Sarrs.4831

Warhorn, honking the horn at a group of players is pretty good. Locust Swarm can be really good for LF generation.

I *think* there is a single Orrian Pearl node which can multistrike, which is the one in the northeast of the map.

At a glance, the data implying that bonus strike chance is heavily weighted towards the first bonus strike on a plant node appears to be correct. I am getting very very few 4x strikes when I should probably be getting many, many more.

Good writeup, but a few things need amending.

> @"Drarnor Kunoram.5180" said:

>Rich veins have a whopping 97.2% chance of one extra strike, but, again, 33% for any after that.

Rich veins can never give a bonus strike.

>It also does not work on synthesizers, like those found in WvW and in Guild halls.

It does work on WvW synthesizers. This includes the leather and cloth nodes.

> @"Drarnor Kunoram.5180" said:

> These tests, plus a number of unrecorded observations, suggests that there is a hard cap of 3 extra harvests and no more.

I've flax farmed for what feels like over a year and I've used Item Boosters. You will never get more than 3 bonus strikes on a node - barring some exceptions in the opposite direction; Orrian Pearls will never give bonus strikes. The last node in a group of nodes, including the various Flax farms, will never give bonus strikes - and will deactivate any bonus strikes you have left on other nodes.

Now that I've started using Glyph of Bounty as well I've also seen similar results to your test; harvesting on 59 characters daily since the release of the Glyph of Bounty, my anecdotal experience is that the first strike has an insanely high rate of enabling a second strike. My overall yields, though, imply that the +66% chance (or its 'real' +138% yield) is correct.

> @"Ardenwolfe.8590" said:

>But with an Unbound skin, I would get the four hits, yet only have to hit 'F' once.

The Unbound Harvesting Tool only hits *three* times. If you get three procs, and thus four harvests, you'll need to press it a second time.

If you feel especially like minmaxing, you can switch to another sickle with a different glyph for the last strike, as the fourth harvest can never give you a bonus swing.

Does score even do anything? Score for the current skirmish decides your pips which is nice.

Maybe do something when they do the big server rejiggering.

> @"Gaile Gray.6029" said:

> So sorry, we were going to post tomorrow, as it went live, then thought it would be nice to settle any questions early.

>

> I've edited to make it clear the event begins **tomorrow**. (Now I will ask my friends in the Loc Department to help me with German, French, and Spanish. :) )

Tomorrow as in at reset? I want to make sure I don't waste my Flax nodes by doing them immediately after :)

Well there's the event weekend that's coming up, that'll help out. Hopefully they'll make it happen more regularly.

As a ranger, druid, daredevil, maybe deadeye, etc. your job is not to be in the zerg. Saying "I want to be in the zerg" is like rolling a Goalkeeper in Soccer and saying "I want to kick goals". Not your job.

Sure, if it's

A. Not Envoy armor; preferably a unique set of skins

B. *More* expensive than other legendary armors, because casual PvE like Istan is the best way to farm gold anyway

C. Implemented after WvW and sPvP get unique skins for their legendary armors

I don't know if it's a good idea though because once you have legendary armor you have little reason to pay to acquire the materials needed for legendaries and ascended gear. If new skins are regularly added in Ascended-only forms which require Ascended materials, maybe.

You'd have to say goodbye to Ele ever seeing a new MH/2H weapon in an ES.

I'd rather they just give Engi a few weapons so that they can get offhand weapons in elite specs.

Strongly disagree. Ascended crafting is the backbone of the economy. T1 through T4 mats would be vendored if not for Ascended gear.

Mace/Shield Guardian is basically a healer. You can comfortably take everything you need by grabbing Honor, Invigorated Bulwark, Pure of Heart and Writ of Persistence, giving yourself a strong sustain/healing support toolkit in a well-contained package. The Symbol buff is useful for all weapons other than Greatbow and Staff so you have plenty of versatility with your offset.

Mace/Shield Warrior is kinda garbage for anything other than breaking bars, but even then, Mace/Mace would be better. Give it a miss.

Mace/Shield Herald might be useful for WvW roaming but is not likely to be especially useful in large group play as you'll probably want to be using a Hammer most of the time there. I don't think you're likely to be competitive in high end Fractals or Raids, but in more casual content your boon support will be appreciated.

Overall I'd say it depends on what you plan to do. If you want to focus heavily on healing and tankiness in group play, play Guardian/Firebrand. If you want to be more offensive while also providing boon support to your friends, or more solo oriented, play Herald. Warrior is a waste of time for just about everything; maybe it'd be okay for Zealots in Vabbi but that's about it.

Weren't they different primers all along, and the crafted primers lasted for 2 hours while the gemstore primers last for 12?

> @"belognom.3685" said:

> So by your determination t2 and t3s of fractals are wasted resources?

They're not quite the same, fractals are explicitly structured around the fractal level and instabilities, and the different tiers of fractals tie into those mechanics.

Even then I'd probably say that FotM has one bracket too many, and T2 and T3 could comfortably be compressed into one bracket.

> @"STIHL.2489" said:

> This folks is why "Challenging" content is a myth, at some point it will become routine, lose all it's challenge and be nothing but a mindless easy grind.

Then why do you need easy mode? Once you put forth the effort, it's become easy mode.

Hi Ben!

RE WvW Enrichments; have you thought about having XP gains affect WXP gains, so we could use a +XP enrichment to get ranks faster?

Also, having the +XP account bonus affect WXP maybe?

An axe/focus/wells reaper might be usable I think but I don't think they would be fantastically good. Axe 2 actually does pretty substantial damage and can strike enemies through projectile destruction fields; focus 5 will do the same. Could even take NCSY to make your axe swipes unblockable.

That said it's a very specialized/niche job you'll be doing when you could be playing Scourge and corrupting boons left and right.

It's almost always going to be because they had a bad or underwhelming experience when they first played it. It's kinda difficult to get your teeth into as a newer player when there are super-refined solo roamer builds in solo roaming that you have to try to fight, or when VC is half the fun of large group play.

Tighter integration with Discord might actually be a decent way to get more people in on what makes WvW fun.

I said it in one of the other threads but personally I really like the idea of Foot in the Grave reducing Shroud CD by 30%. It's not a popular trait at the moment and I think it would make for an interesting contrast; the CD reduction is mostly a boon for defensive purposes (unless you're Scourge), and you can have your pick of Power-based Shroud trait, Condi-based Shroud trait or defensive Shroud trait.

58.

> @"TheWolf.1602" said:

> do people who have more than 9 chars do personal story and map completion on each and every character?

Nope. Since they changed black lion chests to include statuettes I would like to, but I haven't the time lately.

Very happy with the Mastery system as it is. It's gotten much more generous with points since HoT and that was probably my only complaint.

The one thing I'd like to see would be repeatable masteries to give you things like +karma%.

A minor aside;

I am curious why there is little fuss made over Aurora, the new legendary ring and the first four Gen 2 legendaries, while there is so much fuss made about the legendary armor. All three of these ask you to complete specific forms of content, some of which can be extremely frustrating - arguably more frustrating than raids (looking at you Ember Bay Mastery).

Why not just buy them with Testimonies?

> @"Drarnor Kunoram.5180" said:

> EDIT: Foot in the Grave is still using the original cooldown. Equip Foot in the Grave, cooldown drops to 20 (16 with Vital Persistence).

Might just be me but I'm kinda hoping this turns from a bug into a feature.

i love it tbh

add a chess armor set too please

maybe the light armor classes can be a bishop

and the heavies can be rooks

and the mediums can be horsies

and then t2 is a mix of that with king/queen bits

I play WvW hybrid reaper and Scourge nerfs/Plague Signet nerf are probably enough to tip the balance in my favor, they'll be able to send back far fewer conditions.

The Well of Blood change makes Blood/Spite Power Reaper somewhat enticing as the raw healing output of Well of Blood is nothing to be sniffed at. Well of Suffering is not worth considering though I don't believe.

Broad buffs to three signets might make a Signet Reaper or Signet Core bunker more interesting. The idea of Vampiric Signet and Signet of Undeath with Signets of Suffering keeping them active while in Death Shroud, while Unholy Sanctuary provides ticking healing, tickles me.