Dixie Cougar.2415

I've been happily ignoring my dps as a minstrel druid for almost 3 years now. I've been in multiple statics and pug groups and in over 2,000 kills not one person has paid any attention to my personal dps. I've also yet to run into a single condi druid, except one that got kicked from a group because he wasn't providing might/heals. I recognize that my experience IS NOT fully representative of all raiders, but neither is that of speedrunners--most groups I've seen don't run those kinds of hyperaggressive comps, they have a proper tank and specialized healers. The only support that would about their dps is the firebrigade/offchrono/etc. Everyone would be completely free to keep using whatever existing stats they please if new ones get introduced. I would like the option to take a pure support stat because ignoring my dps and minmaxing for heals/boons has worked perfectly for me for raids and t4s. If it would break spvp, don't add it to spvp. Wvw I'm not sure of, but I would hazard a guess that minstrel could still be competitive with a 3-stat support combo there.

There are unfulfilled stat combinations that many full service supports (those that are dedicated to boons and healing) might benefit from. Main healing power or concentration, with the other as an off stat, and vitality as the third stat. Existing stat combinations with both healing power and concentration work, but aren't ideal. Harrier is main power, which is of no significant benefit to dedicated healers and pushes the support stats down into the secondary slots. Giver's suffers from the same issue while also affecting aggro in some fights (fine if you're the tank, but otherwise problematic). Minstrel is more flexible than giver's but still pumps toughness a lot. Plaguedoctor is nice as a building block for hybrids but doesn't give enough conc/healing power for dedicated supports. Can you make do somehow with what's available? Certainly, and I have done so for 3 years of raids, but I would immediately switch over to Con+Heals/Vit or Heals+Conc/Vit if either were available. Those are the only three stats that I want as a pure support, so it would be nice to see them all available in the same package. Like it or not, role specialization is here to stay in endgame content and it would be lovely if support mains got a proper stat combination for their jobs--something that isn't main toughness or a DPS stat. (Purists can argue that vit is "wasted" but the dps increase for healers from unfocused dps stats is trivial and toughness produces the aforementioned aggro problems. So outside of speedrunning, vit seems like the least useless of the three for a pure healer. More options in this case to suit different purposes would be better.)

A proper pair of support stat combinations: main stat concentration or healing power, secondary conc/heals (whichever was not primary) and vitality as the third stat. Power mainstat (as in harrier) does not benefit a support build and toughness mainstat (as in giver's or minstrel's) can cause aggro issues.

+1, scourge isn't even that great in pvp anymore. it's a... "shade" of what it was when PoF launched

Scourge already suffers in spvp from the current power burst meta. No idea why a nerf would be warranted there.

Of horse they should.

(Speaking mostly to PvE here, as I have no objection to PvP changes which seem mostly on point) Change is not always bad, but change for the sake of change is almost always bad. In general, with some exceptions (such as berserker changes) the last 7 or 8 balance patches have come across as exactly that. Chrono has been badly mangled and it looks like holo is about to be. For most players, balance patches are not content, they're just extra work. Yes, learning is good, but constantly relearning rotations and other things because of seemingly arbitrary bolts from the blue (these balance patches) is obnoxious. Please stop playing whack a mole with our favorite builds, especially support chrono. It was fine before you started butchering signet of inspiration.

I realize that this practice is probably financially successful in the short run, but I'd like to point out that almost every game I've quit (and stopped spending money on) in the last 8 years or so has been due to RNG issues. GW2 has been an "oasis" in the desert for me where for the most part it's possible to work towards goals and have measurable progression. Systems based on all or nothing rng (either you got the skin you wanted or you didn't) break that. While mount skins are only cosmetic, this mechanic does (as many others point out) smack of "grabby" practices that other companies engage in. Practices we have long been glad that Anet does not engage in, for the most part. I certainly won't be trying my chances. I would rather pay directly for the skin I want, or work toward it ingame. Note that items acquired ingame (like legendaries) can still be a revenue driver for GW2 through the currency exchange. So if you put that swank skin behind a craftwall you can still make money off it. Alternatively, if you have to keep the current system, make the mount skins tradable on the TP. Then you make money through the gem store directly AND the currency exchange. Some people may just use ingame gold, but others will keep buying adoption tickets after 30 just to sell the skins. It should work out fine.