Ghotistyx.6942

> @"Mikau.6920" said:

> Several suggestions that I gave got implemented, but most of them took a bit too long, one to two years. I not even sure if they based on my suggestions or had the same ideas by themselves to solve the problems.

>

> The thing is, they listen, but the solution take too long to come over.

It's going to take a long time. Just testing the change is going to be 66%-100%+ the time it takes to create the change. 3 months of development is often 1 month of testing. There goes 1/3 of your year. And then you have priority. Maybe you have to do other things first. There goes even more time. It's always longer than people think.

> @"ReaverKane.7598" said:

> > @"Irenio CalmonHuang.2048" said:

> > On-Demand tournaments and AT's will be our method of support for people who prefer to play in 5 person teams.

> That's a bit disheartening[...]The few times i actually managed to get enough people on at the same time for pvp, there was no tournament on.

> > @"Irenio CalmonHuang.2048" said:

> > On-Demand tournaments

¯\\_(ツ)_/¯

> @"Tails.9372" said:

> But would you ever going to to ask these players what the "underlying issue" for them is or would you just going to make assumptions and hope that the solution you came up with is hitting the nail on its head?

Players almost never understand the underlying issue compared to designers. Just look at all the bad feedback you see on the forums. Do you think these people can honestly give a coherent explanation to why they think their proposals will work? If even just for the fact that players don't have access to the same information that designers have.

There was a game design talk about a likely dead FPS. Players at the time were complaining about a particular rifle not dealing enough damage and being ineffective. Players were whining about upping it's damage or rate of fire. Instead of doing anything the community asked, the designers upped the volume on the rifle's SFX. The feedback that poured in was that the gun was amazing, super strong, probably one of the best guns in the game. They did such a great job fixing the weapon by bass-boosting the gunshot. Perception of balance is more important that actual balance, and perception is vulnerable to all sorts of misinformation.

> @"Tails.9372" said:

> What's the point of this? I don't see any reason why two different professions shouldn't be able to fit a similar role as long as there is a noticeable difference in regards to their gameplay.

That's what Irenio is saying. By nerfing one over-performing profession, that allows other professions to share that same space. If the dominant profession's performance is too oppressive, there's no reason to use the underperforming professions. If the difference is 1%, then their performance is basically equal. If the difference is 20%, then the outlier(s) need to be brought closer to average. Sometimes that means buffing the lower, other times it means nerfing the higher.

I've been waiting over a year and a half with 700 gems in my alt account for the Arctic Explorer outfit and I just found out it left 11 days ago.

Why is it so difficult to buy things?

A couple of things people aren't understanding:

1. _Potential_ condition damage will stay about the same, or in the case of Purging Flames, actually increases by a tiny amount. Condition classes aren't going to be gutted by these changes in PvE.

2. You still need expertise for PvE damage. Just because the base conditions last longer doesn't mean you're dealing the same damage per second unless your Expertise is also the same as before the change.

3. This will help cleansing in PvP and WvW (and even PvE). You'll have longer to decide when to use a cleanse and your cleanses will come off cooldown faster when compared to equal damage over time.

4. These changes don't need to be split between PvE and PvP. There is no appreciable change to PvE after this update.

5. Vulnerability will become more spike centric, which is honestly a better position than it currently is. Maintaining Vulnerability might become a meaningful choice rather than a nice side-effect.

6. And most importantly, **these changes need to happen and be understood before other changes can happen**. Power can't be buffed when the balance between Power and Condi is in flux.

> @"Mike Silbowitz.1827" said:

> P.S. - Only one of the quotes came from a hobo but I promise he was NOT bribed. ;-)

I have no recollection of providing a quote.

Would it not be possible/reasonable to get a snapshot of the heads of one of our characters to use as an avatar? That shouldn't necessarily create a ton of work (or any, depending how its handled) for the art team, but could drastically increase the variety of icons. The biggest roadblock would probably be the forum hosts judging by what I've heard about them.

Was this just copy/pasted from years ago?

> @"Vasdamas Anklast.1607" said:

> Moving along then.

Why don't you test it in your division big boy?


[_Insert_ Lenny]

> "trying to do a sanity check"

> vote is over 50% in favor

Survey says, you are insane.

Haven't really ever been a fan of Sword. I like the functionality of the skills. You've got Boonstrip, Immobilize+Leap, Blur... but it hasn't felt as meaty as I'd want. It always felt like a utility weapon rather than doing any sort of meaningful damage. Scepter and Staff made sense because of their conditions, and Greatsword had the right feeling and burst combos. Sword just feels like its supposed to be for sustained dps outside of its utility, but while I haven't seen the numbers recently, it just feels like it isn't worth the hassle. That being said, I don't want a lot of mechanical changes for Sword, just some more oomph.

I remember during betas hearing a lot of chatter about melee being impossible to survive in.

I'm somewhat certain numbers were balanced a few times afterward, but even then I had no problems getting used to the dodge mechanic and circle strafing to avoid most damage.

I remember similar things happening in 1st iteration Orr, but that was also compounded by everyone having blue and green armor quite a few levels below 80.

Playing Branded or Alive at the end of the betas was also pretty unique.

As someone who doesn't pvp, winning a match with a few Anet devs and a professional player as my opponents was pretty memorable. I guarantee I was carried by my teammates, though I'm pretty sure team Anet also had someone around my skill level.

Guardians deal just fine with only burning. If I remember right, people were saying it just doesn't beat out normal condi engi in pvp or pve. The most recent patch shifted the balance more towards Power for Holosmith anyway, so its powerlevel slightly less than it was before.

Find things you can still complain about -> check

Post about it on the forums -> check

> @BlaqueFyre.5678 said:

> What was the point of that? They are both Grandmaster Traits...

Visibility.

Bottom line is now focused on Fury, top line for legend swap effects.

> @Amerikajinn.4635 said:

> Edit: allow me to clarify, the points of concern is that in the patch notes it specifies that you GAIN condi damage, whereas in game it both says and functions as such that you LOSE condi damage.

No, you GRANT 40 power and 20 condition damage from your might instead of 30/30.

> Patch Notes:

> "Awaken the Pain. This trait grants 5 might for 5 seconds when entering shroud and causes might on you to _grant_ 40 power and 20 condition damage per stack at level 80."

That is why you're gaining power for the trade-off of less condition damage.

I need an option for "The class I like to play".

> @Dadnir.5038 said:

> Honnestly that wouldn't be a bad idea at all. The only issue I can see is that there might be technical difficulties to apply the extra duration buff on incoming conditions.

Shouldn't be any more difficult than the condition duration food effects, specifically the -X% ones. The proposed Epidemic would just be --X%, thereby making it positive. There's already been support for unique effects both as buffs and debuffs, so that shouldn't prevent the idea either.

I know this isn't an Epidemic thread, but...

What if Epidemic turned into a unique debuff that increased duration and spread all conditions applied during the duration? It wold become less of a burst itself and more of a prep to burst. The extra duration would serve as a condition based GotL and the spread effect maintains its core concept. I can't imagine something like this hasn't been thought of.

I like mesmer because its fairly unique concept. Not many games that have well defined classes have a mage that focuses so on subversion and psychological manipulation.

Mesmer isn't my main. I'd probably say Guardian here, and Ranger in GW1, but I dabble in everything. 27 characters, 3 of each profession, supports the claim.

I'd go two routes.

1. Greatsword with Forceful Greatsword and Might Makes Right traits allows you to Dodge a ton, adding to your effective rof through its attack and hitting 5 targets. Greatsword naturally hits a lot of targets, so just hit everything you can to build might. You'll be pretty survivable from the constant rolling and healing you generate. It also only requires 1 traitline to be effective so you can get into it early.

2. Sword or Axe with Arms and Axe offhand. Both sword and axe attack quickly which is important in tagging mobs. You'll want to combine those weapons with the Dual Wielding trait to further increase attack speed without boons. Run around mob spawns to try and hit a variety of mobs to increase your loot contribution. Axe offhand is ideal because of Dual Strike which grants Quickness and Whirling Axe which can tag a lot of things very quickly.

The majority of mob xp will come from the wave doors due to the sheer number of mobs that spawn. Veterans won't die quickly enough that you'll miss out on contributing and you'll be getting event xp from all the doors anyway. Do what you can to tag the non-event mobs out in the open, but they won't be a majority of your xp so don't sweat it. Keep a ranged weapon on hand for situations where your lab wants to kill bosses. You're very squishy while leveling, so you'll want to stay out of all boss melee ranges.

The effects of the final charge _plus the two charges before it_ are what are factored into the recharge time. Add up the effects of all charges and then compare that to the skill's recharge, and you'll find it's quite appropriate. The initial cast time is the combined cast time of all three charges, plus an additional bit that allows them to be instant cast and have charges. That's the value you're getting from that initial cast time. You pay the risk and time of casting before you use the skill so that the skill itself cannot be interrupted and has more flexibility than if it were a "normal" skill.

The zoning thing is definitely an annoyance, but I don't doubt its a technical issue, possibly with some balance implications that people wouldn't often think about. But as far as how the skill type works in game, its designed and working as it should. Usually, you get improved (or at least equal) performance if you blow straight through all your charges, so its really up to what you want out of the mantra depending on the situation. If you're traited for quickness uptime, then you will want to blow through Mantra of Potence, but not Solace, as that will give you the best uptime from those skills.

Virtues of Resolve and Courage also have traits within Virtues that discourage activating those virtues. Virtue of Courage has its recharge trait in Valor just like Justice has its in Radiance. Purity of Body is in Honor. Good design dictates that you have to use multiple trait lines to get everything you'd want. That's what makes builds effective. You're taking advantage of synergies within the profession to represent your desired result. So no, Virtues is not about pressing your function keys. If you want to activate Virtue of Justice, take the traits that support activating Virtue of Justice.