[I dont understand the fascination with Cantha]

1 hour ago, EpicName.4523 said:

Recently, I was looking at the last trailer released and all I saw was some depressing steampunk metropolis. It looked completely out place and tbh - kind of ugly. An overcrowded dumpster of gray concrete. 

GW2 Cantha is quite different from GW1 Cantha

[It took almost a decade but FINALLY!! :D]

😞 ugh, that trailer...such a random chaotic clown show.

 

"jade" tech is like bleach in the eyes. 

[Oh Gods! "Blade Runner" Kaineng City is real :(]

On 1/10/2022 at 11:34 AM, Gibson.4036 said:

This makes me curious. I only got partway through the series. The books just kept getting bigger and bigger, and it felt like each chapter was just a revisit of another character stewing in their angst and not moving the story forward, kinda like soap operas do.

Maybe I'd find the series to be everything I initially liked without the stuff that made me abandon the books.

Doubt it. The tv series is very very different from the books. It's not like they just trimmed out things to make it shorter. They completely changed loads of things (even plot-centric ones) that had nothing to do with screentime, making the story worse and making the characters' decisions look completely nonsensical. And added in unnecessary things that weren't in the books. 

[Do you think this will be the last expansion for GW2?]

depends. if it's gonna take them 4.5 more years to make the next one, some other mmo's may come out that leech away customers, possibly reducing or eliminating the financial prospects of making an another expac. 

[Thoughts on the new Jade Sea aesthetic?]

18 hours ago, witcher.3197 said:

That's a big part of the problem actually. Anet is doing a complete tone shift, a 180 degree turn, in every possible way so far. As a result EoD Cantha will look and feel nothing like GW1 Cantha.

Drab, faded colors. Dark, gloomy areas -> oversaturated colors, bright maps.

High-fantasy setting -> sci-fi.

3 distinct human civilizations, 4 architectural styles -> 1 homogenous human civilization, 1 architectural style based on China not even Cantha. We've yet to see Kaineng, so they could still squeeze in a little variety, but only a little.

Soothing, slow, bit somber music -> upbeat, hight tempo music.

The soul of the region just went missing. I don't care that 250 years have passed, if nothing remained of Cantha that made us want to go back, then what's even the point? They lured us in with the promise of Cantha and made no attempts to recapture anything about the original. What's worse, it's so different one could argue they are consciously trying to destroy everything that's associated with old Cantha.

Nothing in GW2 Cantha matches the vibe of music like this, it's hard to believe they are even the same franchise:

 

Yea. GW1 seemed more weighty and real. Serious and compelling, and yet still beautiful. GW2 oftentimes just feels cartoony and kidsy, w/o much threat. Or at least not threats that feel long-lasting or with a maintained serious tone. And maybe it is also all the jokes the different playable races make about each other that anet always feels like they need to sprinkle in everywhere. 

[Thoughts on the new Jade Sea aesthetic?]

9 hours ago, Infusion.7149 said:

It's dragon magic imbued jade, not regular jade.
The color has more bloom on it from post processing but isn't that far off from raw jade.

See mineral data:

https://www.masonkay.com/storage/app/media/mason-kay-color-chart-updated.pdf

Depends on the IRL jade. They could have made it more like #36 thru #41 on your link. 
 

imo, regardless of the purported lore reasons, the new stuff is painful to look at. And the whole dragon-jade-tech angle is just weird and random to me. 

[Thoughts on the new Jade Sea aesthetic?]

Yea, regardless of what a lot of jade is IRL, the stuff in that trailer hurts my eyes. I liked the gw1 aesthetic a lot better. 
 

I suppose the reasoning they’ll say is that in the lore, this is not the same jade as the jade from gw1. And that all of that gw1 jade is now liquified. And the only reason that this gw2 jade is still solid is because of dragon-magic that happens to also make it more green. 

[I want to gauge community feelings on elite specs for End of Dragons]

36 minutes ago, Kolzi.5928 said:

I am not sold on the fantasy of a number of the specs. Either it isn't clear at all to me what it's supposed to be (catalyst) or it's a jumbled together pile of a lot of concepts or themes that don't quite mesh when you put all of them together (harbinger). It's probably a bit late in the game to address stuff like this though.

The original batch of elite specs had very prominent core fantasies and everything within them worked together really well (even in situations where the implementation was a bit lacking, like early scrapper gyros I would argue, the concepts were all great). Ever since then, things have trended towards being more esoteric, vague and disconnected with subsequent releases. Even this batch has some that deliver (the mechanist seems like it comes together really well for example), but it feels like we've come a long way since the elegant core design of reaper, chronomancer and scrapper.

Preach. 

 

I like that Anet tries to be creative with all aspects of their game, but some stuff just feels *so* off-the-wall random and out-of-left-field (ie. Catalyst, Willbender, Bladesworn, Harbinger). We've had some thematically weird stuff like Dragonhunter before, but this expac seems to load up on it. & the names are almost all strange. Each of these spec's doesn't really feel like a cohesive vision, for most of them. 

[[POLL] How do Mechanist performs in different types of content?]

Didn’t see this poll earlier. Yea, this one struggles alot in the competitive modes, & especially WvW. Due to the AI, it’s very easy for the mech to get out of position and then mobbed and melted by loads of enemies. The ranged projectiles are so slow that it’s hard to hit targets (would help if the skill was a ground target, so you could attempt to lead the target manually with the lobbed shot). The melee skills put the mech in way too much danger to be melted by being close to large groups. Its break bar is easily sliced through and it doesn’t really provide any protection. And it moves too slowly to responsively react and stay on the outskirts of a jinking enemy group.  
 

Once it gets amongst an enemy group it’s quickly dead, w/ no way to escape since it doesn’t have the stunbreaks or condi clears or blocks, or gap-closers of a real player and moves slowly. Its one clear is too slow and seems to make it want to start attacking enemies again instead of continuing to flea. 
 

And if you try to set it on ‘passive’ and keep it in your hip pocket as a support mech, it still somehow finds a reason to get out of position or go running off into the enemy group or aoe’s. 
 

The engineer, itself, is also less survivable due to losing so many stunbreaks on the toolbelt. And alot of utility condi-clear options have been handicapped like the elixir and elixir gun. The mech cleanse is unreliable so you need to waste a traitline buffing up another cleanse like Alchemy for the elixir or Inventions for the protection cleanse. Which leaves you only one trait line for buffing your damage. And the mech doesn’t feel like it makes up for the damage loss due to enemy kiting, poor durability/uptime, and slow/unreliable attacks. 

[[POLL] Do you like Mechanist?]

12 hours ago, Bomboed.5697 said:

Lets collect opinions! Feel free to comment!

It'd be interesting to see this poll broken down by game mode. It seems to work horribly in WvW, especially in large encounters. I'm not exaggerating when say it's one of the worst specs I've ever tested across many expacs, despite many attempts to make it work. But maybe it's the polar opposite in PvE. 

 

Unfortunate, since the aesthetics are nice. 

[Mechanist Bug Thread]

Additionally, Mechanized Deployment (15% recharge reduction on tool belt skills), from the Tools traitline, does not work in WvW, though it does work in PvE. 

[Mechanist Bug Thread]

1. I had the mech set on 'passive' and it was sitting beside me as we watched some server-mates fighting enemies in front of us on the bridge by Lowlands Keep. I used the "Crisis Zone" skill and the mech started running forward far ahead into the scrum, even though I hadn't moved and I didn't have any enemies or allies targeted. 

 

2. I jumped down off the Stonemist Castle inner-wall to engage some enemies below but the mech didn't follow. You have to be very far from the wall for the mech auto-port to you. So if the enemy stays near the wall and you jump down to fight, you will be fighting by yourself as the mech watches from above. 

 

3. Certain areas, the mech can't traverse, such as the little step you can hop up on the cliff that is between Klovan and Stonemist. The mech will not auto-port to you either once you're up there. Furthermore, if you try to use the shadowstep from Shift Signet while you're up on that plateau, it will not work at all (neither for yourself nor for your mech) since your mech doesn't have a path there. Even if you de-spawn the mech, you can't use the shadowstep while up on that hill. I am unsure if this is intended or not. Do other professions' shadowsteps work once you have hopped up on that plateau?

 

[What are the trade offs for each Elite Specialization?]

Mechanist- practically everything

No toolbelts. lose 1/2 of stunbreaks and a ton of other functionality. lose Elite, because you have to dedicate it to re-summoning the Mech once the Mech gets melted. lose 1/3 traits once Mech goes down. 90% of utilities are handicapped w/o toolbelt. Lose control abilities, since so much positioning and damage is outsourced to the mech, which has stupid AI.  Lose responsiveness since mech attacks are so slow (especially projectiles). Lose fight-initiative since mech won't follow you off of WvW walls until you're very far away from it. Lose build customization. Lose sanity w/ the continuous hovering sound-effect. 

not to mention what all engi's have already lost, which is weapon swaps. 

[Mechanist Feedback Thread]

yet another problem in WvW. The mech is very reluctant to follow you when you jump down off of walls. Even with it set to "passive" where it should be trying to stay by your side. it will not follow you until you get *very* far away from the wall. 

[Mechanist Feedback Thread]

This spec feels awful in WvW. Really outdoes all the other specs in the clunkyness department. Projectiles are slow as molasses. Mech is almost ALWAYS out of position to use the bubble or other proximity skills. Even if you have it set on 'passive' stance. It will not stay by your side. Hit the 'return to me' button and it will take forever to get back to you. You will be dead by the time it gets back to use any proximity abilities. 

 

Build diversity is zero. Almost forced to take signets. Need to burn an Elite slot just to mimic ranger-pet functionality if mech goes down. And you're predictably useless when your mech goes down. 90% of the base utilities are now sabotaged w/o toolbelt's. Not to mention that you still have to deal with not being able to swap weapons. Half the stunbreaks are gone since they were toolbelt's. 

 

"Mechanized Deployment" trait does not reduce recharge of F-skills, hurting the Tools traitline. Other traitlines indirectly hurt since that had traits that used to buff *both* utility skills and toolbelt skills (ie. HGH-elixir recharge). 

 

the list goes on...

getting sick of even listening to the repetitive sound effect when the mech uses its jets to hover over to you. 

 

[So… med kit is junk on Mechanist?]

4 hours ago, RobinotX.1604 said:

 

This I find a weird take. Cause I suppose you are looking at viable endgame builds? Looking at Metabuild, Snowcrows in the end there isn't too much of a diversity in there either for Scrapper or Holosmith. In the end a build is META and that build is being used mainly. Or even within that line you have some things that are being used more often than less.

You have all the freedom to change a few things to not get max deeps. This is not only for Engineer but for most classes.

 

It's BETA things change. They already mentioned that they look at that.

I’m not talking about PvE.

[So… med kit is junk on Mechanist?]

4 hours ago, RobinotX.1604 said:

 

I have to agree with @Obtena.7952 a lot of the feedback here is based on zero playtime. You assume it will be bad but aren't 100% sure. I do get the concerns but I think it is better to wait and see after a lot is played because atm the only thing I see is an echo chamber with only a few actually having ideas how to think of ideas. And those good ideas seem to get burried in the rubble.

Some people think that ANET is blind and didn't know they deleted toolbelt skills or were aware of X or Y. I have definitely some questions about the Mechanist but I think the spec looks great and there is a lot they can improve but I think a lot of good is there as well. CmC already mentioned that the numbers can change if they notice that is something that should happen.

They already saw that players want more Untamed options for their weapons. But in all honesty if you don't like how Mechanist is going to play than accept that the class aint it for you. You still have a solid Scrapper and Holosmith you can play with and else there are eight other classes you can play with.

I for one want to play with the spec first see what it can do. See what high endgame does with it and what kind of place it has currently when e.g. the mech dies and you don't have it for 100 seconds. But keep in mind as well that places like Snowcrows are high endgame and most players ain't there and will not care about it and will be happy running around in the open world. And in the end the Mechanist will do that in a great way.

It might be fine in PvE, but there are major concerns for PvP/WvW. literally half the engi stunbreaks are toolbelt skills, as is a ton of other functionality. That's not something you can easily fix by just tweaking numbers one way or the other. Losing toolbelt handicaps loads of utility skills. Mech's probably gonna get melted in WvW, and/or have its projectile attacks reflected. And if anet tanks it up to compensate, that could easily make it overpowered, giving you a projectile sponge to hide behind in small-man encounters unless they are piercing projectiles. Seems like it will be hard to balance. And that's before talking about the AI/pathing issues. 

 

And aside from the balance, it just feels like buildcrafting will be boring. The mechanist trait selection is so dumbed down, it's almost pigeon-holing you to select an entire trait row, depending on whether you are condi, power, or support. There doesn't seem much incentive to mix/match on traits. Feels like they are trying to treat their player base like kindergarteners w/ all the hand-holding. With all the base utilities handicapped, what would recommend any of those skills over the signets, which are specifically balanced around not ever having tool belt skills? One of the most fun things in both GW1, and, to a lesser extent, GW2, was the buildcrafting. I'd hate to see that aspect of the game get oversimplified. 

 

 

[The Mechanist - new engineer EoD elite spec]

This spec is kinda disappointing tbh. Golem & skills are pretty-looking, but golem probably will get melted and/or reflected in WvW. tough to lose toolbelt skills too. 

[How would you rate Bladesworn during this beta?]

On 9/30/2021 at 6:33 AM, Kodama.6453 said:

I get the feeling that people are using it not correctly in PvP, tho. 

Anet told us that they adjusted the scaling to not be exponential in PvP like it is in PvE and that it scales faster with the first charges and then falls off. It seems the intention is to not commit to a full charge, but using several small charges in a row with the trait which lets you reenter dragon trigger over and over as long as you have flow.

Might be counterintuitive for people, since it is exactly the opposite of what you want to do in PvE, so it needs to be communicated well that this skill functions entirely different in both game modes. But I think it might not perform so badly once people realise that you don't have to make yourself a sitting duck for 5 seconds.

I don’t think it’s great design to practically mandate certain traits.
 

and if you are forced to take Daring Dragon, now you can’t take Unyielding Dragon, so opponents have even more ways to completely mitigate your damage down to zero. 
 

They’d be able to blind or block you in a myriad of ways, plus what they can already do:

-LOS you

-dodge you

-stroll out of range

-abuse minor elevation differences to cause complete misses. 
-CC to interrupt your charge

 

they have all those mitigations, & the mini-charge doesn’t really do much more damage than 5s of autoattacks. 

[Bladesworn Feedback Thread]

15 hours ago, Riot Inducer.8964 said:

2. Movement should be locked while in Dragon Trigger mode, it's far to easy to accidentally ruin your own attempt at a Dragon Slash by accidentally bumping your movement keys. The mode is hard enough to pull off without the Bladesworn themselves bungling it. 

Yea, the accidental cancellations were a major annoyance. But I suppose if they changed it, there would be other people that would start to complain because they don't like anything forcibly locking them in place.

 

15 hours ago, Riot Inducer.8964 said:

3. Give Dragon Trigger mode some more reliable defensive abilities, specifically access to stability and ways to cleanse/ignore blindness.

tbf, there is the "Unyielding Dragon" grandmaster trait, which feels almost mandatory.  And Flow Stabilizer provides a quick stability, though unfortunately not enough to cover the whole DS. But yea, it's still hard to fight on a capture point in pvp. You are getting nuked from every direction and have pulsing fields that will easily wipe away the aegis from Triggerguard. 

 

Due to the way adrenaline/burst works, half the core-warrior synergies with Bladesworn end up incentivizing you to use DS (adrenaline/burst) as much as possible, but there just isn't enough stability to safely use it that often. The pvp stability's only cover half the charge-up, and have super long CD's, so you're stuck doing a partial charge-up which does hardly any damage, or having a high failure rate of using the skill. 

[How would you rate Bladesworn during this beta?]

The amount of time needed to charge up an effective DS seems a bit high, especially in PvP. You'd think this would be an effective skill for fighting on a capture point, but it seems like most of the time, it is *much* more dangerous to the user than the opponent, as you are tanking so much damage while standing still and waiting, even assuming that you can scrape together enough stab and aegis to avoid interrupts. Which is a 50/50 proposition due to the prohibitive CD's of all the stab skills (Last Stand can only be used like once per match). Even with shout-heals traited and the triple-Combat Stimulant and a few other things, your hp just gets melted if you wait in one spot. 

 

The skill itself is still pretty easy for opponents to mitigate. If you fire it prematurely, it barely tickles and even at full charge, the damage feels mediocre. And they can easily LOS you, dodge, or leisurely stroll out of range, or just move to a slightly different elevation and it misses entirely. Or block/blind you if you don't take the obligatory Unyielding Dragon grandmaster. 

[Bladesworn Feedback Thread]

is it just me, or do the flow generation boosters not stack? I have a ton of things traited to boost flow, but don't really feel much flow gen. The only thing that seems to boost it much is Flow Stabilizer. Seems like flow works like regen, where there are only a couple skills that grant you multiple stacks simultaneously & everything else just stacks duration. 

[Bladesworn Feedback Thread]

To their credit, Bladesworn has good utilities/elite and does a better job of synergizing with the rest of its class compared to the other e-specs. However, the payoff of sitting stationary so long seems a bit feeble, at least for pvp. People aren't going to sit right on top of you and let themselves be hit. I feel like you risk so much sitting in one place while the other team whales on you (AoE's, etc) as you charge up, and then the damage you finally dish out doesn't compare to the damage taken. It's such a big telegraph and buildup that it is easy for opponents to pull out of range or simply LOS you, wasting all of your buildup. Or forcing you to use it prematurely in its weakened state just to ensure a hit. 

 

It's like a worse version of Gun Flame (no movement, much less range) or Kill Shot (much less range), unless the enemy is stupidly standing right on your face. 

 

it will be useless in WvW fights with all the movement, and only really good for killing NPC's to PPT. Seems like purely a PvE spec. 

 

[Vindicator Feedback Thread]

Been tinkering. It is an interesting concept, but I just can't seem to make it work with the 1 dodge. Even after loading up with all sorts of vigor/endurance sources & traits (minus Energy Sigil, since I can't use the TP on beta character). At least not w/o going the healing direction w/  "Saint of zu Heltzer" grandmaster. The spec doesn't give enough defenses to balance out the loss of a dodge, *especially* in WvW. 

 

Feels too clunky (a recurring theme for Anet lately) for my tastes. Rev was already that way for me w/ the legend/utility locking and this spec makes it worse with all the irregular skill-flipping. The aftercast on the dodges is also annoying, with the pause upon landing. The animation is a giant telegraph to enemies to get their CC's ready for after you land. 

 

Chalk up another e-spec I will probably not be playing if I buy the expac. 

 

 

[Catalyst Feedback Thread]

This is one of the clunkiest specs I’ve played.
 

-Hammer doesn’t really seem to synergize with the traits, with the scarcity of auras and fields. F5 energy and the hammer #3 are both really slow buildup & feeble payoff for all the juggling you have to do with them.

-& speaking of juggling, the augments are all handicapped  unless you take special care to position properly & have your F5 active. It’s just got alot going on, & on a profession that *already* has alot to keep track of.

-Stationary F5 & accompanying augments are maybe ok for fighting on a static node, but ineffective in a moving WvW battle. 
-nothing exciting about the elite or augments. 
 

In general, this jade orb stuff just doesn’t feel good at all.