Henry.5713

Your answer pretty much depends on what these raids would be meant to be: Something along the lines of simply allowing 25 players to enter the current raids to kind of turn them into easy modes / fun modes. Such raids would probably draw quite a few players at first but end up on a similar spot to an META farm... not too popular unless it provided the highest rewards. Or Competitive raids on a similar difficulty of the current raids but on a (much) larger scale. Requiring a well organized large group which would be much harder and far more tedious to maintain than our current statics and with even less likelihood of successful PuG attempts on the hardest of bosses.Both seem rather unlikely in a game that does not focus on raid content.Only the most hardcore of raiders would bother to maintain said 25-man statics in this game. Already hard enough to do so with 10 players, let alone 25. Most of us would probably prefer 5-man raids over anything larger than 10-man if given the choice.Anyone else (the majority of non-raiders) is far more likely to stick to Open World content for their farming needs unless those "easy modes" vastly outshone Open World content in terms of easy rewards.

None of any of these healing builds are "needed" strictly speaking. I go with my build on the worse of days (instabilities and certain fractals) where I quite like to have staff but prefer to stay more offensive with Bane Signet sharing and Pack while others feel the need to go with Monk runes, Virtues, staff and possibly more. Not even running any healing outside of those days myself where it is just plain old qBrand for me.It would really depend on the amount of healing people are aiming for. If you think neither of the great benefits of staff (the healing and might) is required then you are free to run whatever you choose to.

I usually go with Discretize builds and most of their meta builds do not provide fury (though that might have changed since they have not been updated for the last patch). In those builds Firebrigade Guardian provides quickness and fury, renegade provides might and alacrity. Obviously if you prestack with a lot of fury and fights are short enough it becomes a non issue, but then you wouldn't be running heal firebrand but rather quickbrand I'd believe. I'll have to keep an eye on that and see how much fury we overstack or if we have fury issues without me taking axe/sword. True, if I was to adapt my build to be more offensive I would probably switch Radiance for Virtues and use Bane Signet on the flex slot. I might do that later actually. Virtues is mostly useful when drawing tomes, given I usually don't use tomes and the passive healing is not needed, a more offensive approach might be nice. No, I assumed as much. In that case, and if you have access to full fury, sure it makes sense to take Honorable Staff if you have accounted for that. Makes your build a rather interesting hybrdid between full heal FB and quickbrand. 240 stats is nothing to sneez at, my guess is you can camp scepter for damage and then switch to staff occasionally to either heal or refresh might. That makes sense. I might have to give the trait a try to see how it compares. With 6.5 seconds of cd on staff 2, the healing would be quite potent. The healing of aegis is obviously more useful when required to weapon swap more. I might give your build a try next run with my static just to compare. It seems less reliant on weapon swapping at the cost of fury with more potant healing from staff. DH gains Fury from their trap, Soulbeast from their Beast abilities, Daredevils have something like two traits, Weavers have the Blast-Field trait as well as a Air trait that provides Fury."Fury has never been less of a problem" is what I am saying. And you are still free to run an Axe over Scepter if want to feel safe. You will lose some Might but then Pack covers Might and you have a lower cooldown on staff, etc.

@Cyninja.2954 Fury is covered by Pack runes and the self-Fury traits or skills of the current META builds. The only one not at 100% Fury is me on my Healbrand.Protection is done through the shield as well as the symbol trait. Some is covered by the Renegade but that could be taken care of by the third and empty utility slot or prestacking it.The gear stats I used to show the build is not what I have in the game. My actual gear is min-maxed around having as much Healing Power combined with the full boon duration. Sorry, if I didn't make that clear. It is a particular mix.The idea behind the staff trait is gaining overall increased healing as that concentration allows me to swap quite a bit of gear towards something like cleric and there are the additional lowered cooldowns with staff. I prefer increased healing from staff (cooldowns and values), Regen, symbols, F2, dodges, etc. over the aegis heal but people are free to disagree. That is a personal preferance at best. And yes, this works rather well for me.

WoW Classic is the newest of these many games redone to bank in on nostalgia. Normal WoW never killed Guild Wars 2, neither did anyone of those many games (FF XIV, Bless, Blade and Soul, etc.) which people said everyone would quit over and I certainly don't see why WoW Classic (already being a niche game and mostly aimed at those previous and even current WoW players) would accomplish said task.

Hardcore players are quitting or moving on. Nothing new. Additional easy versions of the already limited competitive content in this game wouldn't have made them stay. This change in direction would make even more of them quit.Neither is the overall raid population going to magically increase if we receive a LFR system. Anyone who has any interest in actual raiding is already busy raiding or has at least tried the raids at some point. Anyone who is reluctant due to reasons true or imagined will continue to stay away from raids. There will be far higher chances of failure without any limitations in place and failure gives rise to toxicity. Making people stay away even more. The only way such a system would cause a big impact is if we lock the best rewards behind raids and then turn them into a handout through easy modes. But then if we do this, there is no need for a LFR system in the first place. People manage to form squads for the newest, most profitable farm just fine without an auto-system...

Personally, I'd be more interested in the output of META-builds when played by players of various skill levels vs. them playing various non-META builds to see which might be most optimal depending on the person in question. Testing such a thing would be a pain and probably require multiple players to get involved in the process.Running some of these builds at your already own decent level where you might be better off going with something more optimal seems to be nothing more than "doing something noone else does so you can be special" to me. But then that is just my personal opinion. You are free to do whatever you like.

Interesting to see everyone's different preferences. This is what I like to run if I feel healing is needed: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vVAQNAW7OnsADFChFBDkCjF+BDLAsDKCWFgw1EYPj+RPpA-jxRSQBiUJ4zuYBAY/hEqZwWPBQHQHV+NR1fCAcA8+75e3De/93f/93r7v/+7v/+7v/+7lCwvZWA-e Bane Signet sharing for party damage. Pack runes to cover any holes in boons and to allow me to run scepter. The 3rd utility slot is open to whatever you might need - condi removal, stab, healing, etc... Gear depends on your base AR. I need less concentration gear than shown myself as I have 207 AR like most Fractal Gods. Yet to run into a situation where I needed even more healing.

MMORPGs, with one exception - WoW, have never been good titles to stream if you intended to make a profit, let a lone live off of the stream. Unless you jump from one big new thing to the next to gain as much attention as possible. Don't see why it comes as a surprise that some popular streamers who also happen to be into content which is kind of lacking in GW2 move on to the next thing. I am more surprised about how long he actually stuck around which shows how invested he was into game but everything comes to an end eventually. No need to cry about it. And honestly, this does say very little about the quality or the population of game. The majority of our players care about as much about streams as they care about any of these more competitive content pieces some people are quitting over.

How about someone who lies dead on the ground for most of the fight on all of the bosses you cleared that night? They still made sure to show up and spend some of their precious time on "raiding", right? They deserve loot as much as everyone else and come on, the bosses still died...Let's get into the same way of thinking - there should be some "protection" in place to stop people from seeing corpses and healthbars on the UI? It only leads to toxic behaviour, right? Whether someone contributed 0% (being dead the entire fight) or at least 10% of what someone else managed to do, it is still less than they should have.

Your damage is private as long as you stay out of my group. But your performance matters to me once I have to rely on you in any sort of group content. This includes support (healing, boons), tanking, taking care of mechanics and, yes, even personal DPS (especially if you take up a pure DPS spot). Just like I take responsibility for my performance whenever I make others depend on me.Thus I still fail to see why personal DPS should be seen as this one and only unique and private information concerning individual performances while everything else has been far more obvious since the start and people hardly required combat logs to stop themselves from complaining about boon uptimes or failed mechanics.And of course, you are free to form your own group which does have different standards for different roles which incldues handling DPS players with kid gloves for some reason so they, unlike tanks, supports, healers, mechanic takers, will not be blamed for their bad play. Not to mention that ArenaNet already made it clear that they do not consider "damage done" as private information.

Agreed. With the addition of the other side of the the issue. Random spectators feeling entirely entitled to be allowed to play amongst the great players you mentioned whenever they feel like playing "some" soccer.

Removing downstates is an interesting idea but it might require some rebalancing as all encounters are designed with this safety net idea. There are quite a few things which oneshoot squishy players, quite a few more than in other games I have seen. And even the best of groups, with the best of players, have some downstates from time to time. They simply insta-res and move on. Also, you have to keep in mind that most of those other games still allow you to res dead players during a fight. At least the ones I played did. Compare that to GW2 where the downstates are a two-edged sword. They are everything from an easy safety net that can be abused, insta-ressing and stuff like precasting group resses, down to a timer that makes people panic and often causes more harm than it helps. Take a look at a few of the wipes that happened during the Amateur Raid Tournament - caused players going for resses at the wrong time. Something they wouldn't have had to do if they were allowed to res the person later at a more convenient point during the fight.I still wouldn't mind the additional of some hardcore mode which entirely removed the downstates but this shouldn't be baseline at all - not unless it would come with a long list of rebalancing and design changes which sounds like a pretty terrible idea.

How dare these tools provide a rather accurate and transparent estimate of individual performance (in terms of DPS)...We should probably also rally to have the display of boons removed as they tend to make people complain about specific players on their boon supports. And then how about we demand bosses are turned invisible so those poor tanks will no longer be blamed for their bad movement or tanking positions by those mean elitists? Haven't thought about how to protect healers yet as removing healthbars does little to stop the complaing if people end up dying.

Anything can be dealt with with the appropriate amount of counterplay. There is a rather easy solution to an overload of stuns and knockdowns, just like there is a way to avoid red circles or easy to read attacks. There is certainly no boss in place that forces you to spend 90% of the fight knocked down without any way to avoid said situation. I wouldn't consider anything that doesn't require even the most basic understanding of the game "fun" myself but each their own in the end. Any content has a target audience.

For the sake of discussing Scrapper in PvE (not considering the other modes in this), any build that is in an already "decent" spot should not receive 10-man quickness or alacrity. Experimental Turrests combined with those 10-man must have boons would turn them into Druids 2.0 - stronger than the Druids have been even before all of the nerfs. Don't see that happening.However, 5-man quickness seems more likely and ultimately more interesting. But then it really depends how quickness is added. How convenient it would be, if there is the possiblity to run them as an offensive support, etc for them to ever rival the Firebrands.

Just wait till we have to listen to ten minutes of unskippable dialogues on the level of W7.

Perceptions are almost always vastly different and very subjective. This game remains one of the best targets of the "Rock Paper Scissors balance" meme in the end. And these issues hardly began with the introduction of HoT. There have been so many supposedly imbalanced builds long before that and people will continue to complain no matter what even if the impossible happens and the game actually becomes 100% balanced.

Commanders are usually the most or at least one of the most experienced players present in the squad. Which makes them a great candidate to take the job of the tank or "healer" as those roles tend to take care of a lot of mechanics and obviously moving the bosses when required. It's certainly much safer and more practical to take over those positions if you are already commanding and thus already constantly telling the tank what to do if they are new. Unless of course you are with a good static or just experienced pugs who do not require any "commanding" whatsoever. In which case it hardly matters who has the tag over their head. That said, it still doesn't mean you can't jump on a DPS or off-healer and do just fine as the commander in pugs. It might be less pratical or optimal but hardly impossible. There are quite a few people who tend to form squads for Dhuum for this very reason - not being able to do either mechanics or take the tank spot. Whether this is a good or bad things is up to debate but if it gets things done for you, why not? Your squad, your rules.

The changes happened in 2016. Who in their right mind would want that clunky ass auto chain back? Not to mention that the sword still provides the highest damaging auto attack of the ranger.

Couldn't care less about new races, let alone a specific one.

Balancing for a much larger crowd of players means using the easier bosses as a benchmark. An understandable approach.However, I had always hoped they'd pursue a two-pronged strategy. Easier normal bosses to attract more players to raids and far more challenging Challenge Motes along the lines of Dhuum CM for the more dedicated. That said, focusing on attracting more new players seems such a hollow goal if you end up alienating most of your veterans by not considering their wishes. Let's be honest, these CMs were almost jokingly easy. Pretty much all of the raid groups I am close to finished them without a hassle, even those who have been stuck on Dhuum CM or even Quadim CM (W6) for quite a while. Those groups will continue to try hard until they eventually reach their goals while the newest CMs have been nothing more than a little moral booster to them. Yet everyone else who has been waiting desperately for something good, my own static included, went right back to being bored after having spend a day on the new wing. Not surprised I am hardly the only one who feels this way.

Well, that druid build is obviously a bit tongue-in-cheek. But lately Kitty's seriously seen so many druids camping staff spamming auto-attack and entering CA maybe once in 90 seconds (average) that even that "Boon staff auto attack druid with pack runes" would be more useful than lots of stuff Kitty's had to endure lately. At least it'd automatically bring enough fury to bring proper fury uptimes when combined with pack-runed chrono. Kitty's not even joking when she's saying that she's seen lots of druids with less than 20% fury output lately. That's total output, not the uptime btw. (and any healer should be outputting at least 200-250% unless there's 10-man-furybot in squad). And even if some druids bring warhorn, they never swap to it. Where do you find even those people? Why would anyone want to raid with players who aren't even willing to output the barest minimum of what you can expect of someone who has never tried PvE, let alone raids, before. Next you'll be coming up with "afk-build" which are focused around being more useful than someone who just GGs before the fight even starts because you happen to play with lots of "afk players" lately.

Constant swapping is certainly one of the biggest culprits when it comes to wasting time. With a single slow person taking up more time to swap than it takes to kill a few of the quicker bosses (even when done by a imperfect composition).The few times my static has to LFG someone for our full-clears often includes said person wanting to jump from one pDPS to another pDPS which usually takes more time than we need to nine-man the boss in question if we insta pull. And we have just done so before when some people refused to listen or decided to ignore the part about "no unnecessary swapping during the run" in the LFG message. Not that there aren't good spots to swap or that you can't do it if you are fast enough.Anyways, minimizing said waiting time as much as possible is the easiest way to ensure a good full-clear time once you have achieved a certain level of individual performances. Nothing new, though. However, pugs are a different story entirely. Most players prefer to go safe than sorry there. They prefer to set up a BiS composition for each individual encounter. Thus they rather spend ten minutes in preparation than possibly having to deal with multiple wipes caused by "bad classes". Something that is mostly nonsense, of course. Certain speed-kill compositions aren't exactly required for a normal kill nor are they the safest option to ensure a smooth kill (even less so if people struggle to perform at the level needed). Also nothing new but this seems to be the mindset of many players you meet in pugs or those who fill in for your static.There is also the fact that you might as well just swap builds to something more optimal if others are doing so already. Which someone is always happens to do in pugs runs no matter what And all of that doesn't even include other waiting times. Calls, door bells, girlfriend-aggro, boyfriend-aggro, cats, dogs, moms, food, toilet breaks, people watching movies on the side, jerking off with one hand, potato computers, terrible connections, etc. just to name a few.It would require a perfect world where people are knowledgeable about the topic in question and skilled enough to perform, where nobody will complain if you don't instantly jump to the BiS build, where everyone is prepared (characters, builds, practice) and able to focus all of their attention on the raid for this to go away for the most part.

That's an interesting view on what makes content hard when many others would actually claim that content in general became jokingly easy after HoT was released with it's heavy reliance on specific (overpowered) support builds.