Infusion.7149

> @"Dadnir.5038" said: > @"Infusion.7149" > The way you're looking at "tradeoff" in term of damage output is wrong from the start (For example, I could say druid is on the losing side of the tradeoff just because it's dps is low, yet it's not a tradeoff). "Performance" isn't a trade off, there is pro and cons to all traitlines. The difference to core mechanisms is where lie the tradeoffs, and for some e-spec there is clearly a net gain of mechanism from their e-spec (for example tempest getting overload for "free", going with the excuse that "core ele just need a F5 is just denying that tempest and weaver simply got "more" out of the trade). We'll have to disagree then. With druid you're trading off likely offensive capabilities and pet damage for a defensive aspect (Celestial Avatar and all druid has to offer). If lightning orb wasn't as strong, the only reason you'd run tempest is for overload air and more auras to share (so most likely support tempest). What else does tempest really offer besides might generation off overload fire? Overload water isn't going to be used much of the time, overload earth typically is reserved for condi builds. If you were around here when HoT was launched , Tempest was widely ridiculed as the elite spec with no major improvement (when at the same time you had a newly introduced fully un-nerfed Herald + Chono + Druid + Berserker + Reaper + Daredevil). The sustain of water weaver (which has since been nerfed) reminds me much of core cele ele with dagger+dagger, so ultimately it's powercreep when you account for the innate attribute bonuses. The real tradeoff is when you swap attunements you might need to swap twice actually to get the skill you need depending on if it's a mainhand skill.

> @"Lan Deathrider.5910" said: > Range weapons that need buffing irrespective of game mode: > Warrior Longbow and Rifle > Guardian Scepter AA > Engi Pistol > Necro Staff (Needs a better AA and for Marks to have a flip over to detonate them or have ammo charges) > I respectfully disagree on the "irrespective of game mode" comment. Warrior longbow has issues only in competitive mode, it's used on condi Berserker in PVE to great extents. Sure the tracking has problems but so do most ranged weapons (a nonissue if you're staying in near melee range for boon uptime). Warrior rifle was buffed previously but similar to Engineer rifle the damage just isn't there (due to the skills other than burst + Volley) unless you swap weapons. Lots of Gunflame meme builds though. Guardian scepter AA damage was nerfed before in PVE , I don't foresee that changing unless you mean the projectile tracking which other ranged weapons also contend with. For both power and condi builds the high amount of hits on the Symbol of Punishment make the bulk of the damage. Engi pistol is a trainwreck in general but engineers have kits to offset that ; it has high splash damage cleave as it hits 5 targets. Ultimately the improvement would have to be on Static Shot probably along with a reduction in cooldown on Poison Dart Volley. The caveat here is the high damage benchmark of condi holo is predicated on grenades, bomb kit, and photon forge: pistol autoattacks basically don't factor in at all. Necro staff is meta in WVW but could use some bleeding on auto with traits or something. I guess it's because it's mostly a life force weapon that it hasn't been changed ; it has a mark on 4s cooldown so it isn't as bad as people make it out to be when the emphasis is obviously not DPS. **Other ranged weapons** Ranger shortbow is highlighted as a condi weapon that is used in lazy version condi soulbeast (single shortbow soulbeast) for the less tryhard people. Ranger longbow is almost exclusively used in PVE for Barrage and to a lesser extent Rapid Fire. Without the synergy of One wolf Pack and on-hit traits it is much weaker. Guardian staff is used almost exclusively for its support aspects unless it's a weapon swap to proc burning off symbols. Dragonhunter longbow is only usable in PVE where DPS is not the primary goal ; in competitive modes because Deflecting shot counts as CC it does no damage. Deadeye rifle is typically used on roaming deadeyes and for the power rifle deadeye PVE build when cleave isn't required. Before the shortbow nerf in PVP/WVW , thieves pretty much all carried shortbow for the mobility. With the nerf it still does okay cleave (although damage vs targets that aren't poisoned is poor) and area damage but the mobility aspect is largely gutted. It used to be that elementalist staff was meta in PVE , not just WVW. It's currently sometimes used as backline support weapon because of water attunement autos, but generally it isn't as potent as before due to Lava Font nerfs on top of Meteor Shower nerfs. Elementalist scepter is used on fresh air tempest for PVE purposes , but there is a delay on most of the skills which is why dagger is typical for competitive mode tempests that aren't running some sort of well timed scepter spike. Necromancer scepter doesn't need help I think , unless the Curses' Lingering Curse trait is going to be innate and split +25% traited / +25% added to the weapon itself instead of a flat +50% duration bonus. Axe has lower damage than Greatsword on Reaper but the boon rip on 12 cooldown is far more potent in that sense and there is vulnerability generation. Ghastly claws also happens to be part of the Reaper damage rotation. Mesmer greatsword was sort of a meme before but it hasn't suffered as large a damage nerf in competitive modes and isn't projectile for the auto. In PVE it has become a part of the clone generation for power chronos running StM (Seize the Moment) because the recharge time on Mirror Blade was massively reduced. Mind Stab still does very little given it is a soft CC but that's minor in the grand scheme of things. Mesmer staff was originally a support weapon more or less but the fact that mirages used it for the burst on ambush has resulted in some nerfs. Because the only real active damage is on Phantasmal Warlock which is underwhelming power damage you can't run it as mainly condi , you need power stats in some fashion. Mesmer scepter doesn't need massive help , it's even part of the condi boon chrono as well as condi chrono. It provides clone generation and has a hefty dose of power damage and confusion for active skills. The issue in competitive modes has more to do with condi burst ability (which is mostly down to pistol which is projectile) than this weapon. Revenant hammer is used in WVW for the ranged power damage. It has been nerfed many times as a result. The major drawback as far as PVE is the slow attack rate, which means overall damage is low even though the active skills can do high damage on par or better than melee weapons. Renegade shortbow is used in both PVE and competitive modes. It needs no further help and may even be overperforming in some cases.

> @"Veprovina.4876" said: > > @"Infusion.7149" said: > > Well that's not really the fastest CPU in terms of IPC right now, the Ryzen 7nm+ 5800X / 5900X / 5950X are. (see https://www.techspot.com/article/2143-ryzen-5000-ipc-performance/ ) > > > > Are you implying we need a 1500€ processor that was released less than a year ago to run an 8 year old game properly? :tongue: > That's not in the system requirements. Not even in recommended ones. :wink: Define "properly". If you have some sort of adaptive sync anything within range of the monitor refresh rate is fine by definition. 30FPS is "console quality". The recommended and minimum specs don't expect you to turn everything to maximum and get super FPS in a highly populated zone, they are likely based off living story and single player or sparse player zones. The entire 5000 series Ryzens (zen3 / 7nm+ or whatever you want to call it) have the same IPC. If you want the best performance then that is what you should be getting regardless of it is a $300 or less 6 core or a $800 16 core. Turning _all the settings up_ just means your CPU works harder. The shadows and reflections are CPU bound because they were developed before path tracing / ray tracing on GPUs. That won't change even if it is ported to DX12/Vulkan because everything shadows/reflections related would need to be made calculated on GPU which means a complete overhaul and a massive undertaking.

This isn't a bug. It's been that way since its inception.

Well that's not really the fastest CPU in terms of IPC right now, the Ryzen 7nm+ 5800X / 5900X / 5950X are. (see https://www.techspot.com/article/2143-ryzen-5000-ipc-performance/ ) There's something called Amdahl's law so even in a perfect scenario unless _most_ of the code is parallelized (we're talking over 90%) it will be losing per core efficiency past 6 cores. (see https://www.techspot.com/article/998-cpu-performance-amdahls-law/ or the wikipedia article) Even in practice there's severe diminishing returns as seen in this recent study on WoW's DX12 implementation: https://rk.edu.pl/en/analyzing-world-warcraft-multi-core-scaling/ > As you can see the game FPS decreases nearly linearly with decreasing CPU clock frequency with some gains to Dazar'alor. Those charts show that the game is still managed by the main thread working on one core and only in some edge case scenarios when there is more GPU work than other logic it can scale bit better. Single core frequency and efficiency (IPC) are the king while stronger GPU comes into play only if you want better looks after you provided the CPU power to achieve good FPS. For a less MMO-type game, we have statements such as the following from Ubisoft: https://www.ubisoft.com/en-us/game/rainbow-six/siege/news-updates/6VFn74oMO2nVQGZxvFhBb5/vulkan-api-testing-on-live-pc > WHAT IT DOES: Dynamic Texture Indexing helps us **reduce CPU overhead** by issuing fewer draw calls (a call to the graphics API to draw an object that will appear on screen). This is accomplished by having the GPU dynamically select the texture used in the shader, instead of binding it by using the CPU. The result is less pressure on the driver, and the **freed CPU cycles can then translate into better CPU performance overall**. > WHAT IT DOES: AsyncCompute is a hardware capability that allows us to execute tasks in parallel on the GPU, thus providing more tools and opportunities for better and improved optimization. Since the launch of Siege on consoles, we have been able to utilize AsyncCompute for console players to optimize graphics techniques such as Ambient Occlusion or ScreenSpace Reflection. Graphics Cards previously supported AsyncCompute, however the DX11 API did not allow us to utilize it. With Vulkan it is now possible to do so. > EXPECTED RESULT: With Vulkan and dynamic texture indexing, players who are CPU-bound should see better and more consistent frame rates. What about a CPU bound game like from Stardock? https://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/BradWardell/20191007/351772/Living_with_Vulkan_and_DirectX_12.php > In the most oversimplified sense, the biggest difference between the two new graphics stacks and DirectX 11 are that both Vulkan and DirectX 12 **support multiple threads to send commands to the GPU simultaneously**. GPU multitasking. Hooray. i.e. ID3D12CommandQueue::ExecuteCommandLists (send a bunch of commands and they get handled asynchronously). > In DirectX 11, calls to the GPU are handled synchronously. You could end up with a lot of waiting after calling Present(). Don't get me wrong, DX11 is still way better than DirectX 9. **In DX9, the main thread had to call the GPU**. > _The real world of game development_ > Which brings us back to the question: Why didn't Stardock's new games stick with DirectX 11? And the answer is: The performance gain you get from Vulkan or DirectX 12 comes down to the type of game it is. > > Case in point: Stardock has DirectX 12 and Vulkan versions of Star Control: Origins. **The performance gain is about 20% over DirectX 11**. The gain is relatively low because, well, it's Star Control. It's not a graphics intensive game (except for certain particle effects on planets which don't benefit much from the new stacks). So **we have to weigh the cost of doubling or tripling our QA compatibility budget with a fairly nominal performance gain**. And even now, we run into driver bugs on DirectX 12 and Vulkan that result in crashes or other problems that we just don't have the budget to investigate. In the past there was the introduction of the 64 bit client which if I remember correctly is the only drastically major GW2 upgrade client-side that we know of. That update (which was not the official client , it was labeled beta for the longest time) resulted in fewer crashes due to 4GB VRAM + RAM limits. So there are changes that would benefit all, not just the people with the latest hardware. Due to the fact that both D912pxy and DXVK both have FPS drops, I would hazard a guess it's down to the parallelization of the code that relies on _networking_ and also _client-side_ sequential calculations of anything from damage , conditions, range, LoS , etc (everything not visual). The "servers" are actually Amazon AWS elastic compute instances , EC2 presumably with the auto scaling functionality. You can test your connection to AWS servers via sites such as https://cloudharmony.com/speedtest-for-aws and check reachability via Amazon directly https://ec2-reachability.amazonaws.com/ ---- See also statement from the Lead Engine Programmer for GW2 5 years ago https://old.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/3ajnso/bad_optimalization_in_gw2/csdnn3n/ > GW2 does a lot of processing, and much of it is done on the main thread. That is also where its bottleneck tends to be: The main thread. There are conscious efforts in moving things off the main thread and onto other threads (every now and then a patch goes out that does just this), but due to how multi-threading works it's a non-trivial thing that take a lot of effort to do. In a perfect world, we could say "Hey main thread, give the other threads some stuff to do if you're too busy", but sadly this is not that world. > > As for DX9 and 32bit: Moving off of DX9 wouldn't buy us a whole lot performance wise, as all interaction with DirectX is happening on the render thread, which is generally not the bottleneck. Moving from 32-bit to 64-bit also does not really buy us a lot performance-wise. There are some optimizations the compiler is able to do with 64-bit that it can't do otherwise, but the actual FPS gain is minimal at best. > > And about crashing on Tequatl: Here's one case where a 64-bit client could actually help. Many of the crashes happening on Tequatl (which are still quite few, mind you) are cause of memory fragmentation. The bigger memory address space of 64-bit apps could help prevent that. This becomes more of a problem the longer you keep your client running.

> @"DKRathalos.9625" said: > What about WvW build for Holosmith? If there is zerg build power based I would like to know :) Usually it's scrapper for large-scale (even DPS scrapper brings superspeed). Holosmith works in large scale but it isn't a "necessity" or "requested" class. You can try running the grenade holo in small scale but I would recommend a mortar kit instead of Elixir X , cleansing sigil (which is far stronger in WVW than PVP) : https://www.godsofpvp.net/builds/engineer https://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Holosmith_-_Explosive_Roamer <-- this isn't as good an idea IMO because of no reach if someone is outright ranging you. You end up relying on the Holo Leap gap closer see also October AT >! >! edit: keep in mind both grenades and mortar are projectiles. That is why large scale gameplay scrappers were using bomb kit/ flamethrower.

https://discretize.eu/builds/engineer/power-holosmith for fractals https://lucky-noobs.com/builds/power-holosmith or https://snowcrows.com/raids/builds/engineer/holosmith/power/ for raids

Huh, for PVE if you are talking about a raid environment or even a strike environment then chrono is rather dominant wherever boon thief or condi quickness firebrand isn't used. In fractals it's slightly different because burst takes precedent and the shatters function more like burning. Let's not forget chrono + druid used to be a thing to the point that people called for it to be nerfed into the ground. Only recently were cloneless shatters restored. July 7, 2020 patch: _Chronomancer shatter skills can now be activated without clones, and the shatter effect also occurs at the mesmer's location._ The developer notes read: > The main change for mesmers in this update is the restoration of self-shattering for chronomancers. This change was originally made to emphasize the difference between chronomancer shatter skills and core mesmer shatter skills, but this ended up making them more difficult to use. Instead, we are focusing more on the differences in functionality between chronomancer and core mesmer shatter skills rather than the cost to activate them. Additionally, we are making a few small changes to mirage skills to improve their usability. Likewise in the same patch, **Seize the Moment** : _This trait has been reworked. It now counts the mesmer as a clone. Reduced quickness gained per clone in PvE from 2 seconds to 1.5 seconds. Reduced quickness gained per clone in PvP and WvW from 1 second to 0.75 seconds._

No need for any toughness food when ascended foods' -10% incoming damage or even lifesteal on crit perform better. As for power + condi food, generally a fight favors one or the other and builds are geared toward one.

> @"Veprovina.4876" said: > > @"Infusion.7149" said: > > Generally don't run mesmer in PVP but for WVW people use it for boon rips (chronos in particular). > > > > In PVP it _could_ be used for the condi burst of ambushes if mirage wasn't 1 dodge (axe is typical for mirages these days that use Jaunt + Blink on top of energy sigils to offset the one dodge) ; power shatter is still a thing if you manage to get it off but it has a huge setup (clone generation outside of scepter needs time even if you trait for clone on dodge) and the potential failure is high. > > > > Chrono is ok for boonstrip, but honestly, pretty much every other class that can rip boons is better than chrono **and** has a lot more to offer other than that, be it damage, barrier, boons or healing, often times more than just that simultaniously. Chronos in WvW are there for pulls and boonstrip/clense, and doing that mildly effectively requires 10x more effort than anyone else doing the same thing and also excelling at 3 other things at the same time. This isn't conjecture , people are running sword chronos for a reason. https://gw2mists.com/builds/mesmer/support-chronomancer Null field is also on a cooldown comparable (actually it's better in WVW) to Well of Corruption and unlike well of corruption it doesn't have to contend with enemy scrappers' Purity of Purpose. Couple this with an unlimited target cap on Veil and Tides of Time. Your other main options are spellbreaker (namely from Winds of Disenchantment, Break Enchantments , and Full Counter and hammer CCs if you run hammer), scourge / reaper (as typically running Spiteful Spirit, not as many boon rips unless running Path of Corruption), and condi renegade/herald or a power herald using mallyx instead of shiro / jalis.

@ OP: https://gw2mists.com/builds/ranger/power-soulbeast --- 1. "Leak" that EoD expansion is the GW2 equivalent of GW: Factions and that it is competitive focused and brings _Alliances_. 2. Making good on the announcement that they will bring **GW2 to Steam** to expand the playerbase and bring back older players due to the obvious expanded media coverage. 3. (In the longterm) More optimizations to the engine that benefit everyone (multi-threading). **It's been done before** with the move to the 64-bit client to eliminate 4GB VRAM+RAM total limit crashes. Expecting a port to DX12 or Vulkan is unrealistic, but everything apart from the render threads is fair game I think. Intel and AMD have been upping core counts the past few years significantly so unlike a few years ago the benefit of additional multi-threading affects more of the userbase. 4. (In the longterm) **More viable build options** for PVE thieves where condi is preferred and boon thief isn't usable (i.e. Cairn, Sunqua Peak), better balancing for mirage and berserker in competitive modes among other classes. 5. (In the longterm) **Less grind and/or RNG achievements** tied into masteries. More accessibility for newer players to grow and expand the playerbase. (As an example, strikes rewarding currency for ascended was a good step.)

Generally don't run mesmer in PVP but for WVW people use it for boon rips (chronos in particular). In PVP it _could_ be used for the condi burst of ambushes if mirage wasn't 1 dodge (axe is typical for mirages these days that use Jaunt + Blink on top of energy sigils to offset the one dodge) ; power shatter is still a thing if you manage to get it off but it has a huge setup (clone generation outside of scepter needs time even if you trait for clone on dodge) and the potential failure is high.

That "42k" benchmark is with Danger Time. Realistically when you take away that multiplier (even without removing the crit chance improvement) it would be more akin to 36K and that's assuming no clones die. Shatters in general make a power mesmer function similar to a burn build in terms of ramp. As far as scrappers, it's typically used for healing in WVW as well as for the bulk condi cleanses and superspeed. I use it occasionally to help people out with -80% healing CMs for ad infinitum as barrier doesn't count as healing.

I would say guardian , revenant, and maybe warrior. Guardian because of quickness application (PVE) and stability (WVW) , revenant because of alacrity (PVE) and perma-fury / ranged DPS (WVW), warrior because of banner (PVE) and boon rips/CC (WVW). PVE (fractals): Guardian has innately high sustain due to virtue of resolve and aegis spam and can be run with minstrel stats; revenant has high sustain if you run _Dance of Death_ (which is far weaker in competitive modes due to the trait split) but gearing might be an issue due to the Diviner stats' time gate. Warrior has highest base armor and health but the armor level tanks if you run berserker : if you're with a guild group they might let you run core warrior or use _Eternal Champion_ (which results in more or less the same damage as core warrior as a result) but that isn't necessary nor is it a good idea in an area such as raids where the outcome is predicated partly on DPS. edit: as far as "faceroll" goes the autoattacks on some classes' builds are significantly more potent than others , it's been benched last year something akin to >! 32-33K single shortbow soulbeast (ranger) with easy rotation rather than auto-ing , the typical condi soulbeast has 14.7k auto on shortbow with refined toxins trait ... you wouldn't run it in fractals >! 23K staff daredevil (thief) >! 21.5-25k Holo (engineer) Photon Forge (depends on conditions existing on target) >! 24k Reaper (Necromancer) Greatsword + shroud cycling >! 19.2k Weaver (power , elementalist) in air attunement with bolt to the heart trait >! 18.5k Soulbeast (ranger) Greatsword (flanking) >! 18k power Herald (revenant) >! 16.4k Grieving Firebrand (Guardian) axe >! 16k Reaper (Necromancer) Greatsword >! 15.6k Dragon Hunter (guardian) greatsword >! 15k power chrono (mesmer) sword >! 14.5k- 17.4K Holo sword with zero heat (depends on conditions existing on target) >! 14.5K Condi quickbrand (firebrand guardian) axe >! 14.5k power axe berserker (warrior) >! 14.3k Diviner Renegade (revenant) WVW: Guardian is typically full minstrel heal firebrand which means it is high sustain by definition. Revenant while typically full berserker stats can be run with marauder armor/trinkets or durability rune. Warriors (spellbreakers in particular) will have higher sustain due to full counter and higher armor but also the meta large scale (as opposed to roaming) spellbreaker is full minstrel focusing on CC and boon rip rather than damage.

> @"Dadnir.5038" said: > It feel like the fact that chrono lose the ability to self-shatter (pre HoT trait _Illusory persona_) have been forgotten in it's "tradeoff". > > From my point of view: > HoT: > - Tempest: Gain strong overloads at almost no cost (Technically there is no increase to the attunment CD, wiki list the occasional increase as a bug) > - Scrapper: Gain fonction gyro, lose toolbelt elite skill ("Ok"ish for PvP, not really worth it for PvE) > - Dragonhunter: Modified virtue. (I'd say it's an "Ok" trade off. Could afford an increased CD on some of those virtues) > - Chrono: Lose _illusory persona_, slightly different shatter skills. (From my point of view it's a loss) > - Reaper: Change shroud skillkit (it's even, like moving from a shortbow to a hammer) > - Druid: Gain avatar, pet lose a bit of power (it's a net gain) > - Herald: trade it's F2 for another F2. (It's Ok) > - Daredevil: Trade it's F1 for another. Gain an extra dodge. (You could say it's a net gain) > - Berserker: Lose regular burst for primal burst gated behind a stance. (no opinion) > > PoF: > - Weaver: Lose flexibility, gain dual attunment attack. (I'd say it's on the "gain" side) > - Holosmith: replace elite toolbelt skill by a kit (it's a net "gain") > - Firebrand: Replace virtue by tomes (no real loss here) > - Mirage: lose a dodge, gain new attack after dodging (a bad tradeoff) > - Scourge: Shades replace shroud (the way shades work make it a bad tradeoff) > - Soulbeast: Lose the ability to swap pet in combat, gain the ability to merge with pet. (it's "Ok"ish) > - Renegade: Lose F2, gain F2/F3/F4. > - Deadeye: Stronger stealth attack, new bundles at the cost of less mobility. (no opinion) > - Spellbreaker: Gain a defensive F2, lose potential damage on F1. > > You lose one core traitline on **tempest** which often times has a damage modifier. Every traitline pretty much has a damage modifier, whether it is fire / air/ water / earth / arcane. I would say the reason why tempest is used over core ele is due to the warhorn (Lightning Orb makes up ~20% of overall damage and can hit 14 to 42 times which means it is amplified significantly from buffs that benefit from multiple hits but also suffers against retaliation) as well as overload damage (Overload air is ~20% of overall power DPS on Fresh Air tempest and hits up to 14 times). In competitive modes, I'm almost certain if the interval on shock aura were 3s instead of 2s it would fall out of favor very quickly now that 10 target shouts is gone. That's the other main difference, more access to shock auras (fire aura / frost aura can be attained via combo fields quite readily) and magnetic aura for reflects. In the early days of GW2 we had cele dagger+dagger core ele so it isn't so much the fault of core ele as the power creep overall across all specs. **Scrapper's** vitality loss is negated by the explosives line (Blast Shield in particular) as well as the barrier output. In places where barrier isn't counted as healing, scrapper excels. In fact I use it often to help people with CMs for ad infinitum because not only do you have high sustain you have a function gyro that resurrects people. Because warrior's cunning is different in PVP than WVW, it isn't kept in check by the anti-barrier trait either. Wasn't it just recently people were complaining about full sustain decap scrapper being "degenerate" as well as meme flamethrower scrapper? **DH** : seeing how it is interchangable both in PVE and PVP (and WVW roaming) with core guard for the most part since longbow is generally not great it comes down to traps as a skill category rather than virtues. **Chrono** ... you lose distortion shatter and a core traitline. Because shield has a double block if used in a timely fashion the tradeoff is largely negated with that weaponset. _Illusionary Persona_ is gone from the game already. If you're talking about meta PVE power chronos, those don't have the ability to double shatter (illusions) or gain a damage bonus from _Compounding Power_ because they run domination + dueling + chrono. When you see 40K+ benchmarks those are inflated by slow and Danger Time (so realistically it's 36K or less even without accounting for the crit chance improvement) and the assumption clones don't die. Realistically it will be lower when you aren't running more than one chrono. In fact , I would be glad if Danger Time were outright removed because the only time it excels is when you stack chronos. Because gravity well is no longer dealing real damage in competitive modes, the place you often see chrono nowadays is WvW as a bulk boon rip source. **Reaper** : the shroud on reaper hits harder than core generally and the quickness applied via traits makes it far more self sufficient. Also Greatsword is a far better power weapon than axe is for PVE purposes. The main tradeoff is the melee nature of reaper shroud as well as Greatsword, which is readily apparent in PVP and WvW roaming (less so in largescale WvW). **Druid**: you technically lose one core traitline which can be used for damage but almost everyone runs druid as a support (whether it is healing in PVE or the annoying decap or immob druids in competitive modes). There's nothing intrinsically condi about druid other than the fact that there's condi + heal gear : a condi soulbeast has more threat offensively against a target without cleanses. **Herald**: Due to the nature of facets it's much easier to use glint than the other legends ; boon uptime with 3s intervals is effortless (and 10 targets now in PVE such that it is meta in some raids) and the "invuln" of infuse light is always apparent against people not paying attention. **Daredevil** : It's more or less a direct upgrade except for the steal range ; in PVE you almost always run it (need it for staff) and even in competitive modes as well **Berserker**: As stated above, the inability to drop out of Berserk mode is a huge defensive liability which can only be mitigated by Eternal Champion which means you lose out on the 15-20% damage bonus (depends on game mode) of _Bloody Roar_. Berserker loses adrenaline when kited so the entire mechanic is more or less mitigated if you have to chase a target. We've seen berserkers being used in WVW (mainly for arc divider) where it relies on the sustain of firebrands/scrappers/tempests/shout breakers but it isn't a must have by definition especially since almost all CC skills have their damage taken away (which means hammer warriors are largely support). **Weaver** : a nightmare to play for most players due to the way dual attunement works ; sword is melee range so in places you can't weapon swap it's a liability. At its inception I think it was suggested unravel be part of the F skills rather than a utility. It's been nerfed in competitive modes already and I would say the barrier to its adoption in PVE comes down to ease of play and the fragility of it in full zerk. **Holosmith**: replaces F5 with a high powered melee (or partly ranged when traited) kit... that also has sustain in the form of heals/barrier/condi conversion. I think it's been brought up before that it also anti-kiting despite being mostly melee due to _Crystal Configuration: Zephyr_. **Firebrand**: you lose a core traitline which can give you sustain or damage but for the most part it's a direct upgrade since you can trait to have the virtues up even after using tomes **Mirage**: axe is a strong melee weapon but as condi chrono exists in PVE and it has one dodge in competitive modes (somewhat mitigated by energy sigil , Jaunt + Blink) I would say it could use some refining. The way the dodge works is jarring for some players, it's very apparent when people try to dodge and they die because of mirage mirror. **Scourge**: it was nerfed to only have F skills effects around the shades a while back, then it was both around the scourge and shades in July of this year. In PVE scenarios scourge is far more relevant than reaper in most cases, people ask for heal scourge more often than they will ever ask for reapers. Also for the heal/support players a scourge is less of a burden because of the shroud mechanic being removed as part of the spec. The fact that there isn't a huge tell that you are locked out of utilities and heal skill (and heals in general) due to being in shroud is a benefit as well. > July 7 ,2020: Shade skills have been changed back to triggering at both the necromancer's location and their shade locations with each use. **Soulbeast**: generally a direct upgrade to core ranger even though you lose either a core damage (skirmish/marks/beast mastery unlikely) or sustain traitline (wilderness survival usually). In PVE there's essentially no reason to run a core ranger for damage as the merged bonuses are significant and it makes "pet bonuses" all applied to merged soulbeast (i.e. Maul , "Sic Em"). **Renegade**: it's worth noting that Shortbow is a weapon that is used in PVP bunker type renegades and so is the Kalla legend. Whether it is overpowering is debatable but prior to February nobody would bother using it since legends would vanish instantly to auto attacks similar to mesmer clones. For the most part alacrity from the orders skill isn't a big concern in competitive modes since the interval isn't short as herald. For a straight condi build people have been using condi herald, so it ultimately boils down to Kalla + shortbow. In PVE , it also boils down to Kalla (CC) and the alacrity from the orders skill even when you account for condi RR. **Deadeye**: it basically comes down to having a ranged weapon that isn't cringe worthy. Rifle is still not widely regarded and the whole stealthing aspect prevents capture point progression. **Spellbreaker**: because you trade off a core traitline (generally either tactics or strength) and higher tier bursts in exchange for boon rips and full counter it has a tradeoff that is more apparent in PVE. Damage overall is inline with a Berserker that is missing _Bloody Roar_ (~30K per [Lucky Noobs](https://lucky-noobs.com/benchmarks) while a full DPS Berserker is ~37K?). For competitive modes having the defensive capabilities of full counter and boon rips is invaluable , far more than the huge tradeoffs of berserker.

> @"Solvar.7953" said: > I see lots of comments of 'make rewards better', and while that would certain draw some players to it, I don't really think that is a good fix or necessarily a good direction to the game. > Effectively what Anet is doing in that case is paying players to play poor content. This sounds like most jobs, where the employer is paying the employee to do something that they otherwise wouldn't do. > Basing a game on that seems like a poor idea - mostly because at some point the players will realize that they could instead play game X, in which the content is actually enjoyable to play. > Then you have an issue with the whole genre of MMOs which generally have _some_ repetition but it boils down to whether it is optional to be on an even footing or not. At least things usually don't die in one hit here (the definition of grind basically) and it's optional content as far as repeats (even the CM achievements are optional). Is the amount of Prismatium Crystal excessive for the weapons collection? Yes if you want to finish it all **now**. However, we know that there are more DRMs incoming at least until May 2021 when the 4th part of Icebrood Saga Champions is supposed to be released. One of my casual player friends with relatively high AP that more or less does openworld is half way through (~250 Prismatium Crystal) and they don't even grind this game really. Last I checked I'm at around 230 crystals and I haven't really been doing them diligently after the Crystal Bloom and Ebon Vanguard daily rewards were retired. If you look at it through the lens of "I have to finish the whole collection tomorrow" then you will have a different view than "it can be done at my leisure and we have a minimum of May 2021 to be finished with it". The main problem **now** is the rewards. The opportunity cost beyond the first one or two DRMs per day currently isn't there (third one is 1 bonus Prismatium Crystal) and upping rewards slightly while removing the annoying wait once all the pre-events are done would be a step in the right direction. Also the entire weapon collection is by definition optional because it doesn't even have mastery points associated with it unlike "Tengu Weapon Collector" or "Master of the Ancestral Forge" for example.

This is a directx 9 game. Even if you use a conversion from dx9 to dx12 or vulkan it isn't openGL.

Says OpenGL only?

> @"Noh.5092" said: > Seems what I meant went over your head or you just decided to skip it to go straight to the "GW2 is perfect" notion even tho there are so many glaring issues, What I was saying isn't that GW2 needs to go for the trinity, I'm saying it would have been better off if it had from the start. The game has so much going for it, the lack of the trinity is NOT one of them, it's a half truth that there is no trinity in this because in the end of the day we still try to half in half out the roles that trinity does, we still have tanks, we still dps, we still have support. sounds awfully similar to the trinity doesn't it? and that's what I mean, they knew it wasn't working for most people, they tried to make it more, brought in things we requested from other games like raids etc. > > I mean what's the point in healing Armour, tanking Armour? no trinity right? have you seen games like ff14 and wow, you want to go healer? you can dps still in solo, but you chose a role because that's what you like. this game you go for a class and you usually have to build some specific way that's absolutely made to fit a certain role, you got stuff like "hey you build this because this is the best way for a raid or whatever to get x boon" and so basically you become a boon bot, like a heal bot, but more boring. > > do you see the irony in this? this game is less flexible than modern trinity games in that sense, and yes I know you can bring some mediocre build but most of the time in reality you'll be told nah, see you guys have the view point of someone whose got a bubble where everything just right, bonds made over years etc, but I'm thinking the big picture, especially the new player experience, which is terrible. Empty world, difficulty balance disrupted by changes never addressed, having relevelled a new char recently it was such a horrible experience, like no one doing the dungeons, no queue, no people wanting to do stuff together, hearts are so archaic, exploration is yikes, all the fun of the game at this point is lvl 80+ and when I'm running around at lvl 70 on my alt and I meet a warrior and he doesn't know what he's doing, have no idea about specs, and he looks stuff up that has him so confused. and he's so clearly lost and that's before level 80 where your options explode open? > > That's a kitten shame because at that stage, you are looking at an empty map with no one there except one person in a blue moon running past you, and I would never blame that guy for quitting right there, which is a shame because the game has some amazing things, mainly later on due to lack of qol features but whatever. > > I'd rather they go through the whole game, removing/merge a ton of currencies, fix the balance, make the classes good at what they should be and make build versatility an actual thing for other classes than a couple, like mesmer in fractals oh my god... than release a new expansion. > > and the focus on boon "trinities of a sort" is so counter to that promise of a lack of trinity, like it doesn't help that some specialisations are basically "hey you can take the stuff from this other class that's meant to be their thing but hey whatever right?" like what happened to being special? DH? rangers traps? FB's mesmer mantra's? > > Yay, let's trample on the identity of other classes, which begs the question, why not just get rid of classes then lol. there's so much contradictory design philosophy in this game, and you want to defend that? > > adding quality of life features like a queue for dungeons, etc you know, it's not like it's 2020 or anything. > > I like talking about this stuff but acknowledging the issues would be good because it isn't an affront to what you like, these issues fixed would be best for the game, because otherwise it's this awkward endless conversation about how this game isn't the wonderful rose tinted bubble you believe it to be because you are lvl 80 in a guild with friends thinking the community is wonderful but meanwhile the reality is for the lonely new players, especially those who hit up spvp it's a whole different story. And that while your perspective is that of someone who loves the game, do know that for most new players the lifeblood of the future, as old players do trickle away, this game is requires dedication before getting to the good stuff and then it's usually worth staying for a pocket of players that you run content with all the time. which tbh you can find on almost any mmo nowadays. just because there's a loud vocal minority praising this game doesn't mean that experience translate well to those it's being praised to. > > GW2 isn't a supreme success story, it's a interesting idea that's gotten way out of hand and has an identity crisis, with some horrible aspects like the spvp hacking and toxic side of the community, insane amounts of bloat, a complete and utter lack of stream lining or clean up after years of patches leading to horrible experiences for some. > > It's so fustrating, because there's this huge amount of potential, but one foot is in the new the other in the old, and the small vocal side of the dedicated community is absolutely not helping by pretending this game doesn't have glaring issues. > > One look at sPVP's hacking issues and sPVP's community, like, seriously? > One look at the PVP part of gw2efficiency shows that the ROI isn't there for them to throw massive amounts of funds into PVP **or into this idea of moving to a trinity**. The esports dream died a while ago despite being able to compete on even footing instantly (short of ranked which requires rank 20) being conducive to competitive play (see ATs where people use alts). If anyone is a vocal minority it's the smallest portions of the community which includes raids and PVP. There's been so many threads about imbalance and I guarantee you there will continue to be more because you can never please everyone. Also I'm not sure why you're saying "have to build some specific way that's absolutely made to fit a certain role". There's only a handful of cases where that's true , _especially outside of a raid environment_. You could play suboptimal and nonmeta setups when with your own guild even in raid. There's nothing stopping you from running zero alacrity in your party composition elsewhere for example and once you eliminate that along with quickness then it's basically asking for a heal support **if needed** which means you have just about every class to pick from whether it is firebrand (or even core guard with mace +shield and staff + symbols), druid, tempest, scourge, renegade, scrapper, offmeta shouts warrior or even heavily nerfed mantra + wells chrono where there is a really low heal demand. There's even been healing thief attempts but generally not accepted as decently playable. In fractals it's even _common_ to run healer-less in lower tiers and in highly skilled groups it's the preferred way to go about things. In the early days of GW2 it was elementalists and warriors **only** for LFG in dungeons. Why should what people run in openworld matter at all? It seems you're mostly concerned about endgame content (so "achiever") than the exploration aspect of the leveling experience, which is fine. On the Bartle taxonomy , we have explorers (people that like living story and RPG aspects), "killers" (PVP players / WVW roamers gankers), achievers (speedclear people , TP flippers, people that repeat raid after one set per tier of legendary armor, etc), and socializers (so people in town that spend all day spamming chat would fit and so would people that organize events for guilds). When this game hits steam as announced I expect an influx of players to be honest. The episodic nature of content is appealing to the single player RPG crowds and explorer types. With an expansion imminent and a steam announcement , only the most pessimistic would say there would be no new players or returning players. P.S. the highlight of the whole franchise was you can put it down to attend to life matters and pick it up again any time.

> @"melandru.3876" said: > > @"Infusion.7149" said: > > Condi quickness FB does not use earth "bleeding" sigil **nor does bleeding make a significant portion of the damage for full on condi FB (<6%).** > > **Burning is 70-75% of condi FB damage in PVE**. Because the damage is primarily one condition you can afford to use smoldering sigil and balthazar runes , unlike on weaver. > > > > Also core guards are a thing and those do **not** use traps. > > > > Your first claim is that guardian loses 7K / ~32K but the weaver loses even more because of the burn **on crit** factor and the fact that over 25% of its damage is power. > > > > Also thieves aren't popular in WVW for a reason. If someone is running trailblazer on firebrand you are basically going to hit them for the same as if they are on minstrel. > > > > Your entire claim boils down to "trailblazer is bad" (for PVE) , which isn't the question asked. :/ > > > > > > this is about condi firebrand no? why you bring in condi quickbrand is unknown to me > unless you somehow think it makes sense to compare a support build do a dps build on a question that is literally "which does the most dmg" > if the support build would defeat an actual dps build, in terms of dps would it still be a support build in the first place? > > thieves are not popular in wvw, not sure where you are from but clearly not europe. every roamer and his brother is a thief. every duelist and his brother is a thief. every ganker and his brother is a thief. > since the mirage nerfs, the only class with higher burst then thief got erased. > the only build with more sustain then a properly played thief (boonbeast) got gutted. > the only brawler builds that was just great at everything got gutted with the cc nerf (holo and spellbreaker) > > thiefs are all that is left. 1. If the damage difference between Condi QB and Condi FB was massive people would not run it. The fact is the major differences are the rune and the sigil; your argument was that bleeding forms a portion of the damage when it is minor in both scenarios (as in what you quoted that you clearly didn't read). StM Chrono does high damage and so does banner berserker or Condi RR renegade yet those are classified as support builds. This isn't opinion , it's fact. Also in an isolated situation (as in not golem benchmarks) without additional critical chance (whether from Spotter, banners, potions, etc) and external sources of quickness, it is readily apparent firebrand would do more damage. 2. Unless you define WvW as "roaming" on a dead EU server, thieves generally aren't relevant in the grand scheme of things. Also as in what you quoted, the burst of thief on a full minstrel or trailblazer geared character is massively reduced by at least 40% or more. 3. Traits that are nerfed for Holo and spellbreaker in PVP didn't carry over to WVW (some examples: Holo Leap , grenades in general, or Warrior's Cunning), but that is completely offtopic.

Condi quickness FB does not use earth "bleeding" sigil nor does bleeding make a significant portion of the damage for full on condi FB (<6%). Burning is 70-75% of condi FB damage in PVE. Because the damage is primarily one condition you can afford to use smoldering sigil and balthazar runes , unlike on weaver. Also core guards are a thing and those do **not** use traps. Your first claim is that guardian loses 7K / ~32K but the weaver loses even more because of the burn **on crit** factor and the fact that over 25% of its damage is power. Also thieves aren't popular in WVW for a reason. If someone is running trailblazer on firebrand you are basically going to hit them for the same as if they are on minstrel. Your entire claim boils down to "trailblazer is bad" (for PVE) , which isn't the question asked. :/

Run stability+aegis or play scourge/tempest/shortbow renegade/condi chrono to avoid being in melee range.

If you're willing to wait (a common trend in this economic climate and supply chain issues) there's supposedly a Ryzen 5600 non-X coming in 2021 for $80 less. It should come around the same time as the code name "Cezanne" mobile chips such as Ryzen 5 5600H ; as far as I know they're "binning" the chips for power leakage such that the leakier ones are 35-45W "H" chips and the lower power ones are the 15W "U" chips. The ones with defective GPU portions could very well be made into desktop chips. https://www.techpowerup.com/review/future-hardware-releases/ https://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-Ryzen-5-5600-non-X-rumored-to-launch-early-2021-for-220.497883.0.html https://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-Ryzen-5-5600U-Processor-Benchmarks-and-Specs.510992.0.html Because a refined 7nm 6 core chip is able to be harvested from both notebook parts (APUs) and server or workstation chiplets (Threadripper , EPYC Milan) that don't make the cut, if budget is tight I would hold on to your money if in your situation until the new year. There's multiple ways that a 6 core chip can be derived unlike 8+ cores: a defective APU GPU section and one or two bad cores with power leakage, a defective 8 core CCX with a bad core or two (from a chiplet or a mobile part) that has working GPU section (presumably for something like a 5600G to mirror the Ryzen 5 4600G).

> @"melandru.3876" said: > the answer is irrelevant > you will get class x does more dps then class y > but since you don't use arc dps (to even see your own results) and you are not using an efficient build either (trailblazer lol) > > just play with what you have fun Except weaver needs to have critical hits to do additional burning. Guardian on the other hand can run without critical hits (due to Burning Precision's reliance on critical for weavers), which is why we have burn guards in WVW and PVP with Dire/Carrion.

> @"LucianTheAngelic.7054" said: > This is the PvP side of the forums so PvE is literally irrelevant for this discussion Did the moderators move this thread? If it's about PVP or even WVW , not being able to drop out of berserk mode is a rather large downside to **berserker**. You also can't use burst at all unless in berserk mode (as mentioned in first post). There could have been a "tradeoff" of manually ending berserk mode (F2?) resulting in loss of all adrenaline + possibly locked out of rage skills for an amount of time depending on the adrenaline level (like overheat disabling toolbelt skills). That's not even counting the fact that the entire traitline is centered around it, unlike say Soulbeast , Druid, or Reaper. It'd be the same if Holo couldn't drop out of Photon Forge. @ Multicolorhipster.9751 : There's also the QoL tradeoff on necros not running scourge in that all your utility skills' cooldowns aren't visible. For firebrand, being able to use virtues willy nilly without regard for cooldowns because they can be traited to be active even after activation is a huge benefit. For mirage, axe is in use in multiple modes but for competitive modes the one dodge issue is ever present even with Jaunt + Blink. You are also missing spellbreakers' ability to boon rip which is a big plus. Without that factor nobody would run warriors in WVW right now.