since is the milestone of the expansion.

My main objection (I'm 60%) is the amount of times that is not clear exactly what you need to do. Not things like getting some quests done, but much simpler things as "how exactly I do start the wuest" or "how much time I have to wait once I completed this quest to be able to activate the next one" or "where the hell is Gorrik". Things as: after teaching in Vabbi you have to wait to the veteran to spawn and kill it, but NOTHING says that you have to do that, the quest just says teach in Vabbi. So you do it, complete the heart, nothing happens, you leave confused and don't complete the quest until 5 weeks later when you accidentally discover in a guide that a veteran undead appears later and you have to kill it. I started the Skyscale ~June; most quest have been fast and puerile, but the jumps between the quest have been obscure and akward...

I'll wait the implementation, but probably I'll end recasting one of my 3 Guardians in another class. I don't think that the new iteration of FB would be more fun to play than the previous one, an the current iteration has been dead in PvP for years...

I known that isn't exactly the meta (or even if you're taliking about roaming or zerging) but running Devastation: Agressive Agility in a greatsword/swords Shiro/Alliance build makes Vindi immune to immobilizations. I find weird the Herald buffs in PvE due both Renegade and Herald are already superior to Vindi at that game mode. Is also strange that the devs keep talking about how in PvP Vindi has too much sustain for the damage it deals an want to move it to more aggressive builds but instead of nerfing susatain (well, the the no jump under immob kinda is..) the keep reducing Archemorus damage... Is like: instead of bringing up a single legend with a clear goal (delivering a good PvE power damage with cleave) they came up with a Frankenstein's monster with x2 the skills, half of them being offensive, half being support, shared enegy (also extremely hard to balance), an a bit of condi damage out of nowhere which doesn't synergizes at all. Is anyone really playing support Vindi in any game mode at all? No? Then why keep fumbling around in PvE buffing Vicky instead of making Archy better?

Revenant Vindicator has continued to be a powerful force in PvP after the most recent set of changes, and we're making a few additional reductions in this update. We see vindicator as doing a bit too much damage when investing heavily in defensive traits, so we've shaved down a few skills to create more of a decision point between damage and defense. We've also reduced the stability from Reaver's Rage and removed the ability to dodge while immobilized with the goal of making vindicator slightly easier to bring down. The last set of changes didn't have quite enough impact on condition-based revenant builds in PvP, and we're following up with a few more adjustments to improve their damage output and free up a bit more energy while in Legendary Demon Stance. We've focused on improving damage builds for both herald and vindicator in PvE, improving the potency of sword off hand, Legendary Assassin Stance and Legendary Dragon Stance, and the Luxon side of Legendary Alliance Stance. Core Shackling Wave (PvE only): Increased power coefficient of initial strike from 1.0 to 1.2. Increased power coefficient of additional strikes from 0.35 to 0.4. Deathstrike (PvE only): Increased power coefficient of initial strike from 0.33 to 0.45. Increased power coefficient of final strike from 2.0 to 2.67. Impossible Odds: Increased power coefficient on secondary strikes from 0.55 to 0.65 in PvE only. Jade Winds: Increased power coefficient from 1.5 to 3.0 in PvE only. Seething Malice: Increased condition damage from 120 to 240 in PvP only. Banish Enchantment: Reduced energy cost from 30 to 25 in PvP only. Call to Anguish: Reduced energy cost from 30 to 25 in PvP only. Rising Tide: Reduced health threshold from 90% to 75% in PvE only. Herald Elemental Blast: Reduced cooldown from 15 seconds to 12 seconds in PvE only. Burst of Strength (PvE only): Reduced cooldown from 15 seconds to 12 seconds. Increased effect duration from 5 seconds to 10 seconds. Reduced damage bonus from 25% to 15%. Damage bonus now applies to condition damage as well as strike damage. Chaotic Release: Increased power coefficient from 2.0 to 4.0 in PvE only. Vindicator Vindicators can no longer dodge while immobilized. Spear of Archemorus: Reduced range from 2,000 to 1,200. Increased power coefficient from 3.5 to 5.0 in PvE only. Increased torment duration from 5 seconds to 8 seconds in PvE only. Scavenger Burst: Adjusted burning from one stack for 8 seconds to two stacks for 5 seconds in PvE only. Endurance gain increased from 5 per target to 20 per target in PvE only. Energy cost reduced from 20 to 15 in PvE only. Reduced power coefficient from 1.55 to 1.4 in PvP only. Tree Song: Energy cost reduced from 20 to 15 in PvE only. Battle Dance: Energy cost reduced from 20 to 15 in PvE only. Nomad's Advance: Energy cost reduced from 20 to 15 in PvE only. Reduced power coefficient from 2.3 to 2.1 in PvP only. Reaver's Rage (PvP only): Reduced power coefficient from 1.25 to 1.0. Reduced stability duration from 6 seconds to 3 seconds. Reduced daze duration from 1.5 seconds to 1 second.

This works extremely well with very low imput, just auto attack and use some golem skills or utilities from time to time: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PeQAQlxycZdsXWMOuLfxfA-zRJYiRRfZEYCURBo/AA-e If you face a enemy which reflects or nulls projectiles just swap to flamethrower and spam auto attack: it counts as a channeled attack and ignores hate-projectile abilities (it also provides permanent stability). If you don't have the Golemancer runes from dungeon tokens they can be easily replaced by Ogre runes, or Pack runes if you want to ditch the summon. You can solo HPs and bounties with this low imput build.

That's one of the things that worries me. I context: I have 3 Revs, a main with 6 gear/trait templates which uses a variety of builds, and then two regular characters with standard 2 gear/3 traitline tepmplates. The first can fit any role whereas the second always runs Renegade variants and the third power variants of either Herald or Vindicator. With the Vindicator toon I usually run a mix of marauder, diviner and assassin stats, which in PvE works perfect: ~19K HP, 100% crit chance, 200% crit damage, 50% boon duration, permanent 25 stacks of might, fury, protection and very high quickness uptime. But in WvW whereas the 19K HP and 200% crit damage remains, the crit chance is ~87% and you don't stack nearly as much might (10-15 maybe), and prot and quickness are very short (makes sense to take advantage from the quickness from Phase Traversal, but doesn't make sense to waste Scavenger Burst JUST to get quickness). In reality, I'm spending 0,75 secs (and 20 energy) to get 3 secs 50% increased speed attack (3x1.5= 4.5) vs just acting "normal" for 3.75 secs. So the gains of having 492 concentration points in WvW roaming are (maybe) greatly dimished due how short some boons are in that game mode. Of course PvP doesn't count (in the sense that the stat choices aren't even the same) but the limitation remains. I'm thinking about swaping those stats in WvW, so I can go and cap crit chance full time, increase HP in 3K and retain/enhance crit damage/base power. Hate having to devote a full gear plantiff to a single game mode, but I have the feeling that I'm not taking full advantage of those ~500 stat points due the WvW skill splits...

...I mean, ouside pure support builds. The gap in duration for the most valuable boons (as stabilty, protection or quickness.. ) from PvE to WvW/PvP is so large that I'm lately wondering if using gear with concentration stats in those game modes is a waste (outside a support build or a hybrid build taking advantege of celestial). A ~% increase over almost nothing still remains close to nada. What do you think, folks, should I reeset those diviner stats to something like marauder or dragon?

When Vallun first introduced his video (Fallen Angel build) one of the key features of was to take advantage of being able to burst at 0 energy cost taking advantage of both the weapon swap (proccing the AoE condi sigils of Doom, Geomancy and Hydromancy) with Invoke Torment and the synergies of traits as Abyssal Chill. While the weapon swap doesn't have a clear call, Invoke Torment cast a visual signature and has a delay which is intended to to make opponents to react against them (originally IT lacked it and its inclusion is good in terms of balance, despite ANet never tried to balance stealth users in the same way...). By the way, when flipping camps is more effective to start using your ccs in chain + passive procs and and then to use your damage skills INSTEAD of entering in combat with the awfully weak warbeast attack, inmediatly activating the resource-hungry Embrace the Darkness and then eating tons of free attacks from a non cced crowd rich in their own cc stuff (blind, immobilize, knockback...). I would open with something as Chaotic Release > Elemental Blast > Temporal Rift then swap to Mallyx > Call to Anguish > Echoing Eruption then swap weapons > activate Embrace the Darkness and cover with Crystal Hybernation while the enemies eat the EtD pulses and endure quite a bit damage from the condition we procced at very cheap cost. That would greatly wear off the foes at minimal risk reducing the chances of being countered and having to play defensively after a bombastic entrance. My fav part of flipping camps with condi Herald is doing it without wasting heals, including assaulting ones with the invuln boon and killing everything and pillaging the stations leaving it relativery unscratched.

Shadow Meld hardcounters Gaze of Darkness and while the mobility of the celestial Herald can put a fight vs Thieves that rely solely on stealth or solely on mobility and mele skills fighting thieves which mix both is really hard and if is against a ranged build as rifle Deadeye or condi pistol then the fight is bananas... Best case scenario is that if the thief isn't very good it will try to either reset the fight or just leave, but if is really good will probably run/stealth/teleport in circles poking us at safe range while we waste energy chasing. Shiro + Glint has the advantage of mobility over Mallyx Glint that can ensure beter chases, but once in range then it can't cc enough to grant the kill, whereas the later (Mallyx variant) has potential to cc combo to get the kill but has worse chasing potential. Shiro reaches but doesn't combo, Mallyx comboes but rarely reaches. In larger than 1 v 1 scenarios Mallyx has the upper hand due better AoE and because doesn't have to chase the evasive dudes but to focus in the slower players. To some extent we are lucky that years of isolation of Thieves in WvW made them mostly solo roamers reluctant to play with others (there's exceptions, as Orden de Sombras from Baruch Bay), because if as a norm they were gregarious patrols of 2-3 Deadeyes or Virtuosos would destroy almost everything in small scale WvW roaming... But yes again, celestial Herald is great in WvW.

Is strong, and scales for better as the size of the skirmish grows (better at 3 vs 3 than 2 vs 2 than 1 vs 1), and for sure is good at 1 vs n when the foes are inexperienced, BUT struggles vs enemies with high ranged damage and a mix of mobility/stealth, as Deadeye and some Mesmers amd Soulbeast. So: very good, yes; the absolute best? Nope. Can flip a fully upgraded camp in seconds, tho.

I tend to run heavy armored characters in rpgs so my first main in GW2 was Warrior, which was fine but I wasn't very clever handling it so used to die a lot, so after 4 months started to main Guardian, which was supposed to be "tankier". At that moment (circa early 2013) was "abducted" 🤣 by a WvW clan avid from Guardians in which I stayed ~4 years until faded after PoF. In reality I was also fairly inept as a Guardian, which was mainly a support in WvW G vs G, and I hated how outside a team was a low HP class with poor mobility (so easy to gank). I understand now that I wasn't playing the class as I should, but whatever... So then HoT arrived and also the Revenant: a heavy armor class with good mobility, mid HP poor and strong burst? Sounds perfect to me! I loved the faster pace and how the initial years of the class worked. In the lore I also appreciated how the legend mechanic resembled my favourite class in Rolemaster (Companion III), the Chaotic Lord (a semi weapons/magic spell user which invokes and contains chaos demons inside his body gaining extra features as increased speed, senses and unnatural armor. Most of the initial Rev legends were also pretty kitten, too. Mechanically I enjoy the more complex nature of the Rev without stepping in the deeps of Thief/Engineer/Ele; I don't find the weapon roster lacking due Warriors historically has been using like 4 weapons in the whole GW2, but is true that I dislike current hammer/staff and core needs either another condi weapon for swap or a hammer rework to make it hybrid as the short bow or undewater choices. Lore wise latest two choices in legends seems fairly lame, but ANet is oftenly wrong, so Renegade started being bad and then OP and then nerfed it but is still powerfull, and Vindi was released OP and then nerfed but still works in some parts of the game not dead...

Impressive. Inspiring. Very well edited.

1) Create a character, select one of the 3 exclusive items (headbands in the case of Revenants) and start the game with it. The skin is now unlocked. 2) Exit the game, delete the character; create a new one and select other of the exclusive items. 3) Repeat steps 1 & 2 upt to 27 times to have the whole collection. Remember that the Rev headbands are from a profession which wields heavy armor and those are considered heavy pieces, so I think that only Revs, Warriors and Guards can use them.

Population in PvP is small, but didn't start that way. Main reason of the implosion has been the game mode being neglected. Also, ANet never tried to much to make earnings from cosmetics in this game mode (like releasing skins which required both gems and PvP tokens). Most succesfull games inTwitch are competitive multiplayer games with constant balance corrections and a flourishing economy based on selling skins. The WvW clan in which I was for ~4 years 100% faded out after PoF due ANet stopped the support for the game mode. Things has been even worse at PvP.

They (ANet) literaly did nothing for PvP in EoD: * No new maps * No new game modes * No new rewards (aside from the generic Cantha track) * 0 serious testing of the new specs and 0 listen to the claims from the public betas ...Also valid for WvW. So the phrase "there's not much the dev team can do about the pvp cummunity" sounds like a bad joke. 3 years of nothingness followed by frenetic attempts to balance things with the finesse of a sledgehammer, going from hotfix to hotfix, and meta builds which last days due how badly the changes were though so they have to instantly revert it. Entrophy at its finest.

1) Don't delete you oldest character, since there's juicy birthday gifts to take advangate iff. 2) You can delete characters older than 8 years (but not the oldest) since from 8th year and later ANet rewards are only 1 x year/account. 3) For Mesmer, as soon as you get access to HoT unlock the Mirage spec; works wonders in both celestial or trailblazer gear. 4) Alternatively you can also unlock the Hero Points from ANY expansion you have just playing WvW. 5) Both PvP and WvW provide knownledge tomes which lets you to level characters very fast. 6) Everything provides experience in the game; a dungeon run is 70% of a level, an leveling a character in ANY crafting ability from 0 to 400 delivers you exactly 80 levels, so don't worry about leveling alts, is very fast and easy. 7) Don't hesitate on using the 80 level booster: leveling slowly helps to understand a class and its mechanics, but the basics of some of them are fast to catch. If you want to boost a Engineer, do it and unlock Mechanist spec completing Hero Points in any map (Tyria, expansions, PvP) and use it: is the easiest Engie spec to play and rifle Mech can farm legendary bounties in exotic gear, so is really powerful. 8 ) If you will make different characters, try to use a different profession, race and sex in each one: there's only 10 character voices in the game,. and hearing the same voice in half of your roster due that was yor favourite ends being really annoying (I talk about experience; ended deleting some due this). 9) For getting ascended trinkets, back piece and underwater respirator at almost 0 cost the best sources are farming mats from Bitterfrost Frontier, Bloodstone Fen (Living season 3 maps) and Sandswept Isles and Dragonfall maps (Ls4 maps) along Bjora Marches (Icebrood Saga Maps). 10) Long term goal should probably be to get a legendary armor set for your main and legendary trinkets for all: currently (since Summer 2021) legendary items are shared across all characters in the Legendary Wardrobe and they allow infinite quality of life in terms of changing stats, skins, runes, etc. at no cost.

Talking about lore... Anyone knowns where the Vindi character is in the EoD maps? So far I only found the Virtuoso in the starting area and the Harbinger in the old Kaineng city ruins...