Loboling.5293

I feel you, gw2 is a great game. But unless we withhold from preordering, they won't have the incentive to make the best possible product. If EoD has fun maps with good metas, solid elite specs, important bug fixes & balance updates and introduces new and interesting mechanics through masteries. If they hit all those points, I'll for sure buy the game. I'm still just shocked what they did with IBS, ruining their own story. And focusing on instances, like strikes, etc. I had more fun running around queensdale in a blob, fighting champions. It's not always about how engaging the game mechanics are, but how well they encourage players to come together into massive social dynamics. Games like gw2 are social experiences, and the changes gw2 brought in, like no mob taging, xp for rezing players, etc. Made their game one of the best games for random adventures and fun player interactions occurring in the open world. I hope to see a return to old philosophies that made us all fall in love with this game.

I'm not going to preorder or even buy it until I decide it's worth it. I agree with you at least that things have been poorly managed. However, I don't believe giving them money without change is a solution. Let them fix the parts of the game they broke. Let them fix some game breaking bugs. Let them get back to a content release cycle that is enjoyable. Then I'll give them more money. Although, I have to say, the trend is pretty nice so far. Things look to be improving, but I still need more before I spend my money. I spent probably thousands of dollars on this game since it's release. I've never regretted it. (Except buying black lion keys) However, the IBS, and it's peripheral setting within A-Net made me question continuing with this game at all. Hopefully they can change direction enough to reach some of the awesomeness that HoT brought. Such an exciting time for gw2, even if it had balance issues. They were worked on, until things got better.

So true. Although I still wish the elixirs were more interesting. Maybe have 1 that cleanses Blight, but has a cast time, so there is counterplay. It would also need a significant cooldown, to not always be available to cleansing Blight.

I'm gonna turn some peoples hair here, but I think the sustain potential of Harbringer will be insane, maybe better than scourge. However, to achieve that, the spec will practically not use the shroud, outside mobility, and won't use the elixirs pretty much either. The fact that the shroud life force automatically converts to hp, if you can keep your negative hp at zero, that's a lot of sustain that I'm looking forward to trying in a few days! You'll treat the harbringer shroud more like an Engineer Kit, pop in, use 1 or 2 skills, and leave. Frankly though, I think the spec is a little uninspired. Mostly, the elixirs aren't that interesting. Too streamlined, and lacking in creativity on what to do with the new mechanic. Grant boons, lose health... On every skill. Still going to be fun to see how much healing you can keep up, by combining with blood magic, torment runes, and the like. Probably some kind of condi kiting build. Completely reversing the battle of Ranger vs Necro in favor of the Necro with this kind of build. It'll be a good ranged killer, while still being vulnerable to classes like Thief and Willbender who can basically ignore a few leaps every 10 seconds, and just stay on target. I do hope this boon build works out too though. Seems like what the spec is truly designed for. A boon bot with a loss of sustain and effective health. But I'm gonna try my build first... haha

This Bug made me decide Rev wasn't viable as a main, since it's just too frustrating to play against your own UI. I hope this gets fixed one day. I miss you Rev... I'm way too much of a nub to notice this until it's too late.

I agree, changes that reduce a mechanic to something that can be ignored is not the same as a nerf. It's just removing something and pretending like it's still there.

Am I the only one who really misses the ability to execute a combo attack twice in succession if it didn't hit a target? I was doing some PvE with my Staff Daredevil, and some ranged mobs were focusing me, so I tried to do a double reflect combo 3 (auto attack chain)... nope, no matter if it hits a target or not, it's only going to be castable once. Kind of makes 1/2 second reflect on the skill worthless. Before, I could save the reflect for a few additional seconds and execute it as needed. Lame removal IMO. I'm not sure on the reason for this change, but I'd like to see it reverted. Especially now that ranger auto attack chain doesn't evade anymore. That was the best use for this mechanic.

Daredevil would be a close representation of DH from wow. It's an elite spec for the Thief. Give it a try in PvP as you can try out max level stuff there as a lowbie.

I'm a little surprised that no one wants treb to work a little better. It's almost always bad to go on treb now, although sometimes when you spawn, there are circumstances that throwing a treb or two before moving on can be useful. I just think that it would be nice if the shots went out faster, to give a smaller counterplay window, and minimizing the time players need to stay on treb when rotating. As for using core skills in the elite slot. That sounds like fun, especially for classes like Ele. I'd certainly be down to try that. Although, I'm equally comfortable with more frequent balance updates that actually make all elites desirable in some circumstances.

What changes would you make? It's easy to be snarky, but please if you're going to post, also include some suggestions.

I'm not saying Mirage had lots of flexibility in Raids & Fractals. But the way the spec was designed, allowed you to make power, condi & more defensive builds with it. If they hadn't added mirage skills for power weapons, you'd have a point. But Power Mirage rips through the open world so fast, it's a ton of fun. It was also viable as a power build in pvp for a while (before nerf). And they've made a few changes, and suddenly Mirage even has a place in End Game content. I think Mirage is more Flexible than Chrono. The only classes that are more flexible that were released were: -Firebrand -Holo -Soulbeast -Weaver -Renegade Not saying Mirage is the most flexible class, but it is a flexible class that doesn't define itself as a power or condi build, but a class that can mix and match as it needs. I enjoy Chrono as a power burst (less so a support), but I'm certainly not going to roll condi chrono. Not when Mirage exists or even core mesmer. Anyway, this is veering far from the topic. I agree that making mirage into a support, while increasing it's flexibility, it's a strange choice. I'd rather see Chrono be the designated support.

Since we've sadly heard nothing about balance plans, I'd like to use this thread to make suggestions. These changes will help make the game more enjoyable and diverse, and assuming EoD elite specs aren't OP, this will help the game come down to a more fun level. Bring back damage on SOME CC skills (Headbutt, hammer 4 &5, Prime Light Beam, Chilled to the bone, etc) Not all CC skills need to do 1 damage, some should crit for 1-4k at least. Remove Scourge AOE on the player character IN PVP Increase the boon duration on non-spammable skills that are below 2 seconds. Getting stability for 1 second is useless, bring these numbers up to at least 3 seconds. Add a stealth debuff, that after 5 seconds in stealth appears. Lowering your damage by 10% per second (up to 50%). This is for the initial hit out of stealth. If you are staying in stealth for 6+ seconds, you should suffer some damage penalty. Remove the 1 second cooldown on stealth skills. Add a cap on maximum hit damage in pvp of 12k (before protection, etc) So you can't get 1 shot as easily. This is only for single hits that meme people out of existence. You can still follow up with a few other hits to finish the job. Increase the speed of the treb projectile in Kylo. Re-introduce amulet gems, to allow for additional stat customization in pvp. I think if they made these changes, and managed to maintain the status quo in terms of balance with EoD, they could bring back a lot of fun to pvp.

I'm pretty sure thief, spellbreaker, ranger, guardian, ele and rev will all have tools to deal with Virtuoso. One of my favorite things about the spec is that is doesn't look OP. So it can be tuned to do one thing very well, rather than the bloat that took over gw2. It's a damage burst class with limited defenses. Anyone who can avoid the burst, through blocks & evades will be able to counter them. However, if the balance team gets things right, then when pulled off right, it should nuke classes really well. (Like necro) I'm really hoping the elite specs come with a balance patch to the rest of the game. So much needs to be changed.

As a recent Mesmer convert, I agree with the premise that Chrono support should be 10 man as well. I never liked Chrono support, and they only made it more cumbersome, but for those who enjoy it, I hope they make it stronger support than Mirage. Mirage is a very flexible class, very enjoyable, and Chrono can be played as a support or power burst, and with Virtuoso coming in as a power burst class, I'd hope they buff Chrono support some for it's release.

I'm 99% sure it's Guardian as well. If I liked Guardian more, I'd probably main one. As the theme Samurai is just so DARN COOL!

I'm looking for ways to build wombo-combos with Virtuoso, primarily centered around that Elite skill, and finding ways to keep people in it. I still never got over the removal of stacking fire fields. Using the FGS along with lighting flash (blink), on an immobilized target was a game winning move. I'm hoping with Virtuoso having no clear improvements to survivability, that it'll maintain very high burst damage. Especially since they made it into a aoe line that you can't move once unleashed. It'll make it harder to pull off damage, so to balance it out, it should hit harder than most mesmer skills. Which gets me all excited. I'm still hoping they give Mesmers double daggers, instead of just 1. I really doubt that will happen, but it would allow them to add something like a short aoe stun and a block that works like old retal, damaging attackers. (2 seconds) Regardless, Virtuoso is about setting up big burst combos in my opinion, but it'll be more vulnerable than even base mesmer.

LW Season 3 is why I signed a petition to kill the character off... That was truly cringe writing, especially how the 'commander' responded to it all. Still better than IBS though...

Greta Meta

I agree with the poster above who said that Scourge counters Scourge. Have you tried rolling one? 😜 But seriously, I don't really enjoy how the 3v3 is setup in this game. Some metas can be fun with it, but many are not well suited to 3v3 or 2v2 imo. For now, only Conquest has been what I consider good, and while the meta is hurting there too, at least you can try to out rotate against Scourges. Ranged builds can wreck them if played well and you can isolate them. (Force them to defend a point solo, etc) Anyway, I hope they delete Scourge in the same fashion they did for Mirage. I'd just go back and make the Scourge not be an AOE point in SPVP, and call it a day. The nerf was good for SPVP, but ruined the fun of the build in pve, so they just brought it back for both... Anyway, remove scourge skills centering on the PC, and move on. There is so much to do to fix PvP right now, they need to get moving. Or maybe they plan to fix things with EoD release, and just ignore it until then... Not sure. But I'm a bit more optimistic with some of the people they brought back, although, I still miss some of their most passionate leads they let fall to the wayside or just fired. Hopefully they can remember two things. PvP is most fun when: 1) Classes have depth, and you can optimize and draw out more potential. (Feel strong) 2) There needs to be tradeoffs for everything, so players need to rely on each other to effectively control the map. (Not OP) Now get to work ANET <>_<>

I have to agree that the mechanics of Virtuoso seem much better balanced than the mechanics of Mirage, and a lot of the PoF elite specializations. I hope this trend continues with the next ones too.

Thanks, true. It's not even a good example of it anyway... haha

I'll be honest, A-Net has a habit of selling a story in a way it seems like a lot more is coming, when it really isn't. We need to accept a few things: 1) New Maps are coming with EOD 2) 3/5 of the Masteries have been revealed. (Fishing, War Turtle, Boats) 3) There is still 2 more Masteries to be revealed, with new ones usually being added with every patch. So more to come. 4) New elite specs are coming to the game. (Being revealed every few weeks) 5) A-Net seems to think that players still care about the story after IBS. (Maybe like GoT, they sort of forgot they butchered much of their lore...) 6) "They haven't forgotten WvW" 😂🤣 I'm actually really excited for EoD, but only because of the delays and bringing back some good people to lead the show. A-Net has been like a chicken without a head for a while, with how they produce content. Not dissing much of the team, as I think they continue to produce polished content, even if that content makes very little sense narratively, or if the elite specs they make just break most of the game... I hope we don't see a repeat of PoF style specs. Mirage and Scourge especially were design nightmares, with Firebrand not far behind.

My prediction will be condition based, but aoe trick shots. We might even see a new type of condi mechanic, with a condi that does nothing if cleansed, but will trigger in 5-10 seconds for massive condi application. Like a curse you place, and if not cleansed in time, deletes people.

While I'm sad it looks like we're only getting to see one of the elite specs. The new mesmer elite spec looks super cool. I love the dagger theme, and it looks like it doesn't do anything overly destructive to the gameplay of cooperative modes, like PvP. It seems focused on giving mesmers a direct damage build that centers on AOE burst. I bet it'll be a ton of fun for open world, hopefully they can balance is nicely for pvp. What did everyone think?

Gw2 story is so bad, that I wonder how I ever enjoyed it... But I'm so hype for the info release today. Maybe this expansion will start a new leaf, narratively speaking. I don't really consider myself a member of most of the organizations the commander joins. They are an afterthought, and as far as I can tell, only the Order of Shadows has anything that maintains over time. (There are NPCs in the world who talk to you differently if you are a member) Otherwise, it feels like there is no story these days. Nothing makes sense anymore, and they've dismantled their world. Hopefully they bring in some good writers to start a new story arc that is well put together for EoD.