Wielder Of Magic.3950

Thank you for admitting we should not classify SoTO as an expansion.

Threads like these are a prime example why Anet never seems to take player feedback seriously. Because so much of it is like..well...this, drowning out the feedback that is actually reasonable.

You are the one spending 30 minutes bashing their head against storymode bosses and proceed to not just complain about it, but also clearly state you are not looking for any sort of help. So you are just here to complain, unwilling to understand that if nobody else spends 30 minutes on a boss it might be you and unwilling to take any build advice to possibly remedy that. That is a skill issue on multiple levels.

skill issue.

But what will it add to the game? I mean we currently don't have any disease system. We have conditions, but we have cleanses for that as it is. And people will never accept being afflicted by a disease debuff that is uncleansable unless you have access to someone with a certain crafting discipline. Are you proposing it can for example craft consumable "pill" items to instantly cleanse conditions from the inventory? And craftable consumable "syringes" to forcibly inject yourself with heals/boons and the enemy in range with conditions/damage? So far it sounds like you haven't made it further than 'sounds cool', but have not yet thought about what role it would fill ingame in a gameplay sense.

It's an EoD feature. Ofcourse it's undercooked or unfinished, what else did you expect? I mean the majority of that expansion failed to meet the standards set by previous expansions, so why would the GH be the exception.

Dungeons.... To hard.... This is why we can't have nice things.

At least no Samurais or Ninja's. Those are extremely overdone cliché and their fantasy is largely covered by existing classes or elite specs. I am not against new classes but I'd rather see them bring back more unique GW classes from the first game or ones that were teased but never got past concept phase. Heavy Armor: Paragon. I know that both Spellbreaker and Guardian have evolved from Paragons, but since there are still actual Paragons in Elona I see no reason why they could not be added as a class of their own. And we don't really have a mid-range heavy armor class fantasy yet (which is why you regularly see people ask for Anet to bring ranged land-spears as a new weapon into the game). An updated for GW2 Shout/Chant system would be an interesting take on support for itself and/or allies as well that we don't have yet. Medium Armor: Dervish. I wonder if you could create a unique gameplay aspect of a class that builds up boons and then spends them on various effects (with some traits that allows spent boons linger for a bit effectwise, so a Dervish stripping its 25 might is not suddenly without that bonus). Avatars would probably need to be reworked since other races don't have much to do with the human Gods. Light Armor: I would either bring Ritualist back or see how much can be done with the Summoner concept they originally had for Guild Wars Utopia. I mean they used another Utopia concept for Mesmer's Chronomancer, so it's not outside of the realm of possibility. Both could fill the fantasy of summoning armies and then combining them into larger beings or quickly cycle through them for additional benefits. In this way you could create a niché that both Necro and Mesmer currently don't fill.

The problem is more that even if you'd fix all of those bugs and interactions, why would you run a heal Virtuoso (aside from 'because I can lol') over a heal Mirage (if it gets what it needs) or more importantly heal Chronomancer? The other mesmer specs both get some new toys to improve support builds through their traits and utilities, meanwhile Virt gets none of that.

This would cause a backlash of massive proportions. People heavily dislike being funneled into a gamemode they don't want to do. It is why WvW was removed from World Completion and it is why we still have complaints about having to do WvW for Gift of Battle. Fractal: You can hop in on your LA fashion build in a T1 and get your weekly. Strikes: Hop naked into Icebrood Construct and collect your reward. No such things for raids. I understand that you'd like this when you are a regular raider, but do understand that you are part of an utter minority in the game.

Feedback on Mesmer rifle This was the weapon that I had a very hard time to get a feel for and even now I am still wondering if I got it 'right'. For me it also doesn't help that we just had some pretty noticable changes to several support traits that give mesmer more healing and boon options to toy with. And while a lot of those changes feel good to me (and you will bring them in a support build), because these changes are new themselves it was at times hard to seperate the performance of the overall build from the performance of the rifle itself. Just to push this I have tried this in full harrier gear rifle + scepter/shield/focus with Inspiration and Chaos as a base, with both Chronomancer and Mirage (I saw no reason to test with Virtuoso since Virtuoso has nothing that complements a support build in my opinion). Especially Chronomancer felt extremely strong with a sheer endless amount of boons and a nice stream of healing with Mantra's Wells and Shatters. But how does Rifle fit into it? Performancewise I feel like Rifle is only something I would swap into if I desperately need that 5.6k healing from rifle 3 (possibly with the 2.8k from rifle 2 or the 4.3k barrier on rifle 5), also known as when I REALLY need burst heals that I could not avoid with protection, aegis from F4 or from my wells, or not heal with shatters/wells/mantra/clone generation from stuff like Ego Restoration/Illusionary Reversion. But...then I am stuck on rifle for a bit after. And Rifle has heals sure, but also a big problem: So much of mesmer's kit relies on generating and shattering clones, but rifle does a real poor job of allowing me to keep up a stream of constant clones, at least on Chrono. I honestly felt safer by just camping my scepter/X side and vomit all boons in the world through constant shattering, followed by aegis preventing damage and then the mild heals from shatters and mantra's/wells keeping people topped. You can soften the problem by holding your heal mantra for your rifle set or giving up a slot for something like Mirror Images but it is not ideal. And there is not a lot going on aside from that raw healing on rifle if you cannot shatter as well as on other combinations. I must admit that in that way I feel a bit disappointed by the weapon. I would actually happily trade in some of the potential heals for better utility. I'd love some area denial (like guard hammer 5) or a mini feedback of sorts. Don't forget that if you run rifle you are giving up utility from something like an off-hand shield or an off-hand focus. A bit more practical: Skill 1: nothing to write home about. You can heal multiple people with it, but I'd honestly prefer to generate clones with scepter for my boons. Skill 2: Some heal, regen and we generate a clone. It is on a 5 CD cooldown, less under alac, granted, but you would think that Anet knows how reliant current support mesmer is on shatters. With this you would take 12-15 seconds to build up max clones with just this. Now grab scepter with the auto-attack generation. Skill 3: A burst heal. And that's all we will probably use it for, I don't think people will let it expire for might and fury. Might as well roll those two boons into the kit as it is or remove it fro something else in my opinion. Skill 4: Phantasm. This is....let's say not great. Low damage and a 2s stun. on 16-20s CD. That's not gonna cut it. Can we get the firing squad fantasy here? Summon multiple phantasms (each becoming seperate clones after) or make it an ammo skill? This current version isn't it. Skill 5: Barrier is okay I guess, but I am unsure if anyone is going to use this for the portal. It is unwieldly and unclear. Portal being for 1 person only doesn't help either. I'd rather see this become a mini version of the Portal Utility skill. Reduce range, only allow 5 people to use it, but give it a bit more uptime, directly drop it between mesmer location and shot location and make it more visible. It feels limited. It does one job and one job only. But mesmer always needs to fill multiple jobs from multiple angles and rifle is missing that versatility. Right now this feels to me like a "swap, burst heal and pray nothing is going to happen for the next few seconds because I am on rifle and cannot do kitten about it". As for the Mirage variant: I had a slightly easier time to keep clones going on rifle with Mirage (hopefully to bridge the gap back to my other weaponset) with Ego Restoration + Self Deception (and then take Jaunt for my elite with each charge being able to make a clone). But compared to the Chronomancer variant I felt lacking in boons. And there was another big thing that holds Mirage back in this scenario: The Chrono version can do either Alac or Quickness (but Quickness seemed to work better), but Mirage cannot run Staff for Alac AND rifle. It needs that Staff/Staff action (because swapping to non-staff means Alac is gonna drop). But since Mirage does not have the easy aegis that Chrono has it would rely on Rifle more. But it cannot really afford to take it. I suppose it would help if you take away Fury from the Rifle Ambush and add Alacrity there as well. Now that we talk about the rifle ambush: It looks fun, but when your clones use it they don't heal. And that's a bummer. If the ambush gets Alacrity and clones using it also provide the heal part we might be able to figure something out (if all clones heal with each mirage cloak ambush there might also be room for Blurred Inscriptions instead of Restorative Illusions for Aegis if we work in a signet). Right now I am not feeling it on Mirage. All in all I feel that rifle is very one-dimensional and it feels useable because it gets carried by the Inspiration/Chaos buffs, instead of Rifle hard-carrying Heal/Support mesmers. Maybe I am looking at this entirely wrong, I don't know. But as it is, rifle still hasn't fully convinced me.

Yeah, I play it and also do my best to provide feedback. I am very critical off this game and especially on reddit I regularly tear into Anets decisions pretty harshly. It would be very hypocritical of me if there is a beta, and Anet asks for feedback, to not participate and not give them any. If I want to have the right to complain I also have the duty to provide constructive feedback when Anet asks for it.

Feedback on Warrior staff When it got revealed I was a bit hesitant about it and was unsure if it would be able to carve out a niche. Now that I have played it (for reference: I tried this in full harriers gear with staff+mace/warhorn. People might optimize this to less healing/less BD and more offense but I wanted to see how it looked when pushed a little) I am actually quite positive about it. The healing on staff, especially in harriers, is bonkers. The staff auto's and F1 give an extremely comfy permanent regen , you have a 5.5k heal on staff 5, a 6.6k heal on staff 3, a 4.4k/3.2k burst heal and another 2.8k heal on staff 2. That is a massive amount of healing and all of it hits 5 targets. Boonwise for the build I tried it is permanent regeneration, permanent swiftness (WH), permanent vigor (WH, under alac), permanent fury, permanent 25 might, permanent resistance (tactics banner) and if you go for it possibly good uptime on resolution as well (and with warhorn a nice 5.5k barrier on top). Pretty loaded kit. Some points however that could still use improvement in my opinion ( it's the Christmas month, so might as well ask for all of it): Protection uptime is something you want on your healer, if possible permanent uptime. Currently I find it hard to do this unless I spam Staff 3 in combination with Soldiers Comfort off CD. I would really prefer an easier access to protection. Is it possible to maybe move protection to staff 2 (and balance protection uptime accordingly)? This will make it easier to maintain while also freeing up staff 3 to be used for aegis when needed (instead of having to spam it and being unable to save aegis for key moments). And while we are at it, ally/enemy targeting split is a pain on this thing. Please just let it trigger its boons no matter who I target. But to go back to the earlier point, without a reliable staff 3 you are pretty much forced to bring Banner of Defense if you want an aegis you can trigger when YOU want it instead of spamming it from Staff 3 in hopes that it will come at the right time. Since we are in a month of giving, I'd also like to ask for maybe some stability. I found it very hard to bring any stability in my kit for my team. Maybe other warriors had some ideas but it felt like I had no choice but to bring Banner of Tactics if I wanted to bring any kind of teamwide stab (and just a single stack at that). Luckily that is a good banner to bring for the resistance anyway, but just one source of stab and only one stack feels meager. Next point which is a big elephant in the room: Adrenaline. I found myself having a very hard time generating adrenaline on staff unless dedicating multiple utility slots to it (and even then it was meh). It would be great if this weapon (or in a support trait somewhere) could get additional adrenaline gain. Other practical points: Staff 5 seems to be interruptible by auto attacks (not ideal. I also had issues testing if you can block attacks for allies if you use staff 5 in front of them. If it already does that, cool. If it doesn't yet, pretty please?). And like mentioned earlier, please no ally/enemy effect split on staff 3 and maybe move prot to staff 2. Relevant specs: I think HealQuick Berserker is the big winner for support warrior. AlacSworn can probably be carried by how strong staff is (even without staff bursts) but feels more limited since it cannot weaponswap for warhorn vigor/barrier/cleanse (and thus has to allocate other slots for it it seems). Staff will probably be able to make it work, but if I had to pick I'd take a Healzerker with Quick over a HealSworn with Alac currently. Cool support weapon, but has kinks that need to be worked out.

I suppose from Anet's point of view it makes sense to do this. Feels not necessarily as P2W to me, but more like a P2S (pay to skip) if that makes sense. You could already skip to 80 with tomes or lv 80 boosts, but then you would still had to grab 250 hero points for elite specs. Now you can skip past earning those by paying so as a new player you can instantly not just be lv 80 but also have whatever elite spec you wish instantly unlocked. So I get why Anet did it. But at the same time I am not really a fan and am afraid that, considering how the game already has issues teaching people its mechanics/how to play, this will only lead to an even bigger influx of people who have no idea about game mechanics/what they are doing, but now on fully unlocked specs. You could now get someone with a fully leveled character + elite spec who is on their first day in the game and has never seen any of his traits or skills before. This won't help in that regard.

Feedback for Elementalist pistol When the pistol got revealed I was decently positive about it. It seemed to have a fun mechanic. After playing with it for a bit I find myself in a strange split. Let me start with the good thing, being that the damage is there. I was a bit worried at first if the damage would be high enough, but it turns out to be a complete non issue (and I am pleased about that). Even more because it is not locked to a single spec for its DPS viability. While I already expected that if the numbers turned out to be good a Condi Weaver build would emerge, I am surprised and pleased to see that there is also an even stronger Condi Tempest build floating around (and it has been ages since I played anything DPS releated for tempest, so this seems like a good occasion to give that spec a go again!). The goal of damage has been achieved, so far as good. BUT.... I will be honest: The weapon to me feels so straightforward that it does not feel very fun or unique. Many of its skills just give me a "meh" feeling where I would love to have a feeling of "yeah, awesome!" if that makes sense. When GW2 launched, I remember devs talking disgusted about the weapon skill design that was rampant during that time: 'you swing a sword. you swing a sword again'. Yet I cannot help but getting this feeling from pistol in a way: "I shoot a bullet. I shoot another one. I shoot one again". And the bullet mechanic unfortunately does not seem to spice things up as much as I would have hoped. I often don't even notice I am using it as a mechanic as I cycle my 2-3 2-3 3-2 etc on the pistols. It's something you'd do no matter if there would be a bullet mechanic or not, it does not define your playstyle if that makes sense, like it is more of an afterthought. I'd like to see bullets being more defining to your pistol gameplay and not something that just happens because its tacked to your opimal button presses. I think partially you could be more creative with the effects granted by skills being boosted by a bullet ( example: Why does a boosted earth skill not shoot a massive rolling boulder, or why does an Ice bullet boosted Glacial Shot not cause knockdown with its icefield (slippery ground reference to GW1) and give superspeed to allies on it (Iceskating!)? Dare to make the effects a bit more unique, many of the current ones, while mostly effective, feel very phoned it/basic. To me that simply isn't very fun. I'd also like, if that is even possible, for bullets to also have an effect/be able to consumed outside of their original attunement for more mix and matching. To clarify: What if for additional effects, a Fire skill can also get boosted by an Ice bullet for a certain effect, or an Earth skill boosted by an Air bullet, etc. I think that would encourage more combo'ing and also the setting up of bullets in advance. For that I guess you'd maybe have to change how bullets get generated (maybe on attunement swap or something, I am not sure). This is a lot of text that essentially comes down to me not really being wowed by many of the current boost effects and feeling like the bullet mechanic is currently underwhelming, despite the weapon achieving its goal as a condi DPS mainhand. This comes on top of some more practical notes, like it being never worth it to collect al 4 bullets and then shooting them at once, many auto attacks not bouncing or air attunement having no conditions on a condi weapon (why is that? air has a connection to lightning and lightning BURNS. Or how about engineer? their lightning/static shot has CONFUSION. There are options here Anet!). TL;DR: DPS numbers have been achieved, but the fun factor, wow factor and bullet mechanic could in my opinion really use some work.

If you struggle with 2012 content...while being max level..and using an elite spec...the game might just not be for you. Because that content is not hard. It wasn't hard in 2012, and it certainly isn't hard in the modern day with elite specs (Reaper included) being extremely survivable and capable of doing 40k+ DPS. Sorry to be that guy, but this is not Dark Souls or Sekiro. This is GW2, the MMO with possibly the easiest story and open world content within the genre. This is an opportunity for OP. They can ragequit again and never improve, or take a good look at their build and stats, ask for advice, and after maybe 5-15 minutes tops proceed to wreck that mission like nobody's business. Maybe it is as simple as them just not reading what they are supposed to do and instead of doing the objective they just mindlessly throw themselves against endless respawning mobs. Then the improvement becomes as simple as "READ".

Feedback for Necromancer swords I'm okay with the idea in principle, I take anything over Staff (if only so we can free Staff for an entirely new role for necro). But this weaponset really needs a lot of work. The damage is simply not there. It is low. very low. That needs to be brought up if the intention is for this to be a DPS weapon. Projectile attacks are wonky, have weird hitboxes and strange interactions with the terrain and have different attack speeds depending on if you hit something in melee or at range. Now that I mention it...why the projectiles? We drown in ranged weapons. The flipovers are another issue: Buff the hell out of these, because they are pretty much never worth using. Not for DPS not for any additional effects (I am not gonna lose close to 5k of my health to throw out a 2s fear). And, issue of the entire set, aside from the heals on the non flip-overs it has no defensive utility whatsoever (and necro lacks that...A LOT) and everything is slow as hell (you see the sword attacks coming from miles away, they take years to land, and many projectiles can simply be sidestepped). Fun idea Anet, but needs a LOT of refining in damage, flip-overs, attack speed and purity of purpose.

Feedback for Engineer Shortbow I have been really struggling to find a good role for this. It's not a power DPS weapon nor a condi DPS weapon. So it is obviously meant as a control and support weapon. But I see nothing within the shortbow kit that would make a support engineer take it over Mace/Shield. Even if you detonate everything for a specific bonus, it's in my opinion not impactful enough. The maximum barrier when all stars align can be easily achieved with the kit engineer already has, especially on Mech. On Scrapper I see no reason why you'd bring this over either hammer (when we care about finishers) or again Mace/shield (when we care about raw heals or defensive boons/reflects/cc). Nobody cares about the healing, if we want to we can vomit healing. Fun that another full detonation can push 25 might, but again we were already doing that in our support roles anyway. The stun and bonus slow...what is the point? Nobody really cares for slow and our other support weapons already bring good CC as it is. What is shortbow doing? What does it do better? What hole in the design of engineer can it patch? I simply am unable to find the answer to that. And if there is no answer it means the shortbow is dead on arrival. That is all on top of the fact that it does not feel fun to play. Throw down stuff, detonate...and wait. It feels like Necromancer staff, a strongly criticised design from 2012. I understand that you probably cannot redesign the entire shortbow at this point. But I do hope for stronger effects, less cooldowns and more rewards for specific detonations or different effects for setting off different detonation chains. Shortbow is not 'it'.

Feedback on Revenant Scepter I cannot deny the support effectiveness. The barrier this chucks out and can maintain is insane. 100% see this becoming the BiS mainhand for support Revenant. I was a bit worried at first if it could compete with Mace (that gets burst heals from its blast finishers under Karakosa), but who needs heals if you can chuck out massive barriers for days? So in that way, the goal is reached. My problem with it is more that it does not feel very engaging to me. Pop it, smack auto's, repeat. It's amazing at what it does, it just does not feel very fun doing it to me. The DPS potential is simply not there (in case this was meant as a hybrid weapon). So if this was meant as not just pure support but as a hybrid DPS/support thing, the DPS part is not cutting it. TL;DR: Support part works and is busted, but does not feel very engaging. DPS part, if there was meant to be one, is currently non-functional.

Feedback on Thief Axe Personally I really enjoy the weapon and the mini mechanic of managing axes. With that said, I feel like the indicator that shows how many axes you have could be made a bit more clearer. The axes themselves also have a lot of pathing and tracking issues, get stuck on terrain, go through terrain, hit from way beyond their range (1800+) or fail to hit from way within their ranges ( < 600). It also feels very strange that thrown axes can be seen on the ground, spinning, but deal no damage. Maybe that would be OP but it would feel a lot better if spinning axes would do some damage and not just be there to be pretty/be axe 3 fuel, even if the spin damage is very low. Condi variant: Damage is through the roof despite the clunky tracking. There is no way this will reach the life version of the game, it is that broken. Aside from the damage itself: It seems never worth it to use Axe 2. Axe 1 is better for damage. So you just spam 1 until you have enough axes, use 3, repeat. Rebalance PvE damage, improve tracking and make Axe 2 worth using. Power variant: Power seems to sit around 30/31k. Fun kitten around for the open world sure, but you are not going to bring that for serious instanced content. So it can use more. And it suffers from the same tracking and pathing issues as the condi variant (and also here Axe 2 does not seem to be worth it). The weapon also has a lot of problems with traits like lead attacks not working, reveals if you use 3 on an axe thrown from a stealth attack, etc. PvP/WvW: The weapon has only damage, it has no defense whatsoever. For a PvP set that is not good. And PvP also deserves a functional weaponset. For PvP scenarios it also feels like the set has a design conflict. The weapon is meant to be ranged, but to get the most out of it (to the point there is no use in bringing it if you don't) you need to use axe 3...which ports you into melee range again. And then what? Do we have to run away again until we are at safe range and chuck axes...only to be ported back into the dangerous fray the next time you use an Axe 3? Does not seem very logical. I can 100% see the fun and potential in the weapon, but it still needs work!

Feedback on Ranger Mace: Mainhand I was a bit concerned about a possibly confused identity on Maces after the skills got revealed. But especially mainhand mace seems to be a winner. It flows well, it has leap, CC, protection, a heal, it feels like everything that especially support druid could want. I am unsure if vigor on the auto-attack makes sense, but at the same time I cannot really think of something to replace it. With druid having enough heals anyway a heal would be overkill. What could use a heal however, is the Untamed Mace Ambush skill. That would mean that not just support Druid but Support/Heal Untamed can also take the mace, improving its versatility among builds. I would gladly trade away damage on the ambush if it can get healing. But that is probably the only possible gripe I have with mainhand mace, it feels like the weapon is 90% where it should be. Offhand I have no idea what we are going to do with the off-hand here. Thistleguard I suppose is a defense weapon of sorts, but that 1s of stability is a joke. But that clashes with what Mace 5 is trying to do. It tries to be a DPS skill, but you are never going to challenge Axe 5 in PvE. And in PvP I don't think you are going to catch anyone with it, not to mention it damage potential gets neutered due to the stun, and we all know how CC behaves in PvP damagewise. Force of Nature/Nature's Strength The mini mechanic feels like an afterthought to me. I don't really think you are going to build around this. If it happens it's great, but I am not really convinced. Maybe on the mainhand sometimes, but I feel like you will often swap away before reaching the threshold. That bring it to another issue: You are never going to build up into Force of Nature if you only run off-hand mace. Never. Off-hand Mace feels extremely tied to the mainhand for this, but in especially PvE you are not taking off-hand Mace over staff mace/warhorn (support) or something like hammer sword/axe (DPS). If you want Force of Nature and Nature's Strength to become a real thing, you will need to make it easier to achieve and also make it that off-hand Mace can trigger the effect on its own. Maybe let Mace 5 build up stacks of Nature's Strength with each hit it does (4) and let Thistleguard always generate 1 stack and a bonus stack if it also hits an enemy? That way you get off-hand mace a way to reliably build up the stacks on its own AND maybe make it an option for PvE DPS players for a high-risk burst in an ultra short phase like for example fractals ( Thistleguard into Wild Strikes for Force of Nature and the CC bonus from Soulbeast, then Sick-em switch into Axe 5 for ultra burst window but nothing else if you mess it up)?

Feedback for Guardian pistols: Overall it is a weaponset that has potential. The damage is there for sure, and gunslinging Guardians are a fun fantasy. With that said, any condi weapon for Guardian is held back heavily by torch and the related Radiant Fire trait. It is simply so strong that there is no point in taking any other off-hand because you not just lose out on torch, but also on being able to proc torch #4 twice. This is relevant in my opinion for pistol because mainhand and offhand both have a desirable skill (pretty much crucial) to make the DPS work, but torch design means it is very hard to justify to bring both. Skills: Pistol 1 seems okay. A bit strange that a guardian pistol does not burn on auto, but maybe that would break the weapon when combo'd with firefields/pistol 3/Willbender F1. Pistol 3 (the symbol) is obviously the big selling point of mainhand pistol, igniting every hit used within to stack a load of burns. Unfortunately pistol 2 does not work well with pistol 3. I am not sure if it is buggy or intended, but I seem to trigger way less burns than I'd expect, maybe because of how it is coded. This means that to get the most out of pistol 3 you want to shoot pistol 4, which is on the off-hand....competing with the torch hegemony. And that is a problem. On the long term I would say to rebalance guardian torch and its related trait. For now, I think mainhand pistol could carve out its place for the supreme condi mainhand if you would switch pistol 2 and pistol 4 (so current off-hand pistol 4 becomes mainhand pistol 2 and vice versa). Then you can fix or figure out what to do with off-hand pistol after rebalancing torch. Pistol 5 looks cool, but is also very awkard to use. The charge mechanic felt clunky to me and very uninituitive on top of feeling like any mild elevation in the terrain would cause it to miss or disappear. I am also unsure that if the charge mechanic would be made less clunky and tracking improved if it would be worth to use this. Considering the root and cast time the damage and burning does not seem to be worth it. And scattering mobs is not great in PvE either, a knockdown would be a better bet. For PvP/WvW the common complaint is that the weapon has zero hard defenses within the set. While guardian has a lot of defense baked into the base class I do understand this complaint and thus want to pass it along. TL;DR: Cool idea, damage seems to be largely there, but held back by torch and torch trait, pistol 2 either buggy or meh, would be better to switch pistol 2 and 4, pistol 5 is awkward to use and does not seem to be worth it, PvP is missing defense on the weapon.

Vets warned that this would happen when the casuals pushed for open world Legendary Armor. You have to pay in some way. You either pay through some PvE skill expression and okay costs (raids), pay through mild PvP expression and more costs (PvP), some WvW skill expression and some costs (WvW)... Or you remove the entire part of skill expression from it but then pay massively in material, gold and time. Casuals wanted an armor that would not cost a lot of time, skill, materials, gold or grind. Anyone with an ounce of GW2 knowledge knew that would never happen.

For anyone with the same issue: I solved it! I went through all fox locations within the Bastion of Strength again. And I triggered the achievement by doing NOT # 13 (like my achievement panel said) but by doing # 17 (which was already ticked off).

Another update: Tried it again today. This time I did the minigame, the chest spawned and I was able to loot it. But it did not count towards the achievement. Does # 13 Bastion of Strength not refer to the fox chest near the vista in the tower between the Kryptis frontline and Might's Brink Thicket POI's? Because that is about the only thing I can still think off beyond calling it horribly bugged.