Mungrul.9358

I love core too, but for hammer. You can go full zerk with runes of the eagle, Defense down/down/down, Strength down/up/mid and Tactics up/down/down and have pretty kitten good survivability for a glassy loadout.

@ZeftheWicked.3076, thanks for that. That a good build; I've changed it around more to suit my style of play by replacing "Fear Me!" with Shattering Blow, and swapped out off-hand sword for torch for easier access to burning, but otherwise a good build. If I had full legendary, I'd maybe try a Trailblazer variant, but I always like builds that utilise celestial thanks to it having a higher total stat bonus than any other prefix.

The CC damage nerf in PvP and wubwub is still one of the most unfair nerfs ANet have ever implemented, alongside only allowing Mirages one dodge.

Sorry, I didn't mean the bots themselves, but the buffs provided by the batteries and offensive and defensive buff stations. While I agree that the bots were most likely implemented as another way to sell skins, that isn't what this is about.

Most other places I visit that have "reaction" systems implement this, but also remove anything that could be construed or adopted as a "negative" reaction, forcing those who disagree to actually engage in the topic if they want their opinion known. Other places just label them "Anonymous Cowards".

Personally, I find the Offensive and Defensive Jade Tech Protocols annoying, unbalanced, and uncomfortably close to vertical power progression and pay-to-win. Annoying because I have to spend time running around to build up the maximum duration (they've already walked this backed from release, where extra charges would improve the bonus given, so they've already partially admitted that the system wasn't properly thought out). Unbalanced because the Canthan mobs have been balanced around them and are significantly easier to fight with one or both active, but also in that you can take these bonuses back to other maps where they will further trivialise content. Vertical power progression and pay-to-win because these bonuses are only available to those who buy End of Dragons. And if we as a community are seen to accept this "vertical progression by the back door", it will open the door to other forms of unwanted power-creep (like Relics). I find this situation very similar to Magic Find gear on release, where ANet eventually removed it because players would cripple their builds and the efficacy of groups they joined by choosing gear that had magic find instead of a more gameplay-affecting stat. Edit: Oh, and this is a large part of what keeps me from revisiting Canthan maps. If the first thing you feel you need to do when visitng Cantha is pointless busywork so you can be optimal, something's wrong.

Had a look at that build. I suspect that only works because it depends on others for survivability. Most other professions get easy access to several damaging conditions without compromising on survivability. You want to build a decent, uncomplicated, solo-capable warrior with access to more than one damaging condition? Yeah, good luck with that. I'd be happy to be proved wrong however. I'm interested in speccing up my second warrior for condi.

Oh, and get used to having no access to condition damage.

I see your "Valhalla Calling" Lan, and I raise you Omnia's "Morrigan":

Recently a new Sylvari Mirage (Meg Nut), with Trailblazers. Ridiculously tanky. And I've also been playing my Norn core Thief a fair bit (Snuella), who's running Celestial and is equally tanky. Sure, coming from running Berserker's on a lot of my other characters, they can take a bit longer to kill stuff. But on the flip side, they're really hard to kill. I've been soloing HoT HPs with them quite effectively (except mushroom queen and Shrine of Balth, because those are poopy jerkfaces). After Warrior, Mesmer's the profession I'm most familiar with. While I can appreciate the damage Virtuoso is capable of putting out, I don't like playing it, as I find it quite dull and not really very Mesmerising (I was going to say "mesmerish", but couldn't resist). I love core thief D/D, as it's easy to understand and has great access to stealth. It might not be the most effective compared to its especs, but it's fun. I think if I do espec it, it'll probably be Deadeye, as that seems to synergise nicely with core thief play style. However, both of those are HEAVILY leaning on condi, and it can be annoying how much easier it is to spec for condi on those compared to Warrior, especially as condi only has 2 stats to worry about, compared to a crit build's 3. It's so much easier to get some survivability while still being effective as a condi build.

The other issue is that Bull's Charge and other rushes / leaps separate you from your group, whereas pulls separate the enemy from their group. I'd love more pulls on Warrior.

That's the really distressing thing. Rubi's marketing; it's exactly the word she means to say. It may on initial glance look like a nothing answer, but in reality it reveals a refusal to be moved. This is not looking good at all. My money is still on them having designed an entire new means of monetisation around Relics, and management are not going to drop it now, no matter how hard the community complains. That it may break the core contract between ANet and the owners of Legendaries is of no interest to them. Consequences be damned, they want that sweet short-term return on a decade old game. But, to play devil's advocate, we really don't know how Relics will work, and all is speculation until the aforementioned blog post. Even so, it feels bad to me.

You know, I realised something else this morning. With the Skiff, Jade Bot and Fishing Rods, ANet introduced more paths of skin monetisation. I wouldn't be surprised if this is the major drive behind implementuing Relics as well.

Weapon scaling's also off for the larger races, and most noticeable on Norn women. A sword that would look normal when sheathed will clip through the floor on a Norn woman, unless it a particularly short sword. Daggers also look like swords, and greatswords are just ridiculous.

Did they market it? 🤣

It's not unprecedented; they originally added fractal agony infusions as a way to appeal to those who like vertical progression in an attempt to attract players outside of the traditional Guild Wars player base.

As far as I'm aware, no expansion has ever been purchasable with gems. I doubt this will change for SotO.

I think at this point, they're best off cutting their losses and ditching the whole relic system altogether. Instead, just rework the existing rune system so you choose what stat combo you want on which armour slot, then add a drop-down to choose the overall bonus. Or, you know, don't change what isn't broke. There's no need to roll out another progression system for this, and indeed, doing so, as pointed out by many, many people in this thread, breaks trust, which will be almost impossible for ANet to earn back. Let me appeal to the people who hold the purse strings at ANet: Adding more possible stat combinations and an entirely new progression system creates more issues for the already over-worked dev team to try and "balance". That means you'll need to hire, and pay, more people, while at the same time hemorrhaging players because they no longer trust you, directly impacting gem store transactions, meaning you can no longer afford to pay all those people you just hired to balance the new systems.

Actually, thinking more about the Bunny in particular, I think a couple of changes might make it more viable again and lower the impact the Skyscale has on its utility: 1: The default, non-charged jump should have double-jump capability, where hitting jump again a second time would go a bit higher. Not as high as a charged jump of course, but this would definitely improve the mount. 2: Allow the bunny to move while charging its jump. At the moment, you have to stop to perform a charged jump;. Charging while moving would make for smoother travel and allow players to charge jumps pre-emptively. I could even see that adding this kind of skill-based functionality could also open up the possibility of Bunny-specific races, with hoops to jump through at different heights.

I've thought the same for a very long time, so you have at least one person who agrees with you. I'd suggest maybe decreasing the Skyscale's maximum speed a tiny amount, or reducing how high it can initially fly so that the Bunny's jump is notably higher, meaning that at the very least, you promote starting with bunny then transitioning to Skyscale. I would also suggest maybe slightly shortening the depth of dive required to attain full speed on the Griffin to promote wider use of it over the Skyscale, and maybe add an initial "launch" skill from the Bunny that gets the Griffin high enough to start "flying" through it's dive/ascend cycle. Keep the Skyscale's overall general-purpose feel, but make mounts that are currently in danger of being invalidated by it better at what they do so that they're the obvious choice to make in scenarios that play to their strengths.

...or skirts / jackets / trousers that make no allowance for tails.

At a guess, I would say that this also marks a change in how they plan to deliver content that would have previously been "Living World". The problem with Living World was that you had to log in when it was released in order to get it for free, otherwise you would have to pay for it. I'm guessing that the new pricing structure means you get everything that's released between this expansion and the next for free, removing the complexity and confusion of Living World releases. But that's just a guess.

The jade bot was already dangerously close to pay-to-win and removing the horizontal levelling progression of GW2, but if relics arrive and owners of legendary runesets don't get feature parity directly comparable to what they already have, ANet will have broken the core contract between them and the player: the idea that you can put the game down after reaching top level, then come back after a few expansions and still be top level. As pointed out above, the only reason to craft legendary runes and sigils is so that you'll never have to bother with them ever again and have complete freedom to choose your bonus as and when you want. Do not use words like "Compensation" when talking about this. "Compensation" implies removal of something someone has worked for. "Compensation" is offered to people who may have lost limbs or loved ones. People who are "Compensated" lose access to something in return for cash. And critically, they've still, involuntarily, lost access to something they are entitled to. Anything less than a legendary relic and legendary runeset for owners of existing runesets is simply unacceptable. Oh, and if you've designed whole questlines and achievements around relics and their acquisition, more fool you. Go back to the drawing board now, while you still can.

Ah, thanks for the correction. It's been so long since I did it, I couldn't remember.

Then on top of that, all the other gifts that usually go in to making any other Legendary, just to apply enough pressure that a significant number of people cave and convert gems to gold. Legendaries are designed to be the central form of monetisation in GW2. That you CAN get Legendaries without opening your wallet misses the point. To do that, all of your freetime ever will be occupied by GW2. I'm guessing the vast majority of Legendary owners out there have converted at least some gems to gold in order to get them. Just no-one will ever admit it, because they're afraid of the social stigma. I 've done it myself and am not ashamed to admit it. Of course, this is overly cynical, and there's still a chance, albeit small, that ANet make the route to OW Legendary armour more like obtaining Prismatic Champion's Regalia, which would be fantastic. And here's the part where I gratuitously appeal to the people at ANet with their eyes constantly on the bottom line: The more people have Legendary armour, the more likely they'll spend money on armour skins from the gem store, as they will be able to freely swap them out.