Phazon.3975

That hit so hard.

Unfortunately while I felt this specialization looked much better than the previous one just by looking at the trailer, when it came to visuals and abilities, trying it out left me disappointed. Pros: -Hammer is fine as the new weapon. It can be it's own thing on Elementalist as a destructive, tanky, supportive frontliner. (Small Rant: Really glad it wasn't a bow. Sorry not sorry. How would it function? As a "better" staff? Would make staff even more useless. You were never forced to use the previous specs as strictly melee either. Have you not tried Fresh Air scepter Weaver/Tempest? It's kitten fun. Simply. Buff. Staff.) -The visual effects, icons, and flavor of this specialization is far better in quality compared the first batch of specs we got. Cons: -Unable to give any Pros for the specialization when it comes to gameplay/mechanics. It feels like it's trying to be ,or focus on, multiple things at once. Auras, "Elemental Empowerment", Wells. I see hammer as a weapon that can be used just for synergy with the specialization itself so it's entirely optional to use the weapon with the spec it came with like previous Elementalist elites. But despite that hammer needs plenty of buffs because... - Hammer, while coming with neat visual effects, has an awkward mishmash of skills that do not synergize well with each other. It also feels that hammer is, I don't know, a little... "shy(?)" on what it should be doing. Hammer needs to come with more destruction and defensive skills for being such a lumbering weapon. You expect me to be running into the fray with my non-existent health pool and you give me a skill like "Whirling Stones"? LOL. Using this skill legit made my laugh out loud on how terrible it is. Hammer skills NEED to do more. Like make Whirling Stones have a larger AoE that blocks projectiles or make it pulse Ring Of Earth for such a long channel. Also fire is "range" but it expects me to get right in their face to smack them for a pitiful buff? Hammer skills need more synergy. And just more in general. -Hammer skill 3 feels like a mechanic that would've been part of the Catalyst but was placed in hammer for whatever reason for, idk, the cool factor I guess? Make it unique? The orbs don't last long enough and hammer skills are too slow to be switching attunements and basically wanting to make me play like a Weaver and sacrificing my attunement cooldown for a "cute" payoff of being able to fire all the orbs. Buff this skill by making the orbs last longer or just scrap it entirely. The effect visually and the way it works is neat but again. This feels like something that should've been part of the Catalyst and not the hammer. -I like the idea of giving energy on Elementalist. I think it fits. But why did it have to be a resource for such a boring mechanic like "Jade Spheres." When I imagine an Elementalist building up energy, I expect a massive storm of destruction is coming. But instead we just plop in some Well that does...buffs I guess. Jade Spheres need more freedom of control. Increase the AoE. Make them work like Rev's Ventari Tablet. Let us have the option to change the avatar after switching to a different element at will. And make them more intimidating and worth using. Building up energy is so annoying just to use this lackluster mechanic. Make energy regenerate outside of combat while combat speeds it up. The only thing cool about this is that it summons the celestials from the Factions campaign. -The traits make the spec feel like it's having an identity crisis of some sort. There's a lot of focus on auras (which already was a Tempest thing) and it's like these traits expect me to be constantly pumping them out. There is no way to consistently gain auras on elementalist for traits such as Hardened and Empowering Auras, unless I'm using the Conjurer trait I guess. There's also "Elemental Empowerment" which feels like some slapped on "blight" mechanic like the Harbinger? So am I some "aura" spamming battlemage? A support class? Tempest and Weaver have traits that reflect with the mechanics they were given, Overloads and Dual Attacks/Stances. Catalyst's mechanic (supposedly) are these "Jade Spheres" but when I look at the trait tree I have no idea what this specialization is trying to be. Not sure how to improve and mold the spec into it's own thing really. If we make the Jade Spheres move with the player, then it'll just feel like Tempest. But we have spinny orbs, celestial avatars, and energy that is unique to this spec. Maybe make Hammer 3 a Catalyst mechanic and perhaps make Catalyst a transformation based specialization? When you get enough energy you can transform into the avatars with unique skills and buffs. Not sure. Sorry if this is negative but the more of these specializations they reveal the more I wish that they could've just taken a break from elite specs and perhaps this expansion could've come with new skills for existing classes/specializations. Guild Wars 1 did that. Why not here?

I 100% agree with this post. When the spec was first teased with the silhouette, a necromancer getting pistol just made no sense to me but it did have the sorta "witch hunter" or perhaps sort of a plaguedoctor (the more traditional ones) look to it, especially with the flask. So I gave it the benefit of the doubt and was hoping they could get creative with the spec. Perhaps it would toss acid vials or vials full of diseases/miasmas/plagues as it would fit Cantha because if I remember correctly in Shing Jea the necromancers studied diseases. What we got was the most basic thing possible with almost no creativity to the skills, traits, and overall theme/flavor. I actually didn't even want to try it, but I decided to bite the bullet and check out last night. And admittedly, I hate that I like it lol. The gameplay I mean is very fun. It's a rush. And quite powerful for PvE. I didn't find myself using any of the elixirs however. They are way too boring (icons too) and feel rather lackluster compared to other utility skills. And being able to use HOPE on a Necromancer is always a perk. 😛 The thing is what is preventing me from getting on my Holosmith and equipping a pistol and a bunch of elixirs? They have a form. They are just as tanky. They have a gap closer and AoE knock-up while in forge. It's pretty much the same. Honestly, and without hate as I loved this franchise since Guild Wars, these new elite specs just feel like a situation where it's "let's just use whatever we have and try to make something "new" out of it." These specs just don't feel like there's anything new or fresh. They straight out feel lazy. And I'm not a fan of let's "fill in whatever a class can't do yet." Every class should have an identity and it's strengths and weaknesses. That's the imagination one gets when they get into the game for the very first time and looks at his or her class choices. You choose the profession for it's theme, not mechanics. And Necromancer is a class of dark magic and attrition. If every class plays the same, then I feel they lose their point.

Update: Was able to delete one of them now. Might be fixed. Yay!

Ever since the beta update, I am unable to delete two of my toons. Typing their names exactly as they are multiple times, clicking or entering confirm but they persist. Anyone else having issues deleting toons right now? Edit: Forgot to add that these are not beta characters.

With the legendary wardrobe confirmed to be in the works and information coming soon, I think it would be nice that since we are free to duplicate legendaries with it we should be able to do it on fresh character as well. Leveled legendaries like Bloodbound weapons would be nice! Would make keyrunning more fun or to quickly gear up fresh toons without needing to worry about the long process of setting up or replacing gear gradually (if you are not swimming in Tomes of Knowledge of course like myself, but I also enjoy leveling my toons sometimes for fun from zero hehe). Just an idea. Making a legendary can be a huge grind and with the wardrobe coming out, something like this would make making one even more worth! Especially for the altoholics!

Oof. I completely forgot about that and the Ministry of Purity in Winds of Change. Well I hope there will still be some Kurzick and Luxon refugees/settlements after all this time. Seeing the gothic cathedrals and Luxon outposts gone will be sad. But still hoping they include something similar to alliance battles for fans. A different type of pvp format that is like a quick WvWesque skirmish/activity for currency to spend on PvE rewards would be nice. This game needs better activities tbh. Or better rewards for them. I remember how activities like Sanctum Sprint were so active on release. I feel like competitive activities like alliance battles in GW1 where you can grind your heart out for worthwhile rewards are missing in this game. ?

I definitely wouldn’t mind shared tools even if I have purchased a few sets for aesthetic/thematic reasons. I find glyph swapping on my tools tedious especially transferring them over characters. Having a shared set with all-purpose glyphs for multi-character node runs, including new toons and key runners, would make life easier. I mean I wouldn’t mind if they added a second tool set to swap tools on the fly per character but this sounds much better.

I apologize in advance if someone already made post similar to this. I’m rarely on the forums. Also this is entirely my opinion. I’m hoping that when we finally arrive to Cantha in our journey through this game that there would be a slower progression compared to the last two expansions. I really enjoyed the pace in the original Guild Wars that, while the gameplay here is much faster than the first, I miss being walled by story and having the time to quest and explore around an area until ready to move on to the next. Back then I mostly played alone in Guild Wars 1 so it would take me a couple weeks to complete a campaign and with the slower pace I feel I could appreciate the amount of different stories and detail that was put into each side quest and area. Even if I played with friends, the game will still feel like it had a nice and steady pace. Even today as I still go back to the original from time to time. You can go through each expansion extremely fast in this game though, especially if you have a player guiding and helping you through. Here’s a list of what I would like/hope for: Slower progression. Areas locked behind new masteries is to be expected. Maybe lock out some areas until you reach a certain part of the story in your first playthrough. Only players that meet the requirements will be allowed ahead.This might not sound so appealing but perhaps lock mounts until postgame. Mounts have made this game ridiculously fast and while yes it’s technically optional, Imo it wouldn’t make any sense to arrive in Cantha in their time of need to just hop on a raptor and run amok. Unless Canthans have and are riding around places like Kaineng on mounts, I kinda feel like they would have restrictions until you get some sort of license.Please give us the entirety of Cantha with maps that aren’t locked behind future living stories. Cantha as a full expac would be great. I also love how maps in PoF have a lot to offer with ruins, caves, etc., if you venture out of the linear story. That in Cantha would be awesome.I also wouldn’t like some of its beautiful places in Guild Wars 1 getting ruined like branded Vabbi and Istan (which is crammed with mobs everywhere and isn’t even fully explorable). Getting real bored of the dragon corruption and I will love a reimagined Cantha that would take me on nostalgia trips.Alliance battles. Alliance battles. Alliance battles. Did I mention alliance battles?Postgame content would be nice. Perhaps elite dungeons? Urgoz?Factions theme login because why not. ?Again sorry if there’s already been many posts on Cantha. Just things I hope for. Anything you would like to be added or brought back in the 3rd expac/Cantha?

The ingame description of the Gnashblade Bag doesn’t specify that you have a chance of getting precursors so unless a player finds out it’s just a “Cool. Free exotic weapon.” for players who have keys and wouldn’t mind a bonus exotic item. If it did, it would be much more of a hook to gamble for them. But it isn’t really pay to win. It’s a skin with no real gameplay benefit. I mean I’m not sure tbh if we’re boiling it down to skins and fashion. Players are spending so much money in this game for looks that it’s kinda worrisome. That includes me back then until I realized how much focus was being put into the gemstore. New items are being pumped more and more into the gemstore and the quality of the stuff is becoming questionable (looking at the last few mount skins). And when they started including shiny BLC skin exclusives, that ain’t P2W but that’s still lootbox to the max and that’s got to go. And how often people throw around the “x isn’t that bad, just spend x dollars” makes me kinda sad. For a free to play game, the money word gets thrown around a lot. I miss when the gemstore in this game was something in the background and not something that’s flashing in my face whenever something new comes out. Which is like every week. Whew sorry for all the extra but I needed to vent. xD TLDR; The Gnashblade bag isn’t p2w. It’s probably one of the weakest BLC freebies imo. The festive ones with 5g trophies are probably better even. And as long as people don’t know there’s a chance for precursors, there’s no gambling encouraged.

So now that Cantha has been “confirmed” (I mean what else can the hint be) I feel like Guild Wars 2 will finally be complete for me. I have wished so long for this to happen. What made the first Guild Wars amazing for me was the 3 very different fantasy worlds/cultures of Prophecies, Factions, and Nightfall. While I was very hyped for PoF (I LOVED Elona in GW: Nightfall, especially it’s track), unfortunately I felt it was sort of a letdown. The only real civilization now is in Crystal Oasis. Istan’s and Vabbi’s (my favorite part of Elona) beauty is in ruins. It just felt more of the same.I hope that Cantha remained preserved and to finally get the nostalgic and change of setting I feel the game desperately needed for a long time now. So the question now is: What will be the reason for us going back? Do the Tengu know something we do not? Perhaps signs of the affliction are returning despite the absence of Shiro? My theory is that while despite being tired of the dragon storyline, Cantha will be focused on the Sea Dragon. There’s the Jade Sea, which most likely has recovered from being petrified revealing it’s secrets, and the fact that Cantha is a smaller part of Tyria surrounded by ocean. Perhaps Bubbles is causing trouble between the mainland and Cantha? What did test in Tarir with the “harmful water” hint? Is it perhaps poisoning the water supply in Cantha? Perhaps that will bring back the plague? What do you think will happen? TLDR: CANTHA IS FINALLY BACK BABY! What do you want, what do you expect storywise, and how do you feel about it? Edit: Perhaps the last time I’m posting something of this length in my mobile device...Sorry xD.

So if I am understanding this correctly. You need to harvest 25 nodes to get a special skill that gives you 12-8 bonus strikes depending on the nodes you harvest. It is only 1 additional strike per node with the Overload buff and you can't generate more stacks until you use up all your bonus strikes. This is strictly worse than Glyph of Bounty or any other money-making glyph for that matter. Even if you buy multiples, you are missing out on chances to get things like volatile magic, watchwork sprockets, leather, etc. on the nodes you don't care about to generate charges because more than likely you're going to save your charges for nodes such as iron, money plants like flax, blooming passiflora, jungle plants, or LWS nodes, and in the end you'd only get 1 additional strike per node. I rather get sprockets on nodes like mithril rather than build up these charges and get petty reward in the end. Sounds super restrictive and bland. You said that only tools with the glyph on it would gain the effect but wouldn't that mean that once you activate the skill, you have to either remove the glyphs on the tools you wouldn't want the additional strikes to trigger or strictly avoid nodes you don't want to use them on? This glyph just sounds like bait tbh. Unless you like the tool itself (which I admit does look pretty cool), do yourself a favor and avoid this glyph and get yourself 1 bounty glyph and 2 money glyphs of your choosing (Volatile, Watchknight, leather.) ((Psst get yourself an all-purpose trio of glyphs for your tools! Bounty, Volatile (Or other if you don't have LWS4.This is for trophy shipments), and either Watchwork/Leather. Volatile for trash nodes, Watchwork/Leather on the next profitable, and Bounty for the $$$ nodes. Swap them around depending on the map your on and how you please!))

So after the patch, I still use focus as a FA Tempest because of it's still very handy defensive skills in open world. Despite the downsides of Obsidian Flesh like canceling your actions when cast (even kicks you out of overload when cast AND when the invulnerability ends. go figure.) and the overall clunkiness after the change, I decided to just forgive it. I gave the new reworked elementals a try and boy is it fun being followed by a group of elemental "familiars" on my scholar character. They've proven to be quite useful tanks and having a mixture of different ones can really give you some coverage. So I was fighting Ruye by Fort Salma in Kessex and I used Obsidian Flesh to give me a few seconds to breathe...and my lesser elementals are gone. Turns out Obsidian Flesh doesn't just delete your entire skill bar and stop you from whatever you are doing but it also kills your own elementals. Just the lesser ones I guess. Can this skill be even more broken? Did they even test it? Please just change it back and leave it as is. NOTHING was wrong with this skill.

Not to be negative Nancy on this topic, but I 100% agree with your post. Tbh lately it just feels like the effort put into things like skins is just pitiful. I felt it kinda started when the Primal Warden outfit was released. It looked like a mismatch of currently existing armor to me and the textures were just... not good. Then there was the recolored verdant weapons last Wintersday (although I heard players liked those which is also 100% okay) and then the Lunar Rat year weapons. I really started to worry about the game however when they released the horse griffon. I keep hearing things that the game isn't doing so well and I brushed those comments off because ,well , I grew up playing Guild Wars and the franchise has helped me through my problems when I was younger. It's a beautiful franchise. The best there's ever been for me. But ever since they released that...thing... I just want to remain positive. Sorry getting a little too deep and far from the topic but I think the skin doesn't deserve the 2000 gem price tag. The fur looks low quality imo and it kinda looks weird with the face. Like its a ball of fuzz with a rubber Halloween mask on it. I still kinda like it tho. Definitely a step up from the last 2k skin. But not for 2k. And one of the screenshots showed it standing up and thats actually pretty darn cool. (You mentioned you didn't like the Infernal springer skin, but I actually really like that one lol. In the end to each their own and people do what they want with their money. Just something that has been pent-up in me for a while now. And I apologize to the people who liked the horse! Power to ya!)

I am curious as to why the Elementalist skill Obsidian Flesh got such a ludicrous nerf for PVE. The skill was absolutely fine as it was before the patch. It was a good defensive skill to a glass cannon profession. It was a setup window for your combos and kept up the momentum but now we're stuck unable to do anything and using a focus now feels pointless. I would've understood if this change was for PvP/WvW (even if I don't play those modes) but why open world? Was it that much of a problem? Was it to reference Guild Wars 1's Obsidian Flesh so we veterans players go "Haaa. Yeah I remember when Obsidian Flesh prevented you from attacking." This isn't Guild Wars 1. Combat/gameplay is nothing like that game. If that's the reason for the change, then Meteor Shower here should cause knockdown, right? The change is clunky and feels like it broke the skill as well. I thought it was going to "lock" your skills, not delete your entire bar. We can't even precast a skill before using Obsidian Flesh because it just cancels you out of everything. Start casting a skill like Glyph of storms then use Obsidian Flesh. Canceled. Overload Earth into Obsidian Flesh. Canceled. Even using Obsidian Flesh beforehand and then Overloading Earth, if Obsidian Flesh ends during the overload (because it's now a form or bundle I guess?) you stop overloading. Tempest is one of my mains so I'm at least relieved we can switch elements during the invulnerability as Fresh Air. But what about core or weaver? What makes focus an attractive option for those specs over dagger or staff? Why would I use focus over warhorn on my tempest? Fire is useless on focus. Water has pitiful CC skills (Comet is "okay"). Earth only has a reflect now. Air is the only viable element. Tempest can manage the change better but core ele and weaver got completely shafted. Obsidian Flesh on a sword weaver? Lol. Not to mention I think there's a small delay now when casting Obsidian Flesh. Like if you're changing build templates or picking up a bundle. Could be my end tho. Did I also forget to mention you didn't add the change of "locking your skill bar" in the skill description? It's still the same. Which brings me to another thing. More effort and higher consideration need to be put into PvE/PvP splitting. Stop making changes for the sake of change or adding "drawbacks" to things that don't need them. If something ain't broke, don't fix it. These needless changes and skill rebalances need to stop. Why do elite specs need drawbacks? Why force balance when things may already be fine? Some core builds already existed before these drawbacks because sometimes having 3 core trait lines work together just as well as having an elite spec. Ranger for example: Core spec is used often in open world for a tankier pet and because the traits are good enough to work without an elite spec. So why do drawbacks like the one Druid got have to exist in PvE? Why the needless and harsh pet nerf and the pitiful "lore" reasoning over it. Were Druids dominating PvE? In PvP and WvW I heard they were a problem, so why didn't you just split it for those modes? I'm sure there are many players, like myself, who want to play an adventurous PvE support druid. Then there's things like the removal of pet swap on soulbeast. Why? Playing a soulbeast now just feels so restricting and tense. You've cut all fluidity from the class. Being able to merge pets while being able to swap made the spec exciting and fun to play in its own right. I thought the drawback was sacrificing your tanky pet for more damage? And what about other classes and elite specs? Don't cram in these drawbacks if things are fine as they are. If you want core specs to not to look underpowered compared to elite specs, why not just buff core traits so that they work well enough to not need elite specs? Some elite specs already change the gameplay style on certain classes. Wouldn't hurt to make support specs more attractive for open world either. I've only posted on the forums a few times. Open world is also what I do 99% of the time in this game so I apologize if this is a pointless rant.

So a small update. I reinstalled my graphics drivers and repaired the client. It has seemed to have gone away mostly. It still happens occasionally when i use Poison Volley. Its a bit odd. Perhaps the skill is bugged. Should've put this on Bugs. My apologies.

I have noticed that lately i am having this split second stutter whenever im having combat ingame. I mainly play pve and currently on my ranger. It seems to be happening much more frequently when i use a weapon like shortbow since im moving around quickly. It seems to happen a lot more when i use things like poison volley and the evasion skill. It's constant and very annoying. Anyone else having this microstutter? My fps is around 70-90 and ping around 90.