Grand Marshal.4098

Along with the outfit and the rest of the pieces it's fucking eye candy. Props to the design dept. They know how to make us spend some money. :p

Wow, so if you could maintain high stab uptime you were basically immune to any cc? I'd imagine the counterplay was that the cd on stab skills was longer and the stab applied for less time?

In any case hammer guard rn captured my interest. I've only seen 1 hammer guard in PvE lol. And I guess core rev never got to shine since it appeared along with herald right?

Not sure if I expceted very different cases tbh. I suppose it has to do with how currently zerg fights are way more intense? Low risk high reward? There is a reason the old meta is not practical anymore, but as I see it it's nearly beyond useless. It may be good to get some fresh air in the metas, but I don't know if balancing could have saved many of those interesting builds.

Like Power Warrior with Banners frontline? XD

Sounds very weird. It happened though (the range and contribution of the classes is what intrigues me the most).

Very interesting. Thank you for the responses. Browsing around, I stumbled uppon frontline healer druid. How helpful was it? Did at any point, ranger, become a class that was needed in zergs? And before scrapper, I guess engineers didn't do much? Or did they utilize as much of a potent cleansing capability?

Interesting to think that core necros would be in zergs tbh. Life force means no shades, so taht must have played out interestingly with no barrier/aoe coverage.

Hey, I am a post-PoF era player, so I do not know what the meta was before all the expansions. If anything I'd love to know (if you were around) what zerg builds existed before PoF and before HoT! I am very interested in those, as I am looking for creative ways of playing now and those old builds always help! I'm more interested in zerg builds that got switched for the likes of Firebrand, Spellbreaker, Scourge etc.

> @"Dawdler.8521" said:

> > @"phreeak.1023" said:

> > > @"lovemghool.7613" said:

> > > In every relink cycle there will be a server that gets bandwagoned

> > >

> > > we can just say that at this point it is just the intended design by Anet

> >

> > it seems ppl bandwagoned to 2-3 servers now. RoS and Underworld went to very high with a full link server and Dzago went from high to full (heared people from WSR went there)

> >

> > but who cares. Those 3 links can ppt they kitten off in T1. T1 is dead anyway. But it seems the french dont want to play the PPT slave for WSR.

> As expected. Servers rise and fall like the contents of lavalamps. I am quite surprised more people havent moved from RoF, guess FSP need to loose a matchup or two before the ship starts sinking.

>

FSP def dropping T2, and if i'm being honest, it's the best thing it could happen to the server. T1 is a mess. Let people leech from Riverside and Piken at 4am lol.

It's not like we get rewards for being in those tiers....

> @"Dawdler.8521" said:

> > @"Grand Marshal.4098" said:

> >Especially with those god awful skills, looking at you birdman and hammer kitten.

> Would you like to have them replaced with a much tougher, much faster keep lord version of Grella?

Nah all lords suck. Standard keep and tower lords will suffice. Still require effort to be killed, but without being so troubling. i'n not talking about making this easy or anything, but you don't pay and don't want to pay attention to lords when you fight zergs. You capture objectives guarded by players not NPC bosses. Raids have a spot for those.

It's meh, I wouldn't care if it was removed. But it is a change of environment compared to the stale, dead, boring alpine BL with the depressing (as someone said in the forums) Soule music from 10 years ago. I at least dig the soundtracks used as ambience in the desert bl. But the lords need a nerf. they serve no purpose being unique. We are there to cap the thing, not stare at it. the structures already look different, no need for the lords to be so different either. Especially with those god awful skills, looking at you birdman and hammer bitch.

I like your warrior ideas. My only issue at theory-crafting especs for warriors is how the skills need to be actively used in combat. Preparations are kinda aginst warriors for that reason even if they thematically suit it. So spectral-like skills, with an immediate buff on the warrior (one focusing on a superior duelist, instead of a dmg dealer like Berserker) would probably work the best imo. I had developed the idea of a **Demonslayer** spec, but had trouble with the adrenaline functions and you gave a good idea with your use of adrenaline!

I also highly advocate for combos as you said for staff!

Be sure to create a tab in your chat which receives and sends messages to /map and /team chats. Map chats will allow you to contact with anyone in the map and scout your finds, with team chat being the same but on a 4 map scale. You will never miss the fun. Especially if yyour servers already use these chats to announce open commander tags etc.

But you may have already know that...It is the safest bet however. Also click on the cog of your chat panel and press the 'Show Channel Tag" feature, which will show you from which map (BBL=Blue, GBL=Green, RBL=Red, EBG=Main) each player in team chat sends the messages from, without needing clarification.

Imagine Thieves getting Mace in the Expac lol

Some weapon that could knock-out cold your enemy in silence. Would be interesting to see how thief mains would react to such a choice.

> @"Yasai.3549" said:

> Roamer Perspective :

> Build options to roam effectively just too suffocating.

>

> Meta Power builds aim to do as much damage as possible as fast as possible, and rely on the build's innate sustain and durability to survive.

> Meta Condi builds aim to survive as long as possible, keep slapping them Condis on until the target dies.

>

> Anything else has to rely heavily on the player's skill and ability to fight.

>

> Dumb cheese "Summons" builds which should have never worked in the past is starting to become dominant and a roaming norm.

> - Thieves running Thieves Guild onto everything, and actually winning fights.

> - MM Scourges just flooding in with a whole load of Minions.

> - Core Eles with double Elementals.

> - Scrapper with Supply Drop and Turret spam + Flamethrower.

>

> ^ These builds disgust me the most, because they are so easy to play, and rely on just dropping a ton of bodies + automated damage to win, but when they face any of actually meta faceroll builds, they just crumble and die.

>

> But somehow these are effective enough to beat anything which isn't meta built, and usually with extreme ease.

>

> Gonna avoid talking about thieves, their dumb ini mechanic and stealth is another sort of discussion, but D/P Thieves, Grieving Deadeyes, Power Deadeyes, Thieves roaming in groups and just bullying people all contribute to a slowly suffocating roaming experience.

>

>

>

The MM trend also follows on Reaper and can be as frustrating tbh.

Also you gotta account for the smallscale Condi Heralds being the bane of melee classes. Although a bit more skilled is required to play this, it's still 'spammy'.

And I would also put Core Necro tanks on the list. Click 3 skills enter shroud to never leave it again and spam 1. You may go Lich Form and spam 1 tho.

Anything else I would say is viable and has counters. But given that everyone and their mother go for easy kills and form this 'meta' the stupid you who wants to play a creative all-rounder build, needs to tryhard and have a skill level of 1000 to battle any enemy, having no fun in the process.

I was surprised to have an extremely fun solo fight with a Grenade Holo in my core warrior which made me realize how stale WvW currently is for roamers even more...

You talking about the currently useless upper defense traitline in warriors? The 2 traits that could create a somewhat sustainable Berserker (although this accounts for WvW mostly).

Well, I guess we gotta wait until EoD for a big balance patch. All patches rn evolve around cd increase, power coefficient decrease. Which is truly half the work imo. reworked traits like new applications, or better utilization of what's available is also needed. And of course saying something very obvious in the forums won't draw ANET's attention.

It is frustrating, but let us not accuse of individuals who work hard. Choice of staff (if they can't do their job) and the company's lack of connection to the playerbase are to be addressed. And they have been many times already...

Well the issue with all this is that DSD is a total mystery so we may not know what applies to him. Supposedly, he should be Kralkatorrik's oppossite, since Jormag has Primordus and Zhaitan had Mordremoth. But we were never led to believe that it was the case. So what if the DSD functions different than his brethren? All kinds of things could apply to him despite being an Elder Dragon.

The possibilities are endless. The storyboard team can find any excuses to get us where they want. Which is very exciting, but we just have to hope they don't contradict already established facts.

> @"Psientist.6437" said:

> I like the way Echovald forest looks. The bubbles are...well, they exist. Could the bubbles in or coming from the Jade Sea? They look like bubbles underwater or in a thick medium, they aren't round. There could be some kind of substance filling the atmosphere. The prismatic effect may just be a way to make the bubbles stand out though. The new person has a royal bearing and is densely surrounded by whatever medium the bubbles are in. Perhaps there is some connection between Canthan royalty and the DSD.

Combining this with what @"Tseison.4659" said, maybe it is possible that the royalty of the Empire of the Dragon are also the champions or lieutenants to said dragon. Now it doesnt have to be an Elder Dragon, because Glint, Aurene and Vlast already had ties with some form of champion, or tried to connect to one, without the need to reach ED status. So maybe Kuunavang?

But if the Empire is evil, would Kuunavang help them? Perhaps it's time for a change in the hierarchy. LEt's overthrow an empire and put our own guys in charge!! xD

For open world huh. i'm not very familiar with open world meta builds, but Renegade Roamers in wvw can feel a bit squishy (Kalla x Shiro), so as a player with not hundreds of hours in Rev, I'd say it's a nice combo for open world. Only place I can see you having issues is Drizzlewood where you can't rly solo much.

I have also seen renegades not running kalla at all and going from classic revenant legend combos like Mallyx x Jalis or Jalis x Shiro. But I suppose if you want Kalla you should go with Jalis.

As for Mallyx, I used to run a self-destructive build in core. Devastation, Invocation, Corruption (all the dmg related traits) with mace x sword and sword x axe. Very crappy build, you resort to evades and teleports to survive while landing some crazy condi numbers with Mallyx, but super fun to play nonetheless.

What if, these aetherblades we see, are actually Mai's crew returning from the Mists since LS1? She left for EotM upon Scarlet's orders. And Kralkatorrik formed rifts in the multiverse back in LS4.

So after the fight in Dragonfall, what if Mai discovers those rifts and regroups with the aetherblades to go to Cantha and maybe 'utilize' the DSD's powers. Cause that's what Scarlet had in mind after awakening Mordremoth and in case she failed...

On top of that, didn't an NPC in Lion's Arch talk about Mai being sister to Marjory? And that would make her a Canthan too. Perhaps the story gets some good development with what we already have. :o

P.S. I would like to see Marjory facing the truth of an 'evil sister' in her homeland, especially after losing Belinda. It feels like it will be impactful. I like Marjory in general.

:)

EoD releases. New Especs. You wanted more fun? Prepare to see the death of subpar (as of now and probably for the next months) builds!

I try to not get into balance talks much, but damn am I waiting for EoD like crazy. I want to see what happens. Like people realize that it was bad with each Expac, but now? With pretty much 27 ways of playing? How will the new stuff be incorporated?

I may be getting ahead of myself, but seeing how little content overall ANET will be producing until EoD, I doubt another patch will come out until then. So let's be patient I guess.

> @"Hypnowulf.7403" said:

> Hm. The art fits in with a new direction that I've had an inklling that ArenaNet is taking for a little while, now. One that's at once more compatible with an Asian audience, but also a younger Western audience as well. The audience they've courted up until now with the stories the old narrative team were telling had lead to a lot of stagnation. The shift really began with LWS4 and it's been on course ever since then.

>

> It's a very different direction than the original, vanilla game intended and even Heart of Thorns. There were hints of it in Path of Fire but that was still—I feel—a transitionary period. It's a good move, I feel, since in the current climate it's more desirable to have a setting and story that's less edgy, dark, and focused on horrors and suffering. I feel that people have had to face how problematic our own world is lately, so a more positive bent on storytelling would be perhaps a little more welcomed.

>

> It's a hunch, but it's definitely the feeling I get. They've been a little bit experimental on their way there but... I do think that's the destination. I trust them with it.

To be deadly honest, I enjoyed the story most when the stakes were high. Heart of Thorns could have been even more 'dark'. Aurene always struck me as a character who I shouldn't really care about. Ever since Path of Fire did the "coming back from death" bs it felt a bit meh. The stakes were gone. And Aurene became a bit too good for her abilities. Why couldn't Glint with Destiny's Edge do what Aurene achieved with a pact commander? These connections can be explained by magic and, I find it boring, not to mention lazy.

And after us, ofc Aurene has to return to life. I don't see the point in making her a thing, when Vlast canonically existed before her, serving the same purpose and possessing (probably) more power than her at the time.

The situation should have been very bad already with Zhaitan, Kralk and Mordremoth dead....but we got Aurene the vaccuum cleaner and Primordus' bring the all mighty, unflinvhing dragon (when Mordremoth and Kralk visibly had issues by absorbing energy not their own). They go into trouble explaining how the imbalance will destroy the world and while libving during a period of imbalance nothing happens...

The story is far from compelling and the last thing I want to see is a totally happy ending for kids. They should stick to the reality of the world they created and kill off major characters. Cause guess what, a single person doesn't matter in the universe. We shall see.

I believe that Cantha will be far far more 'positive' tho. You can see that HoT was a dire situation, PoF was also but more of a journey and an adventure, EoD looks like a total adventure.

> @"ugrakarma.9416" said:

> Toypocalipse is addictive if u like this mode.

If only they scaled up such an event to an year-round mode like OP said. With a large area to defend with a squad or party, depending on the difficulty, the ability to set siege, barricades and recruit mercs/npcs to halt the enemy. Now should it be endless and award every wave with increasing difficultry (at which point say wave 100 only spawns champions and cannot be beaten) or should it follow toypocalipse and have a set numebr of waves?

> @"Woltarion.6829" said:

> The pvp community is depleted, perhaps you can see that the top 250 has a much bigger standart deviation as before. Moreover there is Wintersday right now, so people are doing more pve content right now.

Ironically, isnt much of the wintersday content regarded as part of the PvP mode? Ik it's different but I just had to say it. ;)

I'd love to get an offensive spec with Off-hand sword. You may say that Dragohunter already covers that, but the Longbow feels slow and the traps are basically 'preparations' (no pun inteded) when in combat. Maybe stances on Guardian? Maybe exceed skills?

I like the idea of an Inquisitor-guardian with pistols, but it's an issue with Cantha, unless if this somehow ties into with the Ministry of Purity going on "witch-hunts".

Time will tell. In general for all 3 heavy specs, I want magic-inclined duelists with great offensive capabilities and mobility. A demonslayer warrior, an inqusitor guardian and an evil legend for rev.

So ofc sword off-hand would work with this idea for Guardian.

I lost my shit when I got the free key and chest from the Trade Post the previous day and got the Vermillion Greatsword skin lol. My only rare drop in 2 years playing btw.

So yeah it's like gambling-bad.

only 1 char has full asc, the rest have exotic with asc trinkets, used for roaming or zerging builds in wvw. I assume this still counts as fully geared. Equipment that can support a build fully at lvl 80.

Damn...I get 4,5k ping spikes every minute (ik my issue is my crappy connection but i couldn't resist to share lol).