Infusion.7149

If you were on DPS spec, did you kill the lord and stand in the ring? Was the structure defended or just k-trained?

Pretty sure T0 doesn't count for the new skirmish ticket rewards but may count for heavy supply bags or whatnot, do you remember what you obtained for each tier? (Specifically looking for grandmaster mark shard information.)

This seems to be the case ... I have no idea what is going on with the skirmish tickets especially and they scroll by quite quickly. At least with grandmaster mark shards it is definitive whether I had them drop from the popup chest at the eight side panel. Playing a support does not seem to be optimal with this kind of reward system. I am trying to get this information for the wiki (personally not going to bother with skirmish ticket part since that seems to vary too much). Since it is an additional source of grandmaster mark shards I think it would be important to include it and unlike skirmish tickets the droprate is less likely to change (these are supposedly nerfed drops already). I think it is something along the lines of 2 green bag of gear (the nerfed drop) , 2 heavy supply bag, grandmaster mark shard and maybe 1 skirmish ticket which does not show in chatlog. Bronze participation gives heavy supply bag and green bag if I am remembering correctly. The WXP also scrolls by with four lines sometimes rather than one WXP gain. Some people I asked speculate that you need to ram or cata in order to get gold participation for towers, but I think your idea of the number of players in the area might actually be the deciding factor.

Boosters do not work on WXP from any drops (i.e. thimble/keg of WxP) I believe as that is why it does not work with Box of WvW supplies you get from the guild vendor. It mainly affects caps and kills.

They never were good. The best time for firebrand specifically was largely when firebrand did not exist (pre 2018), staff used to hit 5 targets in a 600 300 range which is why it was called a loot stick. My advice to you regarding this is to not play heal scrapper with med kit.

I have to do more testing but yesterday I noticed that I was at times getting bronze event participation despite killing enemy players (since defending has rewards now people defend more), killing the lord, and also standing in the ring. It may have to do with damage output at least for capping. The same goes for defending in lord room, where killing a certain guild of 20+ players that is notoriously bad did not even yield any grandmaster mark shards. Rewards seem to be mainly heavy supply bags (not sure why, that should have been for yak defense or something more thematic) and the green box looking unid gear (do not remember exact name) that people drop from silverwastes. I am on the lookout for grandmaster mark shards specifically so if anyone has any information on that I am happy to receive it.

I actually remembered about GW1 PVP editions and the GW1 PVP access kit. It is still up and right now is $10 https://store.guildwars.com/en-us/product/guild-wars-pvp-access-kit I think it used to be $20 but that is all skills in the game , whereas an expansion's worth would be a fraction of that. The Bonus Mission pack was $10 in 2007 and ~$15 in today's money after inflation. So we do have some approximate reference points of what something without professions (or in GW2 , elite specs) would be running for. With an e-spec pack they would definitely be going for volume rather than per user profit. The ability to have as many players experience the new specs would be beneficial for their balance team and also any encounter design team.

I made a gen 3 around EoD launch time, there are only 4 maps so it is roughly on par with PoF mapping but with additional layers (verticality). The holdup is the currencies. Antique summoning stone is no longer as pricey so if you do not do strike CMs just buy those from the weekly Arborstone vendor (if you are impatient just buy off the TP). I do not think Dragons End meta is time effective whatsoever. All those imperial favor things you can shortcut via WvW reward track by converting the writs.

Before you go out and try to make a gen 2 remember the crystalline ore is annoying... For desert mastery the funerary incense is even more infuriating.

HoT map completion is trivial with a hero point train and then some meta completions.

Mech has to just autoattack on mace with barrier engine 😀 Alac ren has to manage energy but you can just press F4.

It is probably supposed to be the root?

Old news. If it is a single CC and not lethal damage you can just tank the damage with the single stab stack.

So you are complaining about being interrupted which does not even put it on full cooldown, got it. I could even use mantras in the middle of a group in WvW while being hit by people, so the idea that mantras are impossible to use is really ludicrous. Do not want a revert and have a good reasoning is a completely separate issue. Considering I was able to use this iteration of mantras in PvE as well as WvW in the past (and now) and firebrand existed before the mantras became glorified shouts, it seems like you need more time using mantras even with your supposed 4.5K hours on it. If that is actually true really shame on you. That is not even including the fact that the main period firebrand was used in PvP had this state of mantras albeit with some longer condition durations. If you want to disregard healbrand which has the most mantras then you are only looking at CQB (mantra of solace, potence, and flame) and CFB. Seeing how mantra of flame was the first thing to be dropped when a utility such as reflect or stab was required it means that if your only concern is mantra of flame it is almost meaningless in the grand scheme of things. The last charge on mantra of flame now is stronger again as stated above and mathed out by Nephalem. Plus the only mantra used to its full extent on CFB is mantra of flame, there is no reason to use mantra of solace out of the blue. So your complaint is about a single skill in essence. Saying something is clunky is an excuse to not use facts. Arenanet stated the main issue they identified was people did not want to charge mantras in PvE at the start of an encounter (similar to the gg for astral force problem), which they do not have to. Feel free to link the threads by people that actually started playing firebrand before 2021 and aren't just complaining because it is "clunky" to them.

That is generous but then again PoF (5 maps) and EoD (4 maps) alike were underpriced with an upsell on the higher editions. For some context the entire Icebrood Saga LS5 with 3 maps or 4 maps if you count Bjora as two maps is $12 ($15 if you pay piece by piece), LS4 with 6 maps is $12, LS3 with 6 maps is $12, LS2 with 2 maps is $16 which is by far the worst value. All this pales in comparison to the 25 maps of the core GW2 game which launched at $60 USD or $80 for Deluxe and then reduced by $10 in May 2013. The balance team, combat programmers, audio team for character skills only, and the people working on only character animation are a small subset of the full team. There are quite a few writers, cinematics personnel, environment artists, etc. See https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Game_credits#Guild_Wars_2:_End_of_Dragons_Credits I am certain Arenanet will price it fairly as they received backlash for pricing Heart of Thorns with 4 maps at $50 for the base price (inflation adjusted to $63). See https://www.pcgamer.com/guild-wars-2-players-rightly-upset-by-heart-of-thorns-pre-purchase-scheme/ and https://www.eurogamer.net/guild-wars-2-community-reacts-angrily-to-heart-of-thorns-expansion-pricing "Heart of Thorns isn't cheap. As a £35/$50 expansion, its price is comparable to many full games. Personally, I'm okay with the cost, because I've already had plenty of value from Guild Wars 2. There's no subscription, and, while I've probably bought about £15 of in-store gems over the two years I've been regularly playing the game, it never felt necessary to do so. Another £35 for more content, and more free updates, strikes me as an acceptable deal." Anyhow $20-25 (about £16 to £21 , €19 to €24) for a more frequent biannual (?) or yearly expansion with more than half the maps (3 maps was stated by Josh Davis) and no new elite specs would not be surprising given how much Living story has been in the past. For all the potential complaining people have about it, unlike a subscription (most are going to be well above that per year) you would not be obligated to pay the price unless you want access to the content which is more fair for everyone. It is also quite contradictory for people running around in 1600 or 2000 gem mount/skiff skins (the equivalent in gems) to complain about an expansion cost IMO. If you go all the way back to GW1, Eye of the North with no new professions was asking for $40 USD in 2007 which inflation adjusted is $58. P.S. per Josh Davis the main reason for mini-expansions is press coverage they would not receive if putting out living world.

Every experienced guardian that played before the mantra reworks has no issue with it. It is the people that picked up guardian after mantras had no drawback and became fake instant shouts with ammo that have an issue. It is not a 3 second cast even without quickness, the base cast is 2.25s. If you are casting it without quickness (since you mention encounter it is PVE I am guessing) then you are doing it wrong. If you are constantly interrupted even though you can cast it while moving that is also user error, the only way that would happen is if you are using it with a higher priority skill overriding it or if you dodge. Also it is not an ammo nerf since the ammo cooldown is still 12s base cooldown before Weighty Terms. Moreover if you are on healbrand you should not even have to cast all your mantras as they are prepared as you enter the instance. There is functionally no reason to spam mantra of lore in most cases for example (the first two casts remove 2 conditions per use), neither is there any universal reason to spam mantra of liberation unless you are completely out of stability/aegis. If you are using mantra of solace for quickness the only time you would use the last cast for aegis is if something potentially lethal is about to hit , you have no aegis (when now courage is always available so unbroken lines is easily accessed), and the choice is quickness uptime or down state. If what you are complaining about is a universal issue people would not ask for healbrand anymore in PvE/WvW, period. Instead it is grossly inflating your issue into a general issue.

So long as memories of battle are required for even simple things such as level 70 food it (skirmish tickets) would never be used for anything but legendary or ascended items. In addition, bringing PvE players to farm WvW is not the type of gameplay that should be a goal. In fact the memory gobbler still exists and the data we have on the drops suggests it is akin to throwing everything in the mystic forge and hoping for nothing. Instead the focus should be on rewarding active play and to introduce rewards only found in WvW. This way there can be gold sinks in WvW that use WvW resources exclusively instead of just another farm.

Only if the tower or keep is tiering up or is not full on supply. Rewards should be low if it is repeatable or only applicable to WvW (see Packed Yak tactic, Supply Drop tactic, Speedy Dolyak tactic ), there should be a yak defender daily instead of veteran creature slayer.

The only manipulation you would be using in a PVE context is the mimic, that is what I mean by lost cause. Running the manipulation trait needs chaos traitline as well. Signets used to be far stronger , mainly signet of inspiration copied every boon and I used to boonshare in WVW. In a PVE context however, the only real mesmer aegis sharing that is worthwhile on chrono is well of precog since it actually has a tangible benefit over firebrand aegis in that you can block multiple attacks. Right now the main role of a WvW chrono is boon rips not healing. Inspiration is not run whatsoever https://gw2mists.com/builds/mesmer/support-chronomancer

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Anomalous_Occurrences Check the quest chain

To be fair they stopped changes in the past (i.e. scrapper gyro). They never reworked it after the preview was out.

Because emotions.

RIP Bladesworn in PVE at range.

I do not think heal mesmer in any form is going to be that effective since you are greatly missing regen and a semipassive heal similar to resolve sharing, spirits, soothing mist, or a mech just pumping out heals. There is no actual heal weapon for mesmer either, the closest thing is scepter with restorative illusions. I have seen a recent attempt by MrMystic to make a heal mirage with that mantra heal kind of idea in mind in case you have not seen it. (http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?PigAYZlZwmYWsKmJWqTqvKA-zRJYqRFfZkZJUdG47sUlmFUB-e) Likewise in the past Xyonon (the benchmarker) attempted a heal chrono. If I remember correctly it used scepter mainhand for clone generation to use illusionary inspiration (heal on clone creation) and to shatter and trigger restorative illusions. Your main heals are going to be well of eternity with the utility skills such as well of precog filling in for aegis or mantra of concentration for stability , mantra of resolve for cleansing if not null field. Manipulations generally are not used in PVE other than mimic, so that is a lost cause for aegis especially when you have access to well of precog. The only other way I can see outputting aegis is using signets (none of which heal people) or going for some kind of jank with mirror or mimic with Master of Manipulation. TL;DR I would be looking into heal chrono with a scepter if the goal is a heal mesmer.

The thread starter listed "the QoL loss we will suffer in combat will make them a pain to play with in many scenarios, particularly fractals, WvW and PvP game modes. " Fractals and WVW it separates the newer firebrands from the ones that actually know what their skills do. The very idea Firebrand is getting replaced in WVW just because of this change is laughable at best. For PVP it actually allows you to heal now for 3.5K on mantra of solace, so it is more of an exploration of what the revised tomes can do. The biggest complaint was the 200 heal on mantra of solace. If you recall also the previous iterations of tomes were a lot more predictable and not instant unlike core guard, we are not in the same state of firebrand as the sagebrand era where the only plays are weapon skills and utilities once tomes are on cooldown. Since the final charge of the mantras has a more powerful effect Arenanet can always retune the final charge. The point of the revert is to revisit why they were changed in the first place.