[Alacrity Druid GRACE OF THE LAND is anti-synergy.]

1 hour ago, Trevor Boyer.6524 said:

Eh, I dunno man.

It was a situation where they tried to change something that didn't need to be fixed.

Alacrity rolling off spirits worked fine, felt fine.

Arenanet somehow time & time again fails to understand the idea behind: "If it isn't broken, don't fix it.".

Even so, if this is what its going to be like going forward, then I'd like them to do that suggestion because it seems to work already with Scrapper and their quickness to some degree. Baking in the alacrity with what you're already doing (healing) in a similar vein makes sense. It allows your weapon and traits to trigger it (or at least help maintain it) when you dont need CA, taking pressure off of needing to go into it for upkeep

[Alacrity Druid GRACE OF THE LAND is anti-synergy.]

I think they should just tie the Alacrity to skill healing or healing effects you apply (like water field blasting)
That way, things like
-pets healing allies when traited
-your staff skills (2, 3)
-Blasting Water Fields in general
-Warhorn's heal (traited)
And Celestial Avatar and Glyph Seeds of Life all trigger it

[Scrappers rejoice]

Thank you CMC and co.

Glad you all listened. Hopefully the reworks down the line are really cool.

["Stationary Gyros take more skill!"]

The only area where the change may take some "skill" is WvW, since you have to weigh when and where to set down and when to hold your fields for maximum value instead of constantly having them around while moving.

I still think its unfair to force these changes on everyone else outside of WvW though, because this wasn't an issue or a necessary change beyond that place (no real difference in expressing skill) since its mostly just another annoyance at worst, but I'd sooner just hang up the hammer and change specs than expect them to back away from this after scrapper's ruled WvW for so long.

[Yet another gyro change scrapper post]

Well, if they're dead set on this, at least Herald's an alternative.

You give (more) boons through your facets and your Quickness "effectively" moves with you as they activate on top of you.

If you wanna protest the change on the PvE side, just roll one and retire your Scrappers for one of the other Engi specs I guess.

[Balance patch preview for Engineers]

I can understand that they want to weaken Scrapper in WvW to make room for other supports but there must be a more elegant way of doing this

Maybe increase the ICD of Purity of Purpose for WvW or reduce the number of pulses or durations for their respective gyro fields, but making them stationary is just a really awful change. Please reconsider this, Anet.

[Owp nerfs details + core weapon updates.]

9 minutes ago, soul.9651 said:

Stop crying already, power slb is already at 37k+ after these changes which is pretty darn good. 

A selfish spec with 0 utility that  benches well (while flanking) is a good thing?

 

Sheeeeeeit, wrap it up, fellas. Soulbeast is saved

[Owp nerfs details + core weapon updates.]

45 minutes ago, Canidae Canis.2861 said:

But it just does it too well.

Oh no, its good in places where its good...imagine wanting that for Ranger of all specs and a niche build at that 

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You can't bring up the utility or core weapon skills of Ranger without inflating Soulbeast's burst damage even more. Any changes you would make to increase core damage is just multiplied by the Sic'em + OWP combo, resulting in Soulbeast still being on top.

Yes, you absolutely can if it became a problem by tweaking Soulbeast specific modifiers gently without killing the utility of sharing the damage out to your party. 

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In short, they can't make the other Ranger specs more viable unless they bring down the unique abilities that allow Soulbeast burst.

Maybe the other Ranger Specializations should bring their own things to the table that are also desirable in certain instances, like Soulbeast's spike for short-windowed fights? Raw damage alone isn't gonna put you in a meta comp, or Weaver and Soulbeast would have been a top pick for EoD strikes and the like over just being serviceable, especially as more and more encounters move away from favoring burst to being much longer.

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The burst combo will still exist, just tamped down a bit to allow better maintenance dps when not bursting.

Yeah, except all you do is damage and little else for your group. Thats why I called it green weaver earlier. Lets not even pretend stance share is ever gonna be a thing past this either.

[Owp nerfs details + core weapon updates.]

1 hour ago, Canidae Canis.2861 said:

This is the beginning of a fix that has been needed on Ranger for a looooong time. Soulbeast set the bar artificially high with the Sic 'em + OWP + lb2/axe5 combos that allowed for insane burst in small windows, but low-moderate DPS outside of that window. It created the place we've been in since POF - no other ranger spec, Untamed included, can compete with Soulbeast for damage

Being good in some instances but average/not optimal in others is "artificially setting the bar" for something?

 

I just see it as part of that style of play's identity - how it delivers damage and all that being tied to short interval bursts that can supplement allies but with windows where the damage goes down between them (unless you play condi).

That is something unique to the way this version plays it. That is a reason to consider it for those fights where that sort of play shines. There is (again)a condi build and Untamed if you want more "persistent" DPS where there aren't those short windows, so why should power bursting be thrown out?

If they want Untamed to be good enough, all it has to do is bring a consistent amount of solid damage +  the utility of CC for the encounters or fights where that matters, or something that is also valuable to the party while dealing damage. That could have easily been its niche, but nerfing Soulbeast just because others can't compete for something its specifically good at (damage spikes) really just rubs me the wrong way

But hey, if you just want the spec to be green weaver that has to somehow consistently flank in instances to upkeep its damage, there's good news:
 

 

[June 30 Hotfix Balance Patch: Ranger Updates Notes]

I dont understand what they have against Power Soulbeast being spike/damage-window oriented

Condi Slb exists if you want to use it as a sustained damage dealer and so does Undeveloped if they actually work on it a bit more. Why cant soulbeast have a build that requires some modicum of skill to maximize?

[What to expect from EOD aetherblade plot?]

I'm guessing that if they have a presence here, they'll likely be our means of getting smuggled into Cantha. Its probably not a region we can just take a Pact airship into like we did with Elona. Maybe we parlay with them to solve some issues they might have in exchange for getting a way in

[3/23 PvP Balance]

I've been gone awhile, but I always saw jokes about the game mode devolving to hitting people with sticksNow its not only getting there in terms of damage but the "remedy" to supports being stronger (from the lack of said damage) is to kill off support too?How did things end up going down such a strange route?

[Bring blish back pls.]

Still waiting for Glint and Vlast to show up again post Aurene-Ascension, especially now with the world facing the prospect of two Elder Dragons clashing and Aurene and the Commander wondering what should or could be done

[Unstoppable Union]

@"Yasai.3549" said:If it were me, I would make Unstoppable Union give Stability and Might.

Yur talking about a class which was designed to fight tooth and claw with their pet and have mainhand dagger as their Spec weapon.

It would make more sense to funnel traits to support melee combat SB instead of giving them so much unblockables to poke people down with 1500 range AAs which hit for 5k damage on average.

And maybe make power scaling on MH dagger better, I've been dying to fight with dagger like an animal but my fantasy of tearing and ripping my prey is ruined by the fact the dagger is condi focused.

That's not a bad idea, and it would have been a source of Stab outside of Dolyak/SotP. Oh well...

As for Dagger, I think its current output is "fine" even as a condi weapon since its not far off from sword, but it just needs something like:

AA 2 and 3 merged into one attack so that it follows the conventional 3 hit auto chain vs 4That thing takes way too long to finish and each one just does one condition anyway. Having it go from 1-2-3 conditions per chain would give it some better pressure. Maybe add a couple seconds of Cripple (or even 1s Immob if you land a flanking strike) to Dagger 2 to make it better at helping pin down a target once you're in Melee range....and just make Dagger 3 have a slightly lower aftercast.

[Teapot Quitting? Is this the beginning of the end?]

I'm sure he'll enjoy WoW classic, and I wish nothing but the best for him.As someone who watched his stream regularly, its pretty easy to tell that he was just getting bored of GW2 - even though he admits that the game itself is great and is doing pretty well, he seems to feel alienated and bored regarding the direction the developers (and the community) are going. At the same time, GW2 is so good (at least at its foundation, the world, the combat, and so on) that there's not really anywhere to just "jump to" in order to scratch that itch for hardcore content to tryhard in with the same kind of quality in its gameplay in the MMO Genre. WoW's just (one of) the closest bets.

I can understand those who say "Why would I watch someone play a game that I could be playing?", For me, sometimes I just dont feel like playing the game but still want to interact with its community in some form or observe how others do things - asking questions in a forum beyond this place and reddit and even getting a wider sense of perspective from such people. Maybe when I do log in next after such sittings, I would feel some inspiration to try something new that I saw someone do on such streams. There were quite a few times where a streamer showed me an answer to a question or problem I proposed while doing their usual stuff or openly discussed such as a topic that actually helped quite a bit in how I (and likely many others) approached things ingame. Teapot was just one of such, especially for raiding in my case.

Anyway, I dont think the game's dying just because he's leaving, far from it, in fact....but its another (major) content creator leaving for who knows how long. The good thing about GW2 has always been that its easy to just pick up where you left off, so maybe if things change he'll be back to playing for awhile. Still, I always felt that GW2's biggest blindspot is their poor advertisement, and not using people like him and many others to push their game and its content out to the wider populace vs their really weird marketing campaigns that might not totally encapsulate just how wide and varied GW2 can be as a game.

[Your DPS is Trash]

DPS Meters are fine. It is good that we have access to rough estimates of whats incoming/outgoing, and tidbits on who did/didnt do something, I think. The problems that come from how the players interpret the information and react to it is not the fault of the information gatherer, but the players themselves....and I dont think taking that information away would benefit anyone beyond those who have something to hide.

[why do YOU stow your weapons after a fight?]

I like my charr on all fours vs being on their hindlegs all the time.

[Rev is still too strong?]

Rev is fine.At least, "fine" when it comes to "not overperforming".

[Unstoppable Union]

The nerf was excessive. I think toning it down instead of removing it entirely would have been enough (UU gives your next attack unblockable, Sic'Em down to 30%, though 25% isnt too bad with the new TaV, but I could do without that change too tbh), but eh, people will continue to cry even in the underwhelming state the build is in. It will still be "Oppressive" or "Overpowered" or "Toxic"...whatever buzzword people will use for Rangers in their games. It happened with Druid, and even now its getting kicked when its almost non-existent.

The nerfs were justifiedLaughs in Staff 3

[Ray, what have you done?]

While I understand the toolbelt nerf for overheating, that effect should not apply when Photonic Blasting Module is taken since the whole point is to Overheat in the first place. That would save the PvE use while still giving it some niche in the face of this change to PvP. How could Anet let this fall through like this?Did they not understand how the PvE build worked?

And the Scrapper changes are just straight up strange to me.Why did they go out of their way to rework the spec a second time when it just needed an adjustment to its barrier output on Bulwark Gyro? It could have continued to have a few odd niches in its power/condi builds while still having some tankiness/support options without being "unkillable on node" with just a minor tweak instead of hammering in a bunch of nonsensical changes.

@Elmo Benchwarmer.3025 said:I actually couldn't care less. I never considered Scrapper nor Holosmith an Engineer. In my opinion both Elites completely ruined the core class and forced a melee playstyle that it wasn't supposed to have. All I really want is a viable (yes, viable is good enough, doesn't need to be competitive) PvP Kit Engineer build.

Isnt the point of Elite Specs to change the way a profession played/feel? I thought that Holosmith was one of the better ones in that regard since its so distinct from the way Core engineer played (Scrapper too, to a lesser extent).

[Soulbeast is utterly useless]

Not useless, just likely outclassed as a roaming DPS/+1.The traitline's not bad, but its pretty boring. It feels like Stance Share could have been a thing if the duration was better for allies recieving them....and lets not even start on Dagger.

[do you think balancing for the top 10% of players is a good idea?]

It cant be worse than using a dartboard to determine who/what gets nerfed.I also cant agree with the idea of balancing around "fun" because that's entirely subjective between players. Something can be balanced in the grand scheme of the meta but not fun to play against. Do such things deserve to be made irrelevant because they're not "fun" to deal with for some?

Furthermore, I think that its more important to address the heart of actual complaints instead of just messing with things around an entire spec while leaving the problem untouched. Here's an example: People bitched about Druid resetting forever on side-nodes because of -Celestial Shadow- but it was never touched....instead, its healing and Avatar's Cooldown got hit repeatedly...glyphs got gutted (before a very questionable rework that hasnt really helped anything), and now even staff got a nerf. Basically they took a long way around "addressing" the problem Druid posed instead of just hitting the actual problem. The same could be said for Mirage and the Elusive Mind debacle, and many others.

[Sic em soulbeast nerfed -- What's the next build to play?]

You might be able to still use something like Marksmanship Remorseless SB to some success still to get a few quick kills from a distance or blow someone up who's lost most of their resources on something else. I just dont think its worth using compared to Rev/Holo in Ranked beyond a certain point. They'll both still have better plussing power and teamfight damage/utility.

But hey, I guess its "fine" as long as players stop crying about "Unblockable Oneshot" :) Anyone who complains about Soulbeast at this point just has to git gud.(Though Rangers will probably be nerfed again anyway, just because.)

[Soulbeast nerfed next week! Time to buff a bunch of stuff!]

Soulbeast Nerfed! Time to buff things!As if.It sure as hell didnt happen when Spirits/Druid/Gazelle (still broken) and other things got "nerfed" or "adjusted for overperforming". There's little chance they'll do anything now beyond a mild whim that somehow still misses the mark.

[Ranger Upcoming Balance Patch Notes]

So, Frost Trap may see some use in PvETwice as Vicions is a little better for sustained damageBarrage has gone from filler trash when LoS is used to meh.And the other LB skills scale dynamically instead of threshold scaling as they always should have.

Everything else is just varying degrees of nerf, as expected, including another kick in Druid's balls for good measure.I guess crying on the forums really does "fix" everything.RIP.