Kyniel.4706

As a long term, committed, but ultimately casual player I am quite surprised by the decision to make relics soul bound. I often hear from the community, and clearly from the renewed UI cues the Devs agree, that casuals aren't performing in part because they're not even using their equipment properly - either not selecting stats or just not equipping items. This is totally fair, but it seems that they see it happen but make a naive assumption that people do this simply because they are stupid and don't know that they could equip a relic etc. In my experience, when I'm doing this (as I currently am - I've got a bunch of relics but haven't actually used any yet) it's because the game is discouraging me from trying them out. I don't want to equip a relic only to find it's not so good on my current character and now I have to farm for a while to get the resources to get another copy to use on another character. For players who have time to play lots, the costs aren't such a big deal, but for those with less time it's a fairly large risk. Basically, if relics had been account bound, I'd be playing around with them and having fun, instead they're just clogging my inventory and adding a red exclamation mark to my equipment UI. Am I missing some hugely important reason for relics to be soul bound? If we want people to be engaging with these systems (and therefore performing better in group PvE content) we probably shouldn't be putting up road blocks, imho.

I much prefer the new system - far more engaging (an actual feeling of working towards something), better individual goals (good mix of very general, like salvage X items and very specific like go do a particular mini dungeon). Previous goals were just annoying - go to a particular region and complete a bunch of events was the worst - it could take a long time just searching for events. I like that most of daily goals can now be completed alongside my own goals for the day. I can see the argument for allowing people to change their preferences more frequently than each week, I can see the argument for giving a little wiggle room over which dailies they complete (especially as they've allowed it for weeklies) to get the final reward. I personally feel that it's a great system with a few minor rough edges.

This is something they've done better in EoD imho. You can pretty much always use the spec's weapon whichever role you lean into. Whereas for Druid, if you're not strongly focused on healing, you're not bringing staff. I'd be tempted to buff the power and give some condi to it, so you could potentially go either way (similar to the approach they took in EoD). Some more dps focused options in traits would be nice too - I'd love it if Ancient Seeds were more viable as a power option.

The only thing I'm sure I'd like is to make scribing relevant to those who don't play with guilds. Beyond that, whatever Anet design is likely to be better than what I come up with.

In an unexpected twist, I really have had lots of fun with Catalyst. I did a playthrough with Mechanist first, which was fun, but once I'd finished the story I was kinda glad to bench him for a while, as it became a bit dull. Vindicator has also been incredibly fun to play with. Harbinger and Bladesworn have been really fun. Spectre works, but I've not been feeling it quite as much as I thought I would. Willbender has been cool but does feel a bit weak to me. Try as I might, I just cannot find the sweet spot for Virtuoso. Probably the only one I've really struggled to have fun with. Only one I've not tried yet, since beta, is Untamed (more because I'm still making some style/RP decisions than anything else).

I don't generally find this a problem, except in the case of Asura, where lore had established that they don't generally have last names, so if possible I want mine to have just one name. I'm very glad that I made most of my Asura characters during the early start, because these days it's challenging!

Thank you for these changes (and the early sneak peak!) One small thing - the above (without actual changes) should been included with the nerf last week so that we knew that you guys were aware of this and had intentions to address it. This really would have been massive in mitigating the negativity after last week's nerfs. Looking forward to the full notes in Tuesday!

Was so excited to hand this in. Even just some kind of PSA to help people not get stuck like this would have been good...

The biggest disappointment for me is that in GW1 you actually specialised in an element. In GW2 it seems to me that you have to use all elements, which wouldn't be the worst thing in the world if it weren't for the fact that Fire is basically mandatory most of the time. I think it's especially disappointing as the ele character creation choices let you choose an element, which always makes me feel like I want to create element specialised builds, but it pretty much ends up being Fire, with occasional forays into other attunements for CC, defence. I would love to make a build that rains ice down on my enemies. Perhaps not with massive damage, but decent damage supplemented by chill etc. Or perhaps an earth wielding mage who devastates their enemies with sandstorms, battering them with rocks and protecting myself with rock barriers. Now - I know that these ideas totally exist and I can play them - for like 20% of my rotation, then you have to go back into fire for the same old stuff. Wouldn't it be cool for the Piercing Shards extra bonus while in Water attunement to actually be useful? Maybe I'm just not a good ele player (and not claiming to be) but for all the other professions I find that I can almost always achieve whatever class fantasy I want and still have a reasonably viable build. For Elementalist I always feel like I'm being forced to play in a way that I don't want to.

I love the idea of weapon swap as a way to shift roles during combat (perhaps to switch between melee and ranged during phases of a long battle). I hate the idea of weapon swap as a standard part of a rotation (ie regardless of situation) to maximise DPS. Sadly, this is a major part of GW2 combat if you care about being "optimal" I choose to play the way I want. Probably means I'll never do raids, but I can do pretty much everything else. While I wish I could wave a magic wand and prevent this being a part of GW2, that ship has long sailed.

My diagnosis on Vindicator - largely great, a lot of fun but the impact of some of the LA skills is lacking. I think the reason is as follows. The idea of a "selfish/selfish" split between Archemorus and Saint Viktor is interesting but is in conflict with another dichotomy - damage/support. I really like the idea of an ebb and flow that sees us switching into Archemorus to do big damage, then retreating with Viktor to recover before launching our next onslaught. To me, this should be the focus of the middle trait line (top and bottom are for specialising in damage/support respectively) Specifically, the middle trait line should be about making Archemorus less selfish and Viktor less selfless. We see a little of this with the middle Adept trait which sees Archemorus splashing out Might to allies (less selfish) but it adds regen splashing to Viktor (more selfless) - perhaps it should instead give a self support (heal?/regen?/aegis?) on all Viktor skills. If there was a trait to add some more selfish support to the Saint Viktor skills, I think this interesting "ebb and flow" playstyle would work nicely, but as it stands Viktor is just too weak in solo environments to be of any use. I suspect this is in large part why people wanted the ability to stay in Archemorus indefinitely. tldr Let the middle trait line give Viktor more selfish support to make it relevant in solo situations.

I've had a change of heart - some more playing around with the build and I'm totally in love with willbender. I'm sure there are some improvements that could be made, but I am having an absolute blast. In general, OH sword could be more exciting (getting 4 to hit fully is pretty rare) and some traits could use a bit of a tweak (flames damage buff is too low) but other than that, it's a lot of fun! I would personally hope that the limitation on Mystic Rebuke could be loosened up a little (1/2 or 1/4s perhaps?) because it feels a little too punishing imho - Mystic Rebuke is a very cool trait and I always think it's a shame when hugely flavourful traits are nerfed where incredibly boring ones are left intact (so bored of Symbolic Power)

Overall seems a bit better than before. Love the idea of the ambush skills, but sometimes it seems to miss the window even if I'm mashing 1. (Wonder if this is because unleashing doesn't cancel the existing animation?) Not sure why this is, but it is quite frustrating. Still feels like the CD reduction on disable trait is so much better than the alternatives, perhaps the others need a buff? Definitely having fun and moving in the right direction.

FWIW, here's what I would do to make catalyst more fun. Treat the jade sphere exactly like tempest overloads. The delay after switching attunement prevents spamming, thus removing the need for the energy mechanic and freeing up F5. Move the Hammer 3 to a profession mechanic - whenever you switch attunements, you gain an orbiting thingy, F5 fires them. Make your 3 trait lines: 1/ CC: synergise with disables (and thus hammer) 2/ Bruiser: buff the orbiting orbs (increase duration, improve buffs while orbiting, improve F5) 3/ Boon support: buff the jade sphere You'd need a replacement for the Hammer 3 skills, but I doubt that would be a big problem. The removal of aura synergies gives tempest back it's unique aspect.

I'm not hugely disappointed by the green version, but I have to admit the recoloured one looks good