Firebeard.1746

And you ignore the other parts of your rotation and fail to compare it to other classes doing similar things, while also failing to answer my question about which class is harder, overall you're failing to convince me of anything.

> @"Cyninja.2954" said:

> Which evidence? I see no theorycrafting in this thread. I see someone throw out random numbers which are clearly based on incorrect rotation and/or bad gameplay which can easily be disproved at the golem.

>

> You are right in one point. There is no reason to once continue this conversation. I'm not the one having issues with raids in this game. Far be it for me to help or lecture someone who wants to figure everything else by themselves. Hopefully said person doesn't come complaining again about how hard raids in this game are.

Lol and you have no evidence for anything you say. Here it is.

was going to use the snow crows rotation but it looks incomplete. It doesn't actually cover 70s from CS to CS

assuming the rotation is 70s from CS to CS (that's what 50% alacrity turns it into if maintained), keeping full quickness/alacrity on party members focusing on just shared boons:

x = boon duration multiplier (it's 1 + BD %)

3 (number of casts) * 2 (duration) x(tides of time) + 5 (number of casts in 70s window) * 5 (base duration) x (WoR/WoA) + 3s * 5 (SOI, doesn't scale with BD) = 70s

6x + 25x + 15 = 70

31x + 15 = 70

31x = 55

x = 1.774...

BD = 77.4%

Hilarious snow crows can't be bothered to give a full rotation and in their video showing it off on the dummy it's a hand-wavy "The other chrono will make up the difference, we're showing this with all the buffs in place already", what if the other chrono sucks? Note also this isn't accounting for mechanics causing lag in rotation, or even cast times.

> @"Ayrilana.1396" said:

> > @"Firebeard.1746" said:

> > > @"Cyninja.2954" said:

> > >

> > > Chrono is not the most complex class. It hasn't been in a while. Even less so for support chrono who has arguably one of the easiest roles in raids currently. The difficulty for chronos comes from the many different boss mechanics the tank needs to know and the vast amount of mechanics unloaded onto the class. It doesn't make the class difficult, it makes the role in the squad complicated. That's different. As far as rotation, chrono has become rather simple.

> >

> > Yeah as opposed to just having to drop a well in the right spot every 16 seconds, Squeezing 3 skills in a tight window to double them up is just an absolute piece of cake. Not to mention the number of different skills that all play into both generating your boons as well as sustaining them. I am curious though, what's worse?

> >

> >

> > >

> > > No they are not. A firebrigade setup automatically means the chrono has 1 free utility slot which he can dedicate to mimic, which in turn means more SoI uptime.

> >

> > I thought of this, depends on how many shatters you want to be forced to do. And oddly enough you didn't give a new bd number with this. You'd still need a threshold.

> >

> > How's that for obtuse? What would be so bad about more stat selectable exotics in the economy allowing players to more easily access different builds?

> >

> > I would also say obtuse is feeling like you have to shove your opinion down someone's throat despite evidence to the contrary in one thread and then feeling like you have to stalk someone's every move after, to the point of even ignoring what the person was talking about in the first place in the new thread.

>

> What's your raiding experience in this game?

>

> I only ask because in another one of [your threads](https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/88147/rate-raids-in-terms-of-difficulty) you stated that Salvation Pass was the only raid that you've done and you had only done it twice. This was five days ago.

>

> > Second go at Salvation pass yesterday (the only raid I've done), and I laugh in the face of anyone saying GW2 raids are heroic level for WoW. Nope did multiple heroic tiers, and just nope. That one is definitely mythic (if WoW even has mechanics difficult enough to compare).

>

> If you've only done a single raid boss twice (1st in mid July and 2nd on the 20th), how can you possibly comment on how things are in raids? There are people on here with a ton more raid experience than you and yet you're saying they're wrong based on the two times you raided.

>

> And of those two times that you raided, were they training runs? How experienced were the other players in your squad?

>

1) there is nothing wrong with theorycraft. And i'm not saying they're wrong, i'm just saying what's right for experienced players is different, and i'm specifically pointing out that optimizing the same way as experienced players for new players is more error prone/less fault tolerant. I'm also kind of shocked at how little technical detail i'm getting from "experienced" raiders on their profession, just memorized rotations and metas. I guess they're all tied up in metas pooped out by snow crows. A good example of this is I actually had high enough concentration in the presence of another mesmer to sustain my rotation but couldn't because the other one sucked. So yeah i feel completely justified going to gear values that allow me to contribute to the group without someone else's help.

2) yeah alot of them didn't have experience and i think i actually ousted our current raid leader because someone else is in charge now it seems. Our raid leader had experience but imo was too focused on metas as opposed to strategy and didn't take our runs seriously based on some of his behavior. I've called him out on it multiple times, and it seems someone else has stepped up to the plate. I've raided enough in other games to know the barrier here is gear and poorly designed mechanics. But i think the gear is the bigger issue. Telling people go grind x for n number of months/weeks before you can do y activity encourages them to do z that's more enjoyable low hanging fruit. Funny story our training runs were our only ones but couldn't seem to actually keep people. I would know because i went once, figured I needed better gear and waited before trying again.

3) it's entirely appropriate for people new players to comment on a thread that discusses the barriers into raiding. Keeping them out is the choir preaching to itself.

> @"Cyninja.2954" said:

>

> Chrono is not the most complex class. It hasn't been in a while. Even less so for support chrono who has arguably one of the easiest roles in raids currently. The difficulty for chronos comes from the many different boss mechanics the tank needs to know and the vast amount of mechanics unloaded onto the class. It doesn't make the class difficult, it makes the role in the squad complicated. That's different. As far as rotation, chrono has become rather simple.

Yeah as opposed to just having to drop a well in the right spot every 16 seconds, Squeezing 3 skills in a tight window to double them up is just an absolute piece of cake. Not to mention the number of different skills that all play into both generating your boons as well as sustaining them. I am curious though, what's worse?

>

> No they are not. A firebrigade setup automatically means the chrono has 1 free utility slot which he can dedicate to mimic, which in turn means more SoI uptime.

I thought of this, depends on how many shatters you want to be forced to do. And oddly enough you didn't give a new bd number with this. You'd still need a threshold.

How's that for obtuse? What would be so bad about more stat selectable exotics in the economy allowing players to more easily access different builds?

I would also say obtuse is feeling like you have to shove your opinion down someone's throat despite evidence to the contrary in one thread and then feeling like you have to stalk someone's every move after, to the point of even ignoring what the person was talking about in the first place in the new thread.

> @"Cyninja.2954" said:

> Losing a chrono or having a bad chrono is far worse than having 1 or 2 bad dps or losing dps.

>

> What I find more shocking is that in this day and age, at this stage of the game, with this amount of guides and rotation videos and explenations. People can still try to reinvent the wheel.

Ha. Well if the dps reqs are only 40-50k on normal bosses, having the boons only up based on 2 people playing the most complex class is probably far more fragile when mechanics come into play than having each of those players sustain their role, because technically one group, if played really well could finish the boss. This is my case and point about snow crows and elitists: they aren't teaching people fault tolerant strategies, they're hyperfocused on hyper optimal strategies.

Also does firebrand hit anyone outside 5 players? Those values are still relevant for quickness when paired with firebrigade.

Do you just do as your told without asking questions or figuring out why?

> @"Ayrilana.1396" said:

> > @"Firebeard.1746" said:

> > > @"Cyninja.2954" said:

> > > > @"Firebeard.1746" said:

> > > > My issue with the snow crows build is that it doesn't communicate how reliant you are on the other chrono and how you both have to coordinate your soi at a point in time when both your groups are covered by the buffs you just gave. There's actually incredibly high margins or error. Self sustaining your buffs is only possible at 100% bd, i've done the math. You also have to get a certain number of clones weaved in between to maintain 100% self alacrity because of the self alacrity duration penalty chronos suffer from. And the numbers I worked with were based on that up time. And note this means the chronos both must have baseline conc in order to maintain buffs, if one of the chronos is missing the right amount of concentration, it's very easy for their sois to fall out of sync.

> > > >

> > >

> > > Your math is wrong and you have definately not tried a basic rotation on the golem either solo or with a second chrono.

> > >

> > > The required bd is about 50% for permanent boons with 2 chronos with good play. Hence why SC go for less bd, since permanent boons are not needed in top performance groups (but definately recommended for new chronos).

> > >

> > > There is no necessity for shatters for alacrity at 100% bd even with trait which increases self alacrity effect at penatly of time.

> > >

> > > I'm just going to file this under one more thing which you did not actually test and which you made mistakes on in theory which could have been easily disproved ingame.

> > >

> > > I did a duo chrono rotation while training a new chrono player 3 weeks ago, without buff food and both of us at around 75% bd. We both hit above 1 minute on boons, both alacrity and quickness.

> >

> > What is it with you and making up bs? I said "self sustain" on group, meaning no outside help.

> >

> > If i'm wrong, then great, show me the numbers, and show the rotation step by step. I also can't trust what the chrono sees on their own boons, because shatters self buff and it throws off what you're actually giving the group. Soi doesn't share any more. If i'm wrong i'm guessing 80-90%

> >

> > Love the likes on your comment by the way, just shows how toxic and unable to follow a conversation this community is.

> >

> > Me: one chrono can only do it in this circumstance

> > You: but two did it in this one!

> > Me: kitten?

>

> Do you even know why people run double chrono? Do you know in which situations that people run just one chrono?

I do. But is it better to create more interdependencies between players or have them be able to perform their role in a box? Mechanics are no joke. I guess it's personal preference and in my case i would want each person to be able to fulfill their role on their own.

> @"Cyninja.2954" said:

> > @"Firebeard.1746" said:

> > My issue with the snow crows build is that it doesn't communicate how reliant you are on the other chrono and how you both have to coordinate your soi at a point in time when both your groups are covered by the buffs you just gave. There's actually incredibly high margins or error. Self sustaining your buffs is only possible at 100% bd, i've done the math. You also have to get a certain number of clones weaved in between to maintain 100% self alacrity because of the self alacrity duration penalty chronos suffer from. And the numbers I worked with were based on that up time. And note this means the chronos both must have baseline conc in order to maintain buffs, if one of the chronos is missing the right amount of concentration, it's very easy for their sois to fall out of sync.

> >

>

> Your math is wrong and you have definately not tried a basic rotation on the golem either solo or with a second chrono.

>

> The required bd is about 50% for permanent boons with 2 chronos with good play. Hence why SC go for less bd, since permanent boons are not needed in top performance groups (but definately recommended for new chronos).

>

> There is no necessity for shatters for alacrity at 100% bd even with trait which increases self alacrity effect at penatly of time.

>

> I'm just going to file this under one more thing which you did not actually test and which you made mistakes on in theory which could have been easily disproved ingame.

>

> I did a duo chrono rotation while training a new chrono player 3 weeks ago, without buff food and both of us at around 75% bd. We both hit above 1 minute on boons, both alacrity and quickness.

What is it with you and making up bs? I said "self sustain" on group, meaning no outside help.

If i'm wrong, then great, show me the numbers, and show the rotation step by step. I also can't trust what the chrono sees on their own boons, because shatters self buff and it throws off what you're actually giving the group. Soi doesn't share any more. If i'm wrong i'm guessing 80-90%

Edit: did more theory reasoning about the boon times a different way, theoretical min is 77% as far as i can tell. This is without cast times/player reaction times taken into account. Previously i thought you would take your 6th well before cs came off cd, but this is wrong, it's possible to build enough bd before the next cs that it's better to just save it.

That being said, my feelings about snow crows remain and these numbers don't include weaving clones for your own alacrity.

Love the likes on your comment by the way, just shows how toxic and unable to follow a conversation this community is.

Me: one chrono can only do it in this circumstance

You: but two did it in this one!

Me: Wtf?

> @"Astralporing.1957" said:

> To reiterate what i have already said - KPs are not the reason why raids are not as popular as some might want. They are at best a sideeffect of one of the reasons behind that low popularity - namely, a sideeffect of content difficulty.

>

> As @"Henry.5713" mentioned above, KPs are just a stand-in for "raid experience system". That "system" is needed because raiders want to to raids with other experienced people. They want to do that because they fear that otherwise they might either not be able to kill the boss, or that the run will be more painful and annoying (and definitely way longer). They fear that, because they have ample reasons to think that a vast majority of players are not on the level needed to make the kill smooth. And the majority of players are not on the level to make the kill smooth, because the content _is difficult_.

>

> So, removing KPs won't change nothing, because it doesn't do anything about the reason why KPs are used. They'd simply be replaced by something else.

> Obviously, increasing difficulty won't help either, because it's the high difficulty that is the root of the whole situation.

>

> Notice though, that there are other reasons behind why the raid population is decreasing (reward level, release schedule, general population decrease in the whole game). Those other reasons, though have nothing to do with KPs.

I actually think stale content is a big problem for this game. They need to add seasonal mechanics and rewards to everything: fractals, raids, dungeons, pvp, wvw. I think if they could manage that it would keep more players engaged in those game modes.

The mechanics should probably add both a favorable mechanic (to balance the unfavorable one) and unfavorable mechanic that fundamentally changes the way the meta operates.

> @"maddoctor.2738" said:

> > @"Firebeard.1746" said:

> > Not 2%, it's 5 and equates to way more than that when you factor in stat synergies

> >

> > https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/30517/ascended-vs-exotic-not-5

>

> This is a better analysis of Exotic vs Ascended:

>

>

> > A full ascended berserker set gives you a 12.5% increase in damage over a full exotic berserker gear set with power omni infusions. This is the maximum increase in damage obtainable with ascended gear. The ascended weapon gives the biggest increase for an individual item at 5.9%. Ascended armor only increases damage by 1.8% over exotic if you already have ascended back, trinkets and weapon.

>

> As you can see Armor does give 1.8% (less than 2%) damage boost. And this is using Infusions too

>

> > Heaven forbid someone want to play a class that's their main, guess i just suck for picking that, right? Or learn something?

>

> For support Raid chrono you don't need full diviner: https://snowcrows.com/raids/builds/mesmer/chronomancer/power%20boon/

> Power Chrono: https://snowcrows.com/raids/builds/mesmer/chronomancer/power/ is also available as a much cheaper alternative if you want to use Chrono in Raids and not tank.

My issue with the snow crows build is that it doesn't communicate how reliant you are on the other chrono and how you both have to coordinate your soi at a point in time when both your groups are covered by the buffs you just gave. There's actually incredibly high margins or error. Self sustaining your buffs is only possible at 77% bd, i've done the math. You also have to get a certain number of clones weaved in between to maintain 100% self alacrity because of the self alacrity duration penalty chronos suffer from. And the numbers I worked with were based on that up time. And note this means the chronos both must have baseline conc in order to maintain buffs, if one of the chronos is missing the right amount of concentration, it's very easy for their sois to fall out of sync.

I actually think crows may be damaging the incoming community for this reason. I also think it needs to do a better job of explaining why certain builds are sub par in certain situations. Is it dps? Or does the quickbrand lose the ability to pull of their rotation? If i was building a raid for the first time, I wouldn't take bs chronos because of the coordination required between them on top of the other mechanics. Snow crows assumes a lot of things.

I don't have to respond to everyone, and i won't. But silence does not necessarily give consent. I don't have the energy to disprove every point others disagree with me on.

Editted for accuracy.

Been playing at 80 for a while

Sure it's totally healthy for the game to be entirely reliant veterans who might be tired of teaching newbies

Not 2%, it's 5 and equates to way more than that when you factor in stat synergies

https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/30517/ascended-vs-exotic-not-5

Heaven forbid someone want to play a class that's their main, guess i just suck for picking that, right? Or wanting to learn something? This community os way more toxic than i thought..

Also hate to break it to you, anything is puggable in any game once you know your class well enough and have a properly prepared group who understands mechanics + a form of voice comms. And i've actually never pugged. I've always been in guild. We've filled sure but it wasn't a complete pug. And why did we fill? Not enough vets wanted to do it. There's plenty of geared people in my guild.

Chrono needs 100% Bd for complete up time on boons, self sustaining anyway. The core roles require non trivial amounts of conc which is rare on exotics. Heck if anet flooded the economy with selectable stat exotics it would work almost as well as my suggestion except there would still be less flexibility.

Also 2% is an understatement.

Did you even read my response about wow gear? I already addressed that. How about you talk to the ops points about getting more participation which is an issue both Anet and Op have.

> @"Ayrilana.1396" said:

> > @"Firebeard.1746" said:

> > > @"Ayrilana.1396" said:

> > > > @"Firebeard.1746" said:

> > > > > @"Ayrilana.1396" said:

> > > > > > @"Firebeard.1746" said:

> > > > > > > @"Ayrilana.1396" said:

> > > > > > > Except you don't need stat selectable armor as you can just craft what you want. Ascended trinkets are fairly painless to obtain from the Living World maps. Back pieces are pretty much thrown at you with every episode. Weapons are painless through Caladbog and the elite specialization collections although you can craft them too.

> > > > > >

> > > > > > Define "painless" jade shard runs on a single char tend to take 20-30 mins even with optimal route, usually because of adds. And it's alot of route farming you have to do for a single item.

> > > > > >

> > > > > > And if you craft the armor, you have to farm the mats and/or gold for it. I'm consistently farming branded masses and think it took me like at least a month for the 400 i have now? And the items are time gated when crafting. Crafting the mats for the sword is at least 9 days.

> > > > >

> > > > > Winterberries but of course immediately go for one of the more annoying ones while ignoring the others.

> > > >

> > > > Winterberries are only preferable because they infini respawn. Pretty sure i was jumped when i would gather them during season 3 too. Didn't actually farm them for ascended then. I doubt the route is that much easier, i could try it, but it's maybe 2 pieces of gear of the 14-15? I'm almost done with trinkets now. Of course you ignore time gating on crafting the other pieces.

> > >

> > > There's no time-gating if you purchase the materials.

> >

> > You're assuming i have the gold for that.

>

> That's why you farm it...

And that's why i'm not wrong in pointing out all the tedium and time investment in getting into raids in the first place. If OP and Anet really want more player participation, they need to lower the barrier to entry which is why i came up with a suggestion that was more about player skill than farming.

> @"Ayrilana.1396" said:

> > @"Firebeard.1746" said:

> > > @"Ayrilana.1396" said:

> > > > @"Firebeard.1746" said:

> > > > > @"Ayrilana.1396" said:

> > > > > Except you don't need stat selectable armor as you can just craft what you want. Ascended trinkets are fairly painless to obtain from the Living World maps. Back pieces are pretty much thrown at you with every episode. Weapons are painless through Caladbog and the elite specialization collections although you can craft them too.

> > > >

> > > > Define "painless" jade shard runs on a single char tend to take 20-30 mins even with optimal route, usually because of adds. And it's alot of route farming you have to do for a single item.

> > > >

> > > > And if you craft the armor, you have to farm the mats and/or gold for it. I'm consistently farming branded masses and think it took me like at least a month for the 400 i have now? And the items are time gated when crafting. Crafting the mats for the sword is at least 9 days.

> > >

> > > Winterberries but of course immediately go for one of the more annoying ones while ignoring the others.

> >

> > Winterberries are only preferable because they infini respawn. Pretty sure i was jumped when i would gather them during season 3 too. Didn't actually farm them for ascended then. I doubt the route is that much easier, i could try it, but it's maybe 2 pieces of gear of the 14-15? I'm almost done with trinkets now. Of course you ignore time gating on crafting the other pieces.

>

> There's no time-gating if you purchase the materials.

You're assuming i have the gold for that.

> @"Ayrilana.1396" said:

> > @"Firebeard.1746" said:

> > > @"Ayrilana.1396" said:

> > > Except you don't need stat selectable armor as you can just craft what you want. Ascended trinkets are fairly painless to obtain from the Living World maps. Back pieces are pretty much thrown at you with every episode. Weapons are painless through Caladbog and the elite specialization collections although you can craft them too.

> >

> > Define "painless" jade shard runs on a single char tend to take 20-30 mins even with optimal route, usually because of adds. And it's alot of route farming you have to do for a single item.

> >

> > And if you craft the armor, you have to farm the mats and/or gold for it. I'm consistently farming branded masses and think it took me like at least a month for the 400 i have now? And the items are time gated when crafting. Crafting the mats for the sword is at least 9 days.

>

> Winterberries but of course immediately go for one of the more annoying ones while ignoring the others.

Winterberries are only preferable because they infini respawn. Pretty sure i was jumped when i would gather them during season 3 too. Didn't actually farm them for ascended then. I doubt the route is that much easier, i could try it, but it's maybe 2 pieces of gear of the 14-15? I'm almost done with trinkets now. Of course you ignore time gating on crafting the other pieces.

> @"Ayrilana.1396" said:

> Except you don't need stat selectable armor as you can just craft what you want. Ascended trinkets are fairly painless to obtain from the Living World maps. Back pieces are pretty much thrown at you with every episode. Weapons are painless through Caladbog and the elite specialization collections although you can craft them too.

Define "painless" jade shard runs on a single char tend to take 20-30 mins even with optimal route, usually because of adds. And it's alot of route farming you have to do for a single item.

And if you craft the armor, you have to farm the mats and/or gold for it. I'm consistently farming branded masses and think it took me like at least a month for the 400 i have now? And the items are time gated when crafting. Crafting the mats for the sword is at least 9 days.

> @"Skyronight.6370" said:

> Gearing in gw2 is 10 times easier than gearing in WoW, no offense but if it takes you months to get diviner stats you are doing something horribly wrong, You can get a full set of selectable stats in 1 week of pvp. The issue as I said is the fact that raids are too easy not too hard but the KP requirement for them dosent match the difficulty. Unless the player has severe brain damage they should be able to complete any raid/ any boss after 3 succeful kills but gw2 community asks foir 50 KP.

Why would a pve player want to pvp for gear so they can pve? You're just proving my point about tedium outside raiding.

But let's assume i don't care and evaluate your other claim, that it takes a week.

It's 2110 pips for just the armor, assuming we start on a fresh season. we're not talking weapons or trinkets yet, so this is less than half the set. Dividing by 7.5, assuming a 50% win rate, yields 282 matches. Most games take 10 minutes. Let's just say 7. That's 32 hours, not including queue times, which could easily put you close to 40. I actually like enjoying the game and that's way too much pvp in a week, let alone in game. You need 14-15 total gear pieces depending on spec. This is less than half the set and if you actually keep going in the same season, the ascended shards per pip goes so it's even longer getting the other pieces. And this is an optimistic estimate, i didn't do prematch wait times and normally i think my matches run me around 10 minutes.

Now let's talk WoW. You can do 1 mythic+ a week and get something ilvl appropriate for only 30 mins to an 1 hours worth of time, you may even be someone who gets the drops from the dungeon itself, giving you even more gear per time spent. For every tier there's a world boss who drops normal ilvl gear once per week, now we're at 2-3 pieces for still around 35-65 mins of play. It is harder and does take longer in Gw2. Not to mention as you've pointed out yourself, it has nothing to do with the content you actually want to do. At least in a M+ dungeon i get practice with a lot of different types of mechanics.

Edit how is a game that's supposed to be designed for filthy casuals get so many elitists who like to troll noobs with bs? You're not the first person here to grossly understate gearing.

Edit 2: numbers were off on set, adjusted them

> @"Skyronight.6370" said:

> The reason why raids have a small population and everyone complaining that they are too hard it is because of the flawed KP system and not their difficulty , as someone that can do any role and never/rarely goes down in raids and also get top DPS when I play DPS most of the time, after seeing all the 50 + KP requirements for bosses I started using fake KP /Li because I dont wanna brag but my skill level is higher than the vast majority of people and not getting into groups because I started raiding late is definitely not the way it should be. Now its much easier to find groups and I dont have to worry about getting bad luck with boss tokens and only getting 1 per kill.

>

> This is why raids are dying out because older players leave the game and the new players that come in cannot do raids because they dont have the KP requirements. It has nothing to do with raid difficulty, making the raids as easy as open world content actually still wont fix the KP issue. Because the less skilled players will still want a decent amount of KP from the new players because they would not want to wipe in the raid even if its easy mode.

>

> So how do we fix this problem? Easy solution, make raids HARDER, yes you heard me, making the raids harder and getting rid of KP system ( deleting boss tokens) will actually fix this issue because to complete a raid you will need skilled players instead of just experienced ones that have been raiding since day 1.

>

> Raids will see a much higher interest because now the new players that are talented but never raided before will actually be desired in groups once the mechanics get harder and you will actually need fast reaction time and knowledge of your class to not die in raids.

>

> The real problem is literally the fact that raids are too easy but the KP requirements for them is way too high. After killing dhuum 4 times I was able to do kiter/tank role better than people with 100 dhuum tokens, so why I shouldnt be able to get into a group when the content is faceroll but they ask me to kill the boss 50 times.

>

> Its funny to see all these people here crying that raids are locked behind a " barrier" and adding easy mode will fix this issue, it wont fix the problem, if anything it will be worse because this is when all the people with terrible builds and low skill level will start infesting the raids and you wont even be able to complete the easy mode.

>

> We need more good players in raids not more bad players, adding easy mode will make the problem worse. Get rid of the real barrier that is the KP system and increase raid difficulty. This is going to be the best change that raids have seen.

>

>

>

>

Your initial assessment is correct, that kp is killing raiding's community or even ability to build community but your solution isn't.

First, mechanic density was too high on the raid i did. Even wow lets you finish a raid with a bad player or two, it's too easy for one player to wipe a group and it doesn't feel like recovery from mistakes is possible. Not only that, mechanics also don't always pop out at you.

Second, gear is a bit of a chicken and egg problem. The best gear is ascended gear because of selectable stats (most support and healing builds need conc, a rare stat) getting ascended gear is a process that is unnatural to raiding: it's tedious chores farming for months on any sort of decent schedule. You'll hate the game if that's all you did. Fractals don't drop selectable stat gear frequently enough to be a sane and natural way to transition to raiding.

Third, roles aren't obvious and there's too many of them. There's nothing that actually tells you "hey you need 100% boon uptime to be useful, this is how you achieve it).

The remedies below i suggest for normal mode only.

The best remedy for mechanics would be fewer mechanics in harder raids (apparently my guild loves practicing on one of the worst ones) but make them more punishing for messing up, also allow the raid to still complete with 1-2 players dying. On this note, anet could make fulfilling a mechanic more fun. In WoW some mechanics actually feel good to do right, in salvation pass they feel like random crap thrown at you.

For gearing & roles, normal mode raids become like spvp: you can just log into a character and do any build you choose. The ui also has a role guide. This allows players to fill any role they have a character for. This allows the community to have a much larger pool of capable characters to choose from, as opposed to maybe 1 character per player, though i would argue most players don't even research very well before trying roles and fail miserably (based on underperforming members in groups i've done)

And for the love of all that is holy bring mesmer concentration requirements and rotation complexity for boon support more in line with alacrigade. This is for all levels. I just think it's ridiculous alacrigade only have to press 1 button with less concentration to maintain a boon for 10 players whereas the mesmer has to do so many things to just maintain 2 for 5 players (so functionally if you count boons per player, the roles are equal, but one is definitely way easier and has a lower gear requirement).

> @"Angel.3916" said:

I should correct myself. I find the rotations on ele easier but mesmer has better/more in demand core roles. They're just difficult to pull off. I feel like the trend is the balance team is gravitating toward necro love in pvp and general love of plate and rangers just about everywhere. My ele healer does great in fractals.

> @"Angel.3916" said:

> I been playing both elementalist and mesmer and i love mesmer a lot better.

>

> mesmers feel like real mages compared to elementalists.

>

> Elementalists have a lot of damage and defense skills but that seems to be all they have. Just damage and defenses / healing.

>

> Mesmer has stuns, ports, teleports - blinks - ranged damage, condi, utility, and some defensive skills and traits.

>

> In terms of fantasy feelings i feel mesmer are awesome mages and good at being a primary spellcaster with lots of ways to neutralize and control enemies as well as get out of sticky situations. Elementalists don't feel very good. There damage is alright and their healing is nice, but they feel a bit frustrating to play in Spvp and WvW. Elementalists have to switch elemental attunements to keep a rotation going, but their utility skills don't feel very good. (the 6-0 skills with hero points).

>

> Any ways, i think mesmer is so awesome as a caster and elementalist feels very unfun. I played an engineer and i felt like engineer has better utility skills than elementalist.

>

> Maybe i am a noob and unskilled, but i feel like mesmer is just a better caster in every category versus elementalists.

>

> Any one have any tips or advice about the strengths and weakness of the two casters.

Mesmer isn't really that effective imo. I've been playing it alot and am realizing they've pretty much lost their king of support role but haven't gotten anything in return. And the last few patches have all been just nerf nerf nerf nerf nerf nerf......

They lost their class lead design and whoever is designing now them just doesn't like them at all. I've been having more succcess as a non-mesmer in PVP even though I've been a mesmer main since ever and now I can tell, using numbers that an alacrigade can maintain alacrity 100% of the time with less concentration gear and more damage. Not to mention a FAR easier rotation to pull off to maintain it. I really can't recommend mesmer in its current state. It's fun to play sure, and if all you'll ever do is open world, then sure, have at it. Otherwise I would say do something else.

So none of the snow crows builds for quick brand use concentration gear, does this mean quickbrand can maintain 100% quickness up time on its own in the presence of 100% alacrity up time? And quickbrand can only keep that up time for 5 players, right?

I guess that sort of makes sense, You use SoI instead of mimic (at least that's snow crows). Mimic only gives you half the boon type as it repeats only one skill and it gets crazy long recharge. Okay let's use Cs and say somehow we can squeeze another well and SoI inside a cs (which by the way the chrono would have to time perfectly to get self benefit from, they would need to revert as soon as the well expires, and actually it couldn't get soi at all), you get 78 seconds on other people against the 84 you have to wait for cs, and you, yourself only get 51 seconds of that because of the way your alacrity works. So you have to build another 33 seconds or 11 shattered clones (actually more. Don't remember clone shatter duration).

I guess that may be thoeretically possible with the shield skill but requires very tight packing, very good clone management and teammates' coordination. Way more work and less damage against alacrigade (as alacrigade doesn't need as much conc). Not sure about quick brand side.

You need to generate a non trivial amount of self alacrity through shatters.

Also this is assuming 100% alac up time for the mesmer, which means that it needs more than just what it shares, because the talent that increases alac potency also reduces duration.

At steady state(without continuum split), it can't replesh well of recall, well of recall gives 5s base, with 100% boon duration that's 10s. Signet of inspiration is only 3s and only effects boons team members already have, so that's 13s of alacrity every 16 (assuming 100% alac up time). You're 3 seconds short. There's about 4 rotations against every cs, so you would have to generate another 12 in the cs window. But that's not even correct because cs has an extra 5s for every 4 casts (3 ish if you have 100% alacrity uptime). I think Chrono barely falls short at 100% bd. This is kind of disappointing because i don't think alacrigade actually even requires 100% bd for 100% up time, in addition to the rotation being no where near as complex and their radius is larger.

> @"Cyninja.2954" said:

> I care about the constant whinning present here (not only from you). The forums have devolved into nothing but a constant whine about content people were unable to clear first try.

More judgement, we wiped more than once, probably more than the group who beat dhuum in the one night we tried. Anyway, maybe you should just accept the fact that people experience things differently