[That one NPC that we love too much.]

Detective Rama.

[Why is minstrels gear still in the game?]

1 hour ago, Shiyo.3578 said:

Clerics has power, nomad's is stupid but it wasn't an issue because you could barely heal other people during vanilla.

But you could still provide boons, AOE support for sustains in vanilla. Enough healing from using finishers (mostly blast finishers) inside water fields.
 

2 hours ago, subversiontwo.7501 said:

I'm not insulting you, I'm pointing out that you are trying to argue about something that is in your head and not in the game. 

@Shiyo.3578

This sums up pretty much what I would like to point out here as well.
I did enjoy simpler WVW, not too crazy with abilities that creates power creep. But even back then it was not as balanced as you might recall. It was heavily melee oriented zerg fights with hammer and GS cleaving everything to death, with one stack of stability giving full immunity against any form of CC.
Vanilla had problems just like current version of WVW, just more transparent.

Perfect WVW balance is nearly impossible, it's only possible in one's dream.

[The most ugly WWW I ever seen!]

You don't need to use LFG for WVW. Yes, you can try, but squad recruitments mostly happen in chat mostly, with Discord server address provided via chat or squad message once you joined. 

 

If the squad message doesn't provide any Discord info and you have joined any public open squad, then that's most likely a PUG squad, bunch of solo players grouped together acting as a zerg. You will win some, and lose some. Do not expect competitive group-play in that environment, just have fun. You will still get full-reward that WVW can provide anyway.

 

WVW is on-going 24/7, so your team not having much wvw activity during your usual playhours doesn't mean WVW is dead. It just means you are playing in off-hours of your server's major WVW population, most likely wvw guild(s)

 

Not sure why I'm even writing this much for someone who starts a topic with 'idk' right after a claim, but ok.

[Join Us for a Special Live Event TOMORROW (Friday August 30)]

1/ Can you tell us the current progress on Alliance system and future WvW content roadmap?2/ GW2 is losing players from every game modes, and one of the major reason behind this phenomena is due to the lack of communication and 0 hints of what dev teams are working on than 'we might do this later if we can'; are you aware of this and are there any plans and solutions rather than 'we will work on it'?3/ Does your game balance team consider current PoF meta in WvW is healthy? Is profession (skill) balance team even consider WvW when they tune skill strengths and its efficiency?4/ Do devs even play WvW, not just pugging/roaming around like squirrels but in an actual guild run with current meta comp?5/ Do you still believe Living World and Main Story Episodes is the BEST SOLUTION to bring back leaving or already left users as well as new players?

[Concerns about Elementalist]

To be honest, Unravel should have been F5 button not taking another util slot from weaver. Keeping it's core function of single element attunement should have done fine, and possibly adding depth to it's function with traits.. But this looks like a missed opportunity and I doubt Devs actually care what Eles should do in competitive scenes.

[Concerns about Elementalist]

@Razor.6392 said:I'm not gonna list very specific changes because I know how tedious is reading through numerical stuff. Instead I'll give you a broader scope of ele's issue (mained ele since august 2012).

Pvp builds:

• Every successful ele build relies on sustain. We have zero condi builds, and power builds are outclassed.
• Our entire existence is tied to Water and Arcane. When was the last time you saw a build without either arcane or water?
• Fire trait line is heavily underpowered. You could give us back the old might on cantrip and it still wouldn't be top tier due to power creep.

Pve builds:

• Very squishy with complex rotations. Why roll ele when you can just rollface with simpler classes?

Weapons:

• Sword does everything dagger does, but considerably better. Both weapons fill the same niche. This is a serious problem.
• Dagger needs significant buffs in both survivability and damage. Both main and offhand (but more main hand). Weaver locking its best 2 abilities (Shocking Aura and Burning Speed) behind a double attunement is also a severe issue.
• Staff is mostly okay, but lacking in pvp (since release). I assume this is intended by now.
• Focus is fine. Fire attunement is very, VERY boring but meh, at least the other 3 are good.
• Scepter is non existent in pve. It has great burst but still keeps the same issues for years. Namely Dragon's Tooth, Phoenix LONG cd, and its poor autoattacks (abysmal dps).
• Warhorn is okay I guess. Not a lot to say about it.

Healing skills:

• Arcane Brilliance could use the pvp recharge globally.
• Aquatic Stance is never a good choice.
• Ether Renewal could use a shorter channel.
• All the other heals are okay.

Utility skills:

• Glyphs remain bad in every game mode. Only glyph of storms sees some value in pve. GoEP 25% dmg buff was nice, but still not good enough to justify its slot.
• Cantrips are stuck in 2014. The cooldowns are REALLY bad, and the effects are underwhelming.
• Arcane got a really nice pvp buff in adding charges, but then they received nerfs because FA weaver was oh so OP with its zero condi removal / sustain. Revert.
• Shouts are only useful because of the auras. Their cooldowns and effects are rather awful.
• Stances are mostly fine, if not a little clunky. Unravel needs something more to justify its slot.
• Conjures need a full rework. Give them the engi-kit treatment... or something at least.

Elite skills:

• I'm fairly sure ele has the worst elite skills in the entire game. All of them need help. Tornado needs a lower CD and to be as strong as Rampage / Lich form, Glyph needs targeted aoe abilities, FGS needs a much lower cooldown, Weave Self needs to not root yourself when casting Tailored Victory and the tempest elite a full rework, because it's too similar to an engi healing ability and doesn't fit the Elementalist theme.

Talents

• As previously mentioned, Fire traitline is underpowered. It only sees use in pve due to its ~~boring ~~flat damage increase traits.
• Air is mostly fine, but some traits need an update. Such as Zephyr's Boon and Electric Discharge (unfairly nerfed for Core ele).
• Earth is not a bad trait line, but the overreliance on water and arcane ultimately renders it pointless to most builds.
• Water. Oh water, if only we could add some of your sustain and survivability to other trait lines in one way or another... I'm not one for homogenizing things, but this is needed. At least the condi clear part.
• Arcane, the ultimate trait line for an ele, much like trickery for Thief. I don't think the answer is to nerf it, but to make other trait lines (fire, earth) more competitive. A LOT more. Also give us arcane fury back... nobody needs 1 stack of might for 8 seconds on att. swap. Seriously. It's one of those changes nobody asked, like Thief's Blinding Powder becoming a stun break. STOP DOING THAT.
• Tempest. Very dull traits with almost no impact. Needs a full rework.
• Weaver. Like already mentioned in water, add some standalone condi clear in here please, don't make us rely on water all the time.

Thank you for reading.

This is pretty much the tl;dr version of all complaints in this thread that summarize with arguably reasonable changes demanded. It should be clipped for balance team to think over and use as a starting point for 'updating and balancing Elementalist profession in 2019'. However, I must say, above all other complaints, Ele's staff skills (mostly 1~2 and Meteor Shower) staff for WvW is currently too slow and obsolete.

I would just chip in my input, mostly about Ele problems in WvW squad gameplay and DPS department in PvP contents:Ele's DPS department in competitive scenes (WvW, Ranked sPvP, GvG) is pretty much dead or non-existent. It's all about sustain, for group-plays and self-sustain. Heal/support Tempest is just a build that somehow luckily survived 'the culling' of non-meta classes in competitive WvW squad gameplay.TL;DR version:======================================1/ Cantrips seriously needs shorter cooldowns or need reworks.Outdated, even with shorten cooldowns, it's just not enough when ranged power builds can just use skill 1 to shoot you down upto 1500 range with longbow or shiro shadowstep+hammer bolt. The reason Twist of Fate is favored over cantrips in nearly every weaver build right now is due to it's invulnerable time and it's a 2 stack recharge skills.

2/ Ele has 0 utility counter against stealth builds except lucky AoE shots and long cooldown blocks.Eles have the lowest innate defensive stats, the given tools force Eles to react after their stealth bomb has been used. TRAITS is the only and effective counter measure against burst builds.

3/ Staff weaver Fire+Water/Fire+Air Dual Attacks projectiles speed is too slow for competitive gameplay and yet too many counters like projectile blocks or aegis, it's a waste of time to cast them.

4/ Remove stationary requirements from skills: Meteor Shower, Pile Driver. Let Eles use skills while moving too.

5/ Quicken the Ice Spike animation to drop the chunk of ice almost instantly -Staff Water 2

6/ Eruption needs either faster blast or additional soft cc till the actual blast, just like the updated Churning Earth -Staff Earth 2

7/ Fire Overloads needs a rework, it's obsolete and counters the current role as a support role in WvW. It serves no meaningful purpose but a long duration 180 radius fire field, when Might is so abundant and pumped from other classes.

8/ Weave Self and Tailored Victory, still useful but sub-par, not so useful outside sPvP scenes.======================================

Support Tempest is arguably the only viable build in competitive WvW / GvG scenes that some WvW guilds might consider to take it as a core/substitute profession to add in their roster, IF they have a spare spot. Long channeling of overloads can be troubling to finish channeling in an intense fight, but that's also Tempests weakness for enemy to counter, so I don't agree with some people saying overload channeling is too long; but I agree they lack impact. Especially, fire overloads, 4 seconds of spin dancing and lava font damage per tick for 180 radius? It's just not useful for 2019, may be moving fire field was the thing in pre-HoT meta where crowds regarded blasting fire field was a great might generator. It's obsolete now. Blasting and leaping fire fields is a neat trick, still handy for generating Might stacks for Eles, but Fire Overloads, Tempest has not enough combo finishers to fully utilize it anyways still a lackluster and tedious compared to how other classes generate Might. They are gonna hack or shot eles down, they know fire overload is not a threat to actually care about.

Staff Ele's diverse field effects and AoE masking the area within 1200 range with multiple fields sounds great, it is still helpful, but near 0 damage and duration is rather short. There is no reliable continuous damage skills except from 180 radius Lava Font and Meteor Shower, DPS eles (weavers) are often neglected from proper squad spots with supports, and commonly regarded as dead-weight. The upfront damage race is so fierce in WvW right now, hammer rev and scourges shutdown any targets including Eles (especially Eles with full dps spec) within 1200 range, nullifies any fields Eles can cast in same given time bracket. Constant WASD movement is forced and I personally like it, it's fun, but it's the biggest counter to Staff Ele's offensive skills and sustainability. Zergs nowadays simply ignore all fields that Eles drop and even commander calls on discord to just move through and ignore. Only thing that enemy cares about is 'bombing' and Meteor Shower is the only ele skill in that category. All Staff Ele does right now in WvW, is to irritate the target with rock huddles and some chilling grounds to make them move and cast slower for 1 or 2 seconds and hopefully Hammer Revs and Scourges will drop them dead with actual upfront damage.

[Please add Beetle Stamina Orb as a purchasable guild hall deco]

I have finished my guild hall beetle racecourse. The loop is there. But the stamina orbs would have helped a bit for faster driving experiences..

[Rental Beetles, what after you get dismounted?]

@Shikigami.4013 said:What the OP described is fall damage. Usually the damage is not enough to dismount you even without any mastery, but if you run over bandit mines in the road going west from wendon steps, you will not regain your health before making the jump and end up being dismounted when you land.

I may be wrong with the following detail but I had the impression those bandit mines only damage you when using the rental beetle and not when using your own one. Unless someone is faster with a comment on this, I will verify this the next time I get into the game and edit my post :)

I tried with my own beetle as well, bandit landmines still trigger, but ultimately with bunny mastery 'Masterful Descent' the fall damage upon landing is barely noticeable.

[Rental Beetles, what after you get dismounted?]

@TexZero.7910 said:You realize that maybe the rental is a good will item and you should return the favor and buy the expansion if you havent already then go and unlock said mount since you clearly enjoy racing.

I already own both expansions for my two accounts. I'm working on the living story episode and the permanent beetle mount achievement for my alt account.But that has nothing to do with the quality of life changes required for rental beetle mount that many other new players are going to experience.

[Rental Beetles, what after you get dismounted?]

For players who do not owns the beetle mount, can rent one from renter NPC hanging around the start of beetle racecourses.But there is no system/prompt to re-summon those rental mounts during a race once the rental beetle HP goes 0 or dismounting willingly.I want to emphasize this problem is hurting the driving experience during roller beetle races which has no reset prompts.This is not a convincing way of punishing players who drive recklessly but just a pure annoyance and short-sighted design decision.Players who get forcefully dismounted stays in combat for 2~3 seconds (if there are no attacking hostile NPCs) which already puts the player behind for considerable amount of time.Since ANet is allowing new players to try the new beetle mount, just a bit more attention to quality of life details are currently required for the rental beetle experience to be whole.

I had to run back to the renter NPC on my raptor mount after my rental beetle couldn't survive the fall damage at Hidden Lake, Brisban Wildlands. TWICE.

Edited: Basically, ANet grant re-mount buttons/option for players who are using rental beetle. Problem solved.

[Please add Beetle Stamina Orb as a purchasable guild hall deco]

@"TexZero.7910" said:I don't think it will work as a decoration. I might be wrong and correct me if i am, but do we have any "floating interactable objects" that don't require a key press as decorations ?

Perhaps ANet might not be able to grant us the orb as a purchasable object (technical issues), the purpose of my plead was to merely show ANet that the custom beetle racetrack for guild halls won't have much fun/speed that's granted from core Tyria races.

[Please add Beetle Stamina Orb as a purchasable guild hall deco]

@Shikigami.4013 said:Not as decorations but as guildhall objects - the jump pads in Lost Precipice activate without interaction. So it is possible to place things like that into guild halls in terms of game mechanics.

Unless players can move the orb's location, it might force the racetrack design to be tied with orb locations :[

[Please add Beetle Stamina Orb as a purchasable guild hall deco]

Before I start, thank you ANet for adding racetracks as purchasable guild decos from tokens earned by finishing beetle races. I'm really having a lot fun nowadays racing.

I'm building one in my guild hall, I noticed there is no stamina orb available as a guild deco, that means players have to:

• jump tricks to replenish stamina (player without 'Big Air' mastery will not gain any benefits)
• driving downwards for beetle to regain stamina steadily (which takes a lot of distance and time)

Adding the stamina orb as a purchasable guild hall deco will make the driving experience more satisfying just like the ones in core Tyria.So please add Beetle Stamina Orbs as a purchasable guild Hall deco!

[Scourge is Broken in WvW, Please balance it]

All these "adapt learn new counterplay and don't be selfish" advice are welcoming sight in forum but it's undeniable that high number of scourges are doing too many things so efficiently in zerg fights.