Dadnir.5038

I don't think "mitigation" is the main point of stealth for thief, in term of mitigation thief got plenty of evade and there is room to add damage reduction coefficients (for example, thief used to get 30% incoming damage reduction when revealed via a trait) as well as weapon skillset that offer skills similar to dardevil's bandit's defense. Before anything else, Stealth for thief is a ressource that they can chose to consume for various effects or keep in order to reposition themselves to get back the initiative in a fight.

You forgot underwater elementalist, Ele have a smoke field on earth skills underwater 😉 That said, stealth isn't going to be removed from the game. The developpers would have to fully "rework" thief which rely on stealth on many level and such a rework is unlikely to happen.

I'd say that it depend a lot on what you want to do in open world. If you're going to run around alone through the gathering point, I do think thief is the best option as you got easy access to stealth and movement skills. If you're going to go through the jumping puzzles, from experience, necromancer is the best option (spectral walk is incredibly handy in jumping puzzle). If you intend to port some friend, thief or mesmer will be superior thought. If you're going to kill packs of random mobs alone, Reaper is a good option but that is also true for many specs vomiting strike damage aoe. If you're going to tackle defiant foes alone you'll have a whole bunch of dedicated builds. If you're going to join the fun with the PvE farming zergs, you'll want range lingering aoes and a good control over them. I'd say that, again, necromancer is a good option. If you're going to tackle boss fight meta events with the zergs, a balance of offensive boons support with good damage output is a good option. ... etc.

I think he just want to see less Spellbreakers.

Oh! It's a "Look peoples play this profession! Nerf it!" thread...

Well can we really say that the opponent is defenseless when he got a skill that grant him an evade frame?

I wouldn't say that no other rework landed so poorly. I mean, thief's trap reworked into "preparation" landed pretty poorly, same goes for necromancer's off-hand weapons, the many versions of scrapper (which was reworked every 6 months at some point), elementalist's MH dagger leap attacks,... etc. Objectively, most reworks land poorly (and the legendary renegade's stance is average in term of rework), players just feel more affected by the reworks on their favourite profession. It's to the point that I've been affraid of the devs talking about "rework" since HoT release.

Maybe, the OP just don't use the right tools to face thief? I mean, it's not like as an engineer they don't have access to tools that would make this thief's life almost unbearable.

Which spec need buffs? Mine obviously... On another hand all other specs need nerfs. More seriously, some core professions need an "extra" that would not carry over to their e-specs in order to be competitive and attractive. Core elementalist is probably the profession that lack this "extra" the most but core warrior also need a little something.

Repeatable legendary equipement (consumed upon use): Black lion legendary chest Black lion legendary chest key

Well, in term of design both mechanist and bladesworn were bound to be failed specs for PvP. It's hard to really label one as worse than the other from a competitive mode point of view. Come on, on one side you got a spec that revolve around a mechanic that root the character for a few seconds to charge an attack that hit like wet noodle in competitive modes while on the other side you got a spec that rely on an AI mechanic (something that players can't stand losing against and is thus balanced to simply be "mediocre").

GW1 and GW2 are very different game, they merely share some background lore. Minion master build not being vable in GW2 WvW is not a matter of the game not being balance, it's a matter of AI not having the logical thinking routine of a player and not having access to active defense. In GW1, playing minion master was all about generating minions and applying enchantments on them while managing your energy. That's not a gameplay that the current GW2 can reproduce. As for WvW itself, the devs don't want minionmancers to be able to generate to many minions because it affect the majority of the players game experience negatively.

I think they should go for the opposite and remove the 100% cap instead. Players should need 300% to 400% boon duration via concentration in order to be able to keep up boons. (that should also be true for expertise and condition duration). If 2 characters with 0 investment in concentration can casually replace a the support of a full concentration character then it mean that investing is not really worth it. If you need 4 to 5 character to replace the fully invested support then it mean that the investment have some worth.

If they mix they will still lose some amount of raw stats compared to now so that's effectively some power De-creep.

Personally I'd focus mainly on a rework of the stat sets. - I'd limit the maximum of stats offered by armor stat sets to 3 stats and runes would focus on 2 stats. - I'd separate the healing power stat into 4 stats: Constitution: Increase incoming healing and barrier effects. Fervor: Increase outgoing healing and barrier effects. - I'd make sure that all conditions on AA can only be applied on a critical hit (to force "condi dps" to get precision in order to be potent).

Objectively, from a PvE point of view, both weaponset are outdated. They are somehow balanced around traits and mechanics that have long disappeared from the metagame. Dagger: Fire: For all intent and purpose, Ring of Fire is just a fire field which used to be useful for building might (and fury) via blast finisher. Fire grab was already bad in 2012 at release, it has barely seen any improvement in 12 years. Water: Both skills are "alright" I guess (I wouldn't have said that before sword was made available for all specs) Air: Barely any usefulness in these 2 skills from a PvE point of view (the only thing that redeem these skills is that there is a bit of breakbar damage on Updraft). Earth: Both skills are fine no change needed (I'd prefer if they were more responsive but the devs like to balance by making skills cluncky so I don't have much hope in some QoL) Focus: Fire: Just like ring of fire, Flamewall is outdated. Flame shield/transmute fire are somehow fine, I'd like a lower CD on flame shield if possible as fire aura is the worst aura of the game (a 10s CD on the skill like dagger's frost aura would be more than enough). Water: Both skill are bad and have always been bad outside of using comet for building might through blast finishers in 2012-2014. Air: I'm not even sure if nowadays swirling wind even block projectiles in PvE end game. Again, 2 skills that seriously lack impact in PvE. Earth: Both skills are lacking in PvE and that's especially true since they made obsidian flesh a chanelled skill in 2020 for the sake of the competitive modes.

The more armor you have, the lower the strike damage you receive. There is a big difference of damage done to and opponent with 2k armor and and opponent with 3.2k armor. Beyond that, you have to manage your active defense in such a way that you can face properly an eventual burst from your foe. And, without a doubt, OWP is a burst component.

In Guild wars case you'd need to have warrior as primary or secondary profession to get hammer skills and if you do have this profession then being able to use a hammer is a given. As for your idea, you're basically describing bundles and Masteries would be the way to unlock those and limit them through the various gamemodes. Just like Path of fire offer a variety of mount with their own skillsets, you could have masteries that offer a variety of "bundles" that are limited in use to specific areas in the game. This way, one can be the cool kid that wreck havock with his volcano hammer in some open world PvE maps without ruining PvE end game balance and competitive modes.

Oh, I did. Why? Chill. That's a strong condition in competitive modes. That said, I do agree with you that the game would be better without the mechanic affected by consecutive hit damage reduction.

Elementalist: Longbow -> Skills #2-5 got no CD but need "arcane arrows" as a ressource that are created by switching attunment. Engineer: Off-Hand dagger -> Skill #5 allow you to "merge" the off hand dagger with the main hand, changing the skill effects of the main hand weapon (On pistol it will become a bayonette and give you melee focused skills, It will transform mace into a throwing axe and for sword... well... it's up to your imagination) Guardian: Warhorn -> This weapon should focus on light aura, granting it and "transmuting" it. Mesmer: Main-Hand pistol -> This weapon would have a different skill#3 for each off-hand equiped (Just taking a bit of the thief's tools for the sake of adding some new flavor) Necromancer: Shield -> The skills would be similar to elementalist's elite skill Glyph of elementals and Glyph of lesser elementals. (That would create a whole new brand of minion master for necromancer.) Ranger: Focus -> Skill#5 would summon. Revenant: Rifle -> A rifle with a skill#5 as an upkeep that would generate a bayonette at the tip of the riffle and change skill #1-4 into melee skills. Thief: Torch -> This off hand would have a set of dual skills (skill#3) that would create an ashen clone to fight alongside the character for a set duration (you get a flip skill to shatter this clone). Skill 4 and 5 would focus on blinding and revealing foes (Ashen clones could inately inflict burn on hit to revealed foes...) Warrior: I like Fueki's idea of a scepter thrown like a javeline. For the sake of making the most out of the idea, I'd give the explosion effect to the skills #1-3 and have the burst and primal burst would add effects based on the off-hand equiped (I'm mainly thinking of ranged version of the burst and primal burst for the weapons that can be wielded with both hands. For example, with mace off hand, the burst would stun while the primal burst would daze and apply various conditions, with sword the burst would apply bleed stacks while the primal burst would burn. For the other weapons, I can envision pistol associated burst and primal burst to recharge/refound pistol's ammo, Shield could offer unblockable burst/primal burst, Warhorn could be associated to a burst/primal burst that push back/knock down foes and torch could leave a damaging fire field at it's point of impact)

I don't think you really understand how Protection and Weakness "stack" nor do I think you understand how weakness work. First of all, weakness don't prevent critical hits. Weakness have a 50% chance to reduce outgoing strike damage by 50%. So, effectively, it would be a 25% reduction in outgoing strike damage through the duration of weakness. Protection is a 33% incoming damage reduction. Both stack multiplicatively which mean: Weakness(1-0.25) x Protection(1-0.33) = 50% damage reduction (no matter the gamemode) The aura also give the opportunity to apply those. It's a 1 chance out of 3 to apply either weakness, protection or both with a 1s ICD. (I'm not going to bother trying to calculate the odds of getting the rigth combination of boon/condition through the duration of the aura but that's a factor that drop down the "effectiveness" of the damage reduction of the aura). Objectively, chaos aura's defensive effectivness is close to frost aura (chill increasing skill recharge can reduce damage output by quite a lot), shocking aura (disabling a foe for 1 second every 2 second is, effectively, a 50% damage reduction) and magnetic aura (make you "immun" to projectile attacks with no ICD). The difference being that elementalist can tie a lot of boons to those auras, protection included. As for the change to chaotic transference itself, I don't think it's a "bad" thing. Not because it was "OP" but because this redefine more accurately the purpose of the trait itself. It's purpose wasn't to provide chaotic aura to the mesmer's allies but to provide regeneration. A nice side effect will be that it will also reduce visual pollution.

There are a lot more things other than "not being persistent" that take them away from GW1 spirit feel. Spirits in GW1 are a double edge swords and that's not something that GW2 spirit ever was. The "active" part also take them away from GW1 feel... Well, you get me, GW2 spirit feel have always been very far away from GW1 spirit feel. The more I look at GW2 the more I think that GW1's skills and build/profession mechanic were superior in design.

That's probably gw1 influence in the early arts. GW1 Mesmer skills art often pictured "demons". I imagine that after that they choose to take the path that led to mesmer farting clones. That might disappoint you but what you're looking for is clearly the physical elite skill Rampage. I seriously doubt that the devs will introduce new weapons in the game. Maybe kits/conjure/"shrouds" but definitely no new weapons. Ah... Gosh! I wish they would! From the moment they start talking about elite specs I've been fantasizing about such a spec... Well, objectively, daredevil might be give a "lara croft" gameplay feel. I wish thief had a torch and a "whip kit" (thought, engineer could also fit the bill for such a spec) I do agree that GW2 could be much more. However, I must say that I'm quite disappointed by the way the last batch of especs and the new weapons have been integrated in the game. It's like they just want the later to be independant from the professions/specs that use them and, ultimately, it fall short of expectation.

I don't think the devs limit themself with thought like "we won't ever do that again". On another hand, they like to tease the playerbase with the possibility that "they might do it again".

I disagree. Fact is that harbinger is a lot more durable than what you seem to think. It's durable to the point that people facing them in competitive modes believe that harbinger are close to unkillable. So, no, it wouldn't "kill" the spec. Objectively, It's not the 2nd health bar of reaper shroud that make reaper popular but the fact that it's shroud skillset "feel good" to use (And, unfortunately, there is few skillsets in the game that offer such experience). That said, diversity is nice so I don't think that reaper shroud should become something like harbinger's shroud. Thought, it's disappointing that reaper shroud does not have his own twist, it's just Death shroud with a different skillset. As for the playerbase being pissed of by something Anet would do... Let's be fair, everything the devs do kitten off the majority of the playerbase. And even when they don't do anything it kitten of the majority of the playerbase 😅. Nowadays, the main issue I have with the devs is that they have great ideas but they don't give these ideas the room to live to expectation. Both harbinger and necromancer's dual swords are perfect examples of this impression of mine. Harbinger have been left rotting in a semi finished state since it's release. The amount of work it need is huge yet it's like the devs purposefully look away from the spec issues since it's release. They could make this spec so much more interesting by just reworking the traitline that direly lack in imagination. As for the dual sword, they sold us a poorly thought out "sacrifice" mechanism with 0 support from any traitlines leading to a bland weaponset with skills that that barely step outside of what the other necromancer's weapon skills offer. You don't even get more damage output out of this "sacrifice" mechanism.