HnRkLnXqZ.1870

You are complaining about the time-gates while the official launch was Tuesday evening, THIS Tuesday. The system is better than expected, from my perspective. The costs of decorations are a mere fraction of the guildhall-stuff - as it should be. And the new tool is amazing. I'll make a detailed review some time later. At the moment the new expansion is too fun to play to waste multiple hours writing a long post here. cya ingame o/

You will never get everyone happy. I remember the days we were considered mostly deadweight, as well as the ones we were considered the best pick for a certain role. I lost count how many times the balance-team kicked us face-first into a mud-puddle, just because they decided they had to change something that worked good so far. At the moment, I am fine with the state of Engineer. Core is strong, Mechanist is balanced and Scrapper is stronger than ever. Holosmith is a bit lackluster, but I guess that will change with the spear. The quickness-access is imo acceptable. It is not too tricky to pull off. When you play hammer or mace+shield, you can easily maintain it permanently. There are some adjustments with boon-duration that allow more mistakes, but it isn't too difficult if you go without that. I run a few builds that do not require any strict rotation, but offer 12-16k DPS, which is sufficient for my gameplay. I do some strike-missions once in a while and fractals. I can play WvW and open world. All without changing a character or focusing on a real rotation - intuitive gameplay only. What would I like to change? - 1/3 of the holosmith traits working outside of photon-forge - pistol auto explosion = explosion-skill - changing bomb-kit drop animation, so it does not look like taking a dump - WvW version of sneak gyro turned into something that can be considered an elite-skill of an elite-specialization - the placeholder mortar-kit skin, that will probably outlast the game's lifespan What I do not want (again)? - a super-powerful engineer spec, that is top-tier for 4 months and then gets nerfed into oblivion - another utility-goggles patch, with a several month long bug-fix-marathon - yet another condi-weapon, because youknowho claims that pistol/pistol, mace and spear cannot be considered real condition-weapons - a single utility-skill that can do: boon-share, shadowstep 1,200 units, condi-cleanse & stun-break - with a 20 second cooldown

Nobody? Really? Serpent's Ire. There exist sub-communities for stuff like Triple-Trouble, which is amazing. But Serpent's Ire is and always has been an absolute mess. It is far away from being difficult. I've organized a couple of spontaneous runs myself. But it takes so much persuasion & luck to collect just enough people. Even with the Skyscales and other mounts, finding the zealots is so tedious. Give me the ability to solo it, and I make scheduled runs like the Triple-Trouble community XD. Honestly, I wouldn't even need the power-creep for that. Just give me the ability to predict spawn-points of the zealots or make them spawn in a single location, one by one - preferably the area of the actual boss-fight.

There are a lot of strange things posted on the forums at the moment. Some are more entertaining than others, but none should be taken seriously. dftt

Quite satisfied with the festival so far. Achievements are easy, dailies are easy. Boss Blitz is still doable without organized squads. Though I have seen multi-map farm squads, which may lead to a nerf sooner or later :S. The 5k currency requirement for the mount-rental is again doable. Highly appreciate that. Hopefully you keep releasing them one by one until we have a complete set (including skiffs). This is the 3rd or even 4th year, I only collect currency for decorations. It is still one of my most favorite activities ingame, which makes the 'grind' quite entertaining and fun.

I revisited SW just yesterday, to help a friend power-level to 80. The map is great to teach/learn the loot system and event-mechanics. When we arrived, the map-population was about the size of the bot-lane when the content was fresh. It still was a lot of fun, despite pulverizing every 'boss' within seconds. While I am not a huge fan of power-creep in general, for maps like SW it is good. Otherwise you could only complete the meta during certain times, with dedicated commanders like e.g. reaching Dry Top T6 or even the everlasting Tripple Trouble. The only really annoying part of SW and the powercreep are the Legendaries. If you collect them nowadays, they have to spawn right before you. Because even they melt within seconds. No mount in the game is fast enough to get you there on time. If they spawn and you are not within a few hundred meters nearby, the boss is dead long before you reach the location. This is really annoying for new players who want to get that achievement done. And then there is the Champion that never spawns at the wreckages of the helicopters. Why? No clue. They did not bother to fix it in 10 years. Overall the powercreep on the map is not that bad. It keeps the map playable and enjoyable even for smaller map-populations.

I used that example to show that there are mechanics and counter-mechanics and people have to put some effort into counters to succeed. You looked at the raw numbers of skills, which is obviously not equal for all mechanics and their counters, due to their accessibility. How many classes can successfully utilize stealth in combat? How many classes can access crowd-control? Not talking about an option to enter stealth once in a blue moon that is never used. Successfully utilize means, it is part of an actual build.We both know that only a few classes can do that. In addition, those classes are not stealth-only classes. Which means they can be played and are actively played not relying on stealth as well. And here you have your answer why there are so much less stealth-breakers than stun-breakers in the game. If everyone could use stealth as much as crowd control, an equal number of stealth-breakers would indeed make sense ;).

If you fight a player with a focus on condition-damage, you have to use cleanse-skills. When you fight an opponent that uses a lot of CC, you need to bring stun-breakers. And if you fight a stealth enemy, you need to bring detection skills. Now the problem is not really the lack of those skills, rather than players refusing to 'waste' precious utility slots for those skills. Most players who complain about the detection options we have, would like to have a passive-trait that auto-reveals targets. But even such an option should come with a 'real' benefit, like an additional percentual damage-boost. Because a skill/trait that is only useful against stealth targets is considered a total waste. I use those 'trash' skills in WvW actively. My favorite enemies are Thieves, because they are quite easy to read. If you manage to break them out of stealth quick enough, they usually run away like scared chickens. A single utility-skill is in most cases enough. The only thing that does not work with those skills is blindly mashing the buttons. It is a counter mechanic, which means you have to time its use. Don't get me wrong, I do not mind getting more skills with reveal-ability. But as long as it is not just a bonus-effect on a meta-skill, we will not see an increased used of stealth-breakers. They have added more skills with that ability a few times in the past. Mostly non-meta skills. Dust catchers.

RL counterpart to a focus is an offhand weapon. Many swords are heavier than they look. If you swing them with your main-hand a little too hard, you can easily lose balance. You either fall over, to the side or break your stance. The stance/forms are used to make self-defense, mobility, counter-strikes and switching from defense to offense significantly easier. If you fight with these weapons, you need full control over your body and your movement. Worst thing that can happen to you mid fight is to lose the rhythm/flow due to recovering from overstepping, which basically grants the enemy a clear strike. With a real offhand weapon, like a shield or another sword, you have a counter-weight. That can help you balancing your body or prevent you from falling over. It also allows you to parry counter-attacks and deflecting normal attacks. Having an offhand weapon appears to be quite useful. Foci only exist in games. Because they want to look fancy and think it is 'more offensive' if a fighter only wields a single 1H Sword and nothing else. That can work, but only for very light 1H weapons, like a Rapier. RPGs think not very rational. If they see a shield, they see a defensive unit. Even if it is a frontline warrior. Dual wielding swords is often considered a different weapon-type/class/specialization/whatever. Note: I'm not an expert! I've read a few books about the topic and I like physics. If you have a better explanation, I'm looking forward to learn something new ^^.

Before taking this challenge, I quickly searched my research notes and found a red X on the Warrior Longbow, indicating the weapon should not be used for a camp-build. So I knew where this was going to end. Anyway Due to the slow AA, permanent Quickness is mandatory. The kit hast good access to crowd-control, so I went for celerity-sigil and Aggressive Onslaught (Strenth). First test run on full Diviner's with 100 % cirt rate ... 4.5 k DPS ... YIKES! I went with Spellbreaker and a CC spamming build, which works great in Open World if you get your DPS to 8-12k. But 4.5 is healer damage. On offensive stats, that is giant red "NO!" Then I went on Celestial stats, which I normally use to see where a build is leaning towards, damage wise. First test, 5.2 k DPS. Better, but still trash. So I went for more condi-traits, replacing strength with discipline. Decided to get Quickness from the Technician for a start and look where it goes. Almost 7.2 k. Almost acceptable for Open World. The problems were the amount of buttons to press to achieve this and the time you spend watching your cooldowns, instead of the fight. As well as standing in low range to your target to get all three arrows of Fan of Fire to hit. Bah. Next test with Bladesworn. Mostly for a quick demo of Lush Forest and Guns and Glory effect. Back to 5k, NOPE! - At this point I knew, I need an elite specialization - due to power creep of those - and Bladesworn is not going to work = back to Spellbreaker. In addition, I need power + condi damage stats, preferably with boon duration, but only if it can outclass celestial stats. We are in GW2, dealing with ANet. Those stats do not and will never exist xD. Which means going for full Viper's and getting rid of the self-quickness concept completely. ... To make it quick: 8.7k DPS, standing almost inside the enemy hit-box, mashing all damage-skills off cooldown + the elite signet. You need to run with Jade Tech Offensive/Defensive boons. The build is very CC heavy. You can cleanse, stun-break and passively regenerate health. http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PKgAMNlZwQYYsOWJWaX1vaA-DSJYmKVMcZERKESF45ZAWeUaDA-e Do I recommend using it? NO. There are kits out there which need a fraction of the tweaking to reach more than twice the damage. And I was not allowed to touch Berserker, which I guess would have made the whole endeavor significantly easier. I'm not good enough to squeeze out more efficiency under those conditions. Which means I stop at this point. Still, it was a fun challenge ^^. EDIT: For the sake of completion, I did one more test under raid/strike conditions. Assuming you get full buffs + the target has 25 vulnerability permanently. 11.2k. That will not work out. Don't bring this build to group-content!

I shared that link with my guild, which resulted in increased motivation to play WvW it seems. Despite our match-up being quite unbalanced, it is still a lot of fun to play with the whole guild for once. In addition, I can see how active people are in my own guild. I own a convenience-guild (signature), which can be used to claim objects freely by every member. I know WvW main guilds restrict this to officer-rank or higher. But especially when it comes to getting those +5 supply from a camp or the aura for defending, it is quite handy. I always wondered how many people actually use it and how frequently. Your overview gives me an idea of the situation. Very big thanks! Amazing job!

I'm quite amused about the whole situation. Swim Speed Infusions exist since 2018. Except for a few gold-farmers and even fewer adventurers, almost nobody cared about this feature. According to the wiki: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Movement_Speed Superspeed = movement speed cap at 400 u/s (units per second) Swim Speed Infusion +10 + Swiftness = 303 u/s Swim Speed Infusion +30 + Swiftness = 342 u/s Swim Speed Infusion +24 + Swiftness + Relic of Speed = 400 u/s The Skimmer can do 550 u/s underwater. What are the cases, where Swim Speed actually matters? - during the underwater skimmer launch, when the race was bugged, you could finish it unmounted with a combination of the infusion + self/buffs + movement-skills - guild-mission quaggan race - Acquatic Fractal - future underwater-content which does not allow Skimmer They have already adjusted the chests to be park-character friendly, which means the price is going down sooner or later. I'm curious where this rollercoaster-ride goes. But I'm watching it from safe distance with a bag of popcorn and my +15 infusions, which are a couple of years old by now. Ironically, when I made the infusions for my character, I decided +15 would be a good point to stop.

In order to motivate people to collect more combat-data from the beta-events, can you make an achievement-chain? Let us say a meta-achievement with different tiers, as you have done before. Participating in regular events and meta-events grants different levels of progress. As well as doing activities in sPvP and WvW. The different reward-tiers grant stuff on our real account like: - containers with expansion map-currency - scrolls with expansion mastery-exp - skins - a title - a gizmo/portal scroll Not too expensive stuff, just some shinies *_* and ofc some solid AP to collect.

Every profession fanbase wants to be superior and considers everything else an insufferable totally undeserved humiliation. A proof that the developers truly hate them since the launch of the game. As it is the same drama for every single balance-patch and beta, there is nothing to worry about. We use to say: As long as you hear somebody complaining, you know they are awake and their vital body-functions (brain, blood-pressure, breathing) work properly = they are healthy. The most important part is that people actively participate in the beta and contribute data via active combat. Which is one of the reasons, why I am happy that they grant as free passage to all areas.

Appearance: Good, I like the theme. Damage Output: Dissatisfying. I've tested it with my standard condi-build. Every other weapon/kit outperforms spear. Focus Mechanic: Interesting approach. Looking good. Could use a visual indicator on the mob. Auto-Attack: - An AoE-Weapon with a target-limit of 3? Let alone a two-handed melee weapon? Make it 5, like every other weapon of that kind. - Vulnerability on 'focused' looks OK. - On Human, the last animation is a pirouette. Which would lead to a 1/4 second evade on cast. I know you had that on Ranger GS, but removed/replaced it for endurance gain a few years ago. It does not have to be an evade. But it should be something 'useful'. Something like protection or might could be nice. - Weird effect-range. Please make it 180, like you did with Conduit Surge. It is a long mele-weapon after all. Conduit Surge: - Too short distance and way too slow. Lightning Rod: - I had to create a link to get the skill-name, because your tooltip is higher than my screend. - Sadly no condition-application during the area-effect. - Charge mechanic is OK. - Would be nice to have defiance-damage scaling with charges, instead of immobilization. Electric Artillery: - I rather see this as a trigger-detonator than a projectile. The cast-time is too slow and the whole weapon is melee anyway. Then the explosion would also make sense. Roiling Skies: - Stun OK, Launch weird, Knockdown weird. Theme/visuals wise, it does make sense. You want to justify the huge defiance-damage. - If you would do my Lightning Rod / Electric Atillery change, you can split the defiance damage between these two. Then this would be less of an overkill and you could add some condition-application to it as well. From the burns and shocks the visuals make, this should definitely apply some damage-conditions as well. - Should be an explosion. - Should leave a condition/combo field on the ground for a few seconds. Devastator: - Very slow cast-time, even on quickness. - Make that thing a throw with 1,200 range. Overall the weapon looks nice. Concept and visuals are appealing. There is room for improvement, but there is nothing completely wrong/broken. Looking forward to the adjustments on launch.