Infusion.7149

> @"Sleepwalker.1398" said: > I hope so too. I want to upgrade my bags but then i'm stuck with so many Halloween pail. > If only they revamp that track or give us option to make Halloween pail into larger bags. Meanwhile WvW players are waiting for 32 slot siegemaster satchel which isn't seasonal.

Condi FB is both easier to play and more useful in general because mantra of solace has 12s base cooldown and it has a decent power burst. Due to most of the damage being from burning (~70%) rather than half burning and some other from bleeding (typically condi weaver or tempest ~50% burning and ~20% bleeding , similar to condi berserker or condi holo) or other conditions and power damage, balthazar runes or firebrand runes + smoldering sigil (CQB / Condi Quickness) are used. In fractals you're also able to swap weapons if you can't melee something due to Social Awkwardness or some other instabilities. Condi FB also has strong power burst which is also why it is used in fractals.

https://www.techspot.com/article/2123-nvidia-reflex-rtx/ > This makes Reflex a useful feature primarily for casual competitive gamers; the people that want to play Fortnite but don’t want to sacrifice visual quality, don’t want to play at 1080p or just don’t have the most powerful hardware. Turn on Reflex, your system latency will drop, and that improvement to responsiveness might make you a bit better at the game. > > On the flip side, **Reflex is next to useless for competitive gamers**. If you’re the sort of person that already has a latency optimized setup – so you’re already playing at 1080p on powerful hardware with low settings to ensure you’re getting the highest possible frame rate – Reflex will have no benefit whatsoever. **That’s because you’re almost certainly CPU limited**, and Reflex is ineffective in those situations. This holds true even in situations with mid-range GPUs like an RTX 2060 in titles like Fortnite and Valorant when gaming at low quality settings. GW2 is a CPU limited game, what makes you think this will be beneficial given the resources it will take to implement it?

Every time someone defends putting a mastery point behind a collection that is RNG _but on the TP_ it's one step toward making mastery points in the gemstore. Dragon Slayer set having a mastery point makes sense, as the items are accountbound (also non-RNG just grindy) and you cannot just buy your way through it. The only saving grace here is that there is likely an abundance of mastery points such that it (Volcanic Stormcaller collection) isn't required to max mastery points for actual masteries (as opposed to just getting all mastery points available). Maybe some luckier people have gotten some but I still have not had one drop yet.

If D912pxy doesn't work properly you can also try dxvk. https://github.com/doitsujin/dxvk/releases/ Note: > Should be noted that d912pxy runs pretty much nothing but GW2 and cuts a lot of corners whereas dxvk is a more or less complete D3D9 implementation, so you're basically comparing apples and oranges, but it should still be competitive with Windows Dx9. ( https://github.com/doitsujin/dxvk/issues/1648 ) It's the same back-end as Steam Play / Proton on Linux : https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Proton-5.13-3-Released

> @"draxynnic.3719" said: > @"Infusion.7149" It amuses me that for the rest you've used the profession title, but you've used 'Tempest' for Elementalist. > > In part because it's not wrong - Tempest _can_ do all of those things, although Weaver can sometimes edge it out in DPS roles and in bunkering. Well to be honest the number of weaver players that do a good job is low. Fixed the post though.

> @"draxynnic.3719" said: > > @"Infusion.7149" said: > > Old chrono distortion needed much more timing and it isn't balanced overall in that sense. > > I think the problem ArenaNet had with party distortion is that it protected against skills that were unblockable and undodgeable, allowing the group to flat-out ignore some mechanics. I think ArenaNet is happy with the mesmer themselves avoiding this mechanic, but not the whole party. > > Aegis only allows blocking attacks that ArenaNet intended to be blockable, so it's more controllable from their perspective. That hasn't been relevant ever since distortion was changed to be on the mesmer only. https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Inspiring_Distortion December 12, **2017**: _Updated this trait to now grant Aegis to allies instead of distortion_ Firebrands can put out aegis in less than 10 second intervals. Anyone that has the option of using firebrand or chrono with inspiration will choose firebrand because even if you are full DPS firebrand you can stack mantra of solace. See 100CM groups. That basically nullifies the purpose of mace if the healing output of the auto isn't required and makes the "Retreat" skill basically unused. Arenanet had the foresight to make 25 seconds cooldown for the stability on Mantra of Liberation yet Mantra of Solace is 12 seconds base ammo/charge cooldown even before Weighty Terms or alacrity.

How could people forget boonshare chrono? Especially with gravity well on bombs. It is pretty obvious some people don't play mesmer here... **Warrior**: Hammer warrior is gutted now since it does basically no damage to anything with stability and neither does the burst ; now mostly for CC (which boon rips on spellbreaker) and winds of disenchantment --> see https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Fierce_Blow **Guardian**: anything DH is pretty much done outside roaming (used to have Hunter's ward on spike), you're better off with core guard or firebrand ; in core days people would blast water fields with hammer --> mace used to be much weaker as a weapon , in 2017 the healing power scaling was doubled and in 2016 aegis and protection was added to protector's strike **Revenant**: Condi Mallyx didn't really pick up but power herald used to be much stronger due to the cooldown of 2s on COR and it didn't have a interval so you could be hit by 5 of them or more **Ranger**: who uses ranger in WVW groups... there's immob soulbeast currently but it isn't a must have **Thief**: venomshare thief used to be in core days but staff daredevil is the predominant build (vault still does damage) **Engineer**: scrapper only picked up after gyros were made into wells; holo isn't a must have **Mesmer**: see boon chrono ; mirage is and always will be a meme since it's primarily a condi spec , today it's mostly for boon rip **Elementalist**: staff weavers used to be more popular , aurashare frontline tempests as well **Necromancer**: in core days they were run with well of suffering + corruption as a power spec (same with reaper) , scourges were nerfed but in their original iteration sand shades were able to be spammed and sand savant changes made it 10 targets (which was overnerfed afterward) ---> necros used to be stronger because spellbreaker didn't exist and stability was not stacks but a boon that isn't ripped by CC

> @"VocalThought.9835" said: > Right now, every class does not fill a role. I haven't seen s healing Warrior or Thief build yet. I think ANet was on to something for trying to avoid the Holy Trinity. In fact the initial GW wasn't a Holy Trinity system either. Necros and Mesmers always brought their own flavor of support to the game, by turning boons into conditions and making attacks self inflicting. To expand on this : Just because a build doesn't exist now doesn't mean it never existed , especially when you account for competitive modes and not just PvE. Minstrel chrono with wells/mantras (for heal output and not just boons) and minstrel warrior with shouts (WvW) existed. Paladin amulet shouts spellbreaker still is in use to a lesser extent in PvP. Cele dagger/dagger ele existed in core days. There's been very offmeta heal thiefs using stealth for heals. Mesmers do provide boon rip and interrupts , it's just not exclusive to mesmers. --- Warrior: power, condi, support all accounted for (although full heal type support is not common, banner is technically support as is any might generating tactics warrior running empower allies) Guardian: power, condi, support all accounted for Revenant: power, condi, support all accounted for Ranger: power, condi, support all accounted for Engineer: power, condi, support all accounted for (although condi isn't as user friendly ; heal scrapper with med kit common in WvW) Thief: power, condi is pretty much meme after deadly ambition nerfs , support is gimmicky except in boon thief Mesmer: power, condi, support all accounted for (although healing is lackluster, boon chrono remains a staple) Elementalist: power, condi, support all accounted for Necromancer: power, condi, support all accounted for --- That's not even counting any future elite specs. To shoehorn people into one class for each role is a terrible idea. More options is better , even if some are slightly worse in some aspects. For example, you generally don't use heal scourge or heal tempest but some people use them for ease and ignoring mechanics (because transfusion is on low cooldown and rebound stops down state).

WvW is MOBA-like , camps + towers + keeps are tiered. Stronghold is literally a defend the lord scenario.

The meta right now centers around firebrand + renegade due to the quickness + alacrity + might output. That is instead of chrono + druid. Condi thief is still pretty much a meme build especially after the change to deadly ambition. If you want to be up to date on fractals I'd look at discretize.eu.

huh? That sort of exists in WvW and Stronghold PVP.

If you're getting 80 FPS in WVW that's rather incredible. :) I suspect for most people the best option is the single CCX 8 core 5800X however.

Doesn't take "deep learning" to know that the flashy backpacks that somehow ignore model limit exacerbate the situation.

It isn't "just adding some code" because the engine is DX9 , not DX12. I don't feel map load time is a significant factor for anyone with a SSD. The game has always been CPU bound first and foremost and you can test this by putting all settings on their lowest and turning model limits and shadows/reflections back up. There efforts are better directed towards network improvements and any section of the engine that can be multithreaded that isn't the rendering portion. Even if it is multi-threaded it is subject to Amdahl's law. Even the highly touted Resizable BAR had an improvement of ~10% on average and that's at the GPU driver side. I'd rather a port to Vulkan if it is ported than DX12 (you're also adding a requirement of RTX) also as that would benefit more people irrespective of platform (includes mobile/ consoles if they ever enable those platforms : see Fortnite for example).

I actually leveled to 80 in WvW years ago when it was much more active. First thing is don't be afraid to let your character die unlike in PVE. Secondly if you're already level 80 you probably want to get exotic armor at the least and ascended weapon + trinkets with vitality on them (Marauder) and run a proper competitive build. If you're in an offhours time zone you probably want to coordinate with your server and join a commander or work the map as the commander is hitting something as it will be pretty imbalanced otherwise. If there's no commanders at all you might be on a "dead" server. P.S. with warclaw and waypoints no "walking" is required

_Quality of Life_ would be being able to pick up things in openworld / fractals and mount while in photon forge to drop out of it.

I would think condi quickness is the best option if you're PUG-ing it unless there's no healing whatsoever in the party (go HB). Keep in mind the discretize site factors in the bonuses you get from potions' conversion from AR to boon duration.

As typically a chrono, rev (herald/renegade) , and firebrand player because everyone wants to play DPS... it's not going to make reaper suddenly wanted in PVE. Firstly, it is a pain in the rear to try to heal reapers instead of other classes and specs, and secondly if there's quickness for the party and/or squad the main advantage of reaper is negated (self quickness) while requiring life force which isn't plentiful in many types of boss fights. In PvP you don't really have a legitimate argument if you play reaper as you won't insta-melt to burning anyway (especially since PVP versions of burning skills have lower stacks generally) unless you stand in a whole bunch of traps or have multiple people hit by virtue of justice such that it procs often. Any build running an amulet with precision doesn't have as much vitality or power because there's nothing with vitality, precision, ferocity, and condition damage. There's rabid (condition , toughness, precision) with more or less no power output , sage's (power, condition, healing, vitality) with low crit chance without fury, carrion (condition, vitality, power) with no crit chance or ferocity, and wizard's (condition, power , vitality, precision) with no ferocity typically. Marshal's has no vitality or ferocity but has healing power so any guardian running it is susceptible to burst. --- if you mean the trapper rune DH , that has its own drawbacks such as inability to contest while stealthed , no stability or stunbreak outside of virtue of courage In WVW , guardian is pretty much for stability right now: if you nerf that people will just run heralds for stability (inspiring reinforcement) and scrappers (bulwark gyro / defense field ; med kit + purge gyro) for heals. Also calling for "destroying" a class is an utterly unhealthy mentality. Even more so when guardian is the most played class. Look at chrono after it was gutted in fractals ; only recently due to StM and the restoration of cloneless shatters has it came back in any fashion. I would rather that thief had party quickness in the trickery line to offer more options for players since boon thief is already a thing where it is available for use. The only thing I would say needs looking at on guardian as a whole is the mantra of solace: would rather a slightly higher cooldown and higher base heal in PVP/WVW. Having aegis, heal, and quickness on one skill is rather overloaded and I would much rather that quickness duration be reduced and tacked on to the mantra of potence skill (which incidentally is an extremely short 1s duration in PVP/WVW). Old chrono distortion needed much more timing and it isn't balanced overall in that sense. On the damage side of things if there's going to be nerfs, I have a feeling the priority would be minor things such as the vulnerability stacks on Sword of Justice or the burn duration applied by spirit weapons as opposed to a sledgehammer approach. > @"Mouse.7382" said: > Now, do I enjoy the playstyle of the guardian? The anwer is no. Their skills and flow of both memer and thief are unmatched. Subjectively, they are way more fun to play. You should support the addition of party quickness to thieves' trickery line in _Bountiful Theft_ or possibly _Thrill of the Crime_ / _Burst of Agility_. Thief isn't going to be a requested profession unless it puts out boons or profession specific enhancements such as Empower Allies / Banners/ Spotter / Assassin's Presence. Mesmer has its own issues (ramp time due to shatter mechanic) but it still puts out party quickness with _Seize the Moment_. Asking for a nerf to guardians isn't going to accomplish that. There's a whole cadre of untapped potential if raiding boon thieves are an alternative to quickbrands and StM chronos.

> @"CashCow.9548" said: > I don't think OP was complaining about the lack of content but rather the lack of game's identity overall. GW2 has alot of stuff to do but it doesen't excel in any of those. PvE truly is a joke in this game. Open world PvE is just press "W" to move forward and "1" for auto attacks. This game has no challenge. > > PvP is long forgotten by the devs. We're lucky to get balance patches here and there. Personally I think WvW is still very fun despite being completly unchanged since the game's introduction. > > But I disagree with OP when they say GW2 has no identity. GW2 has identity and they sure know it, they just don't like it. > And that is that GW2 is a casual game that will never be your main game, but rather just something you play on the background whilst playing other games or something you touch a couple of times in a year (usually with new living world patches) just to disappear again for the next 3 months. > > And I think it's good that MMO genre has one of those casual games in the roster. People that have to treat a MMO like a job generally have less disposable income unless they're paying people to ~~play ~~ grind for them (which is a security risk in itself) or outright buying power off the gem shop. We have something similar in the level 80 boost or waypoint unlock boxes. Do people really want "unlock all IBS mastery points for 5000gems" or "legendary weapons for 10,000 gems" (I can see the rationalizing this already... "it's on the TP anyway") ? The disastrous Chinese version of GW2 already has those types of imbalances in that you can buy power infusions (not agony, _power_) (**+18 power** I believe , so a massive stat boost if you have real money to burn). So if you have money you can make +19 power infusions with over +300 power bonuses. The biggest gaming market right now is mobile which is casual by definition at 51% , followed by console at 25% , and 24% on PC. Of mobile games, ~59% are casual type games followed by puzzle, arcade, action, racing, etc. None of those are grindfests. More than 50% of gamers are over age 34. --- (I excerpted this post) > @"Zephire.8049" said: > I honestly wouldn't care nearly as much about things or get frustrated if Anet simply communicated what they were doing or why they made various choices. Lack of communication is the most likely reason I'll drop GW2 if/when I do. Not issues with the story, not scrapped content, not the spaghetti engine, but the simple lack of letting players know what to expect and that they are listening to player feedback. > > - If they're no longer going to work on raids, tell players that. > - If DRMs are going to be the new thing, tell players that. > - If strikes are going to going to be scrapped, tell players that. > - Tell players how WvW alliances is going. > - Inform players that there's not going to be a Q4 balance patch because of EoD. > - If players need to hang onto items for months before they can use them, make it clear that's the case. > > Honestly the list goes on and on and you probably get the picture. I don't PvP and only casually WvW so I'm coming at it from a primarily PvE point of view, but I'd be fine with how things are going if there was clear and constant communication about what was going on (an off-hand comment in a dev chat is not meaningful communication) and it would be far easier to offer feedback if it was known what was going on and what the plan is. The latest IBS episode really made it clear how bad they're at communicating and everyone I talked to about it stated that they would have been fine with the episode being cut in half and stopping suddenly if they had been told that would be the case. And I imagine PvP would also improve if they talked about what was in the works, trends they've noticed, and acknowledging hackers are an issue and that they're working on something in regard to that. > > I just can't get concerned about a game's perceived identity or niche when the studio operates in radio silence despite its one current game being an MMO (AKA a "live service game") and it's hard to offer feedback when a studio doesn't even tell players what it's doing outside a vague quarterly roadmap and player feedback is rarely ever acknowledged so players are flying blind with what happens each content patch. > > (Some PvE mount skins would also be nice, just throwing that out there since mounts are a big thing now but the base skins are so limited. It seems strange to not have some PvE-exclusive skins for rewards and to entice people to buy more from the store.) Well they do communicate it , just not directly. For example see this article: https://massivelyop.com/2020/11/17/flameseeker-chronicles-first-impressions-of-guild-wars-2s-icebrood-saga-truce/ Re: DRM > We asked ArenaNet’s representatives why this new type of instance is capped at 5 players rather than 10 like Steel and Fire. Their reason was that Steel and Fire, while designed to scale from 5-10 players, becomes much more challenging in smaller groups, a frustrating experience that I think a lot of players have shared. They found that the mechanics scale much better in the 1-5 player range Re: fractals/strikes > If you’re a fractal fan, you might be understandably worried about the future of your favorite mode. ArenaNet was quick to assure us that the purpose of dragon response missions was not to replace fractals or strikes, but as something new and different, and that they have no plans to discontinue work on those any time soon. There's also direct information on the main site: https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/the-icebrood-saga-champions/ which is linked in the log-in window. >! November 2020 >! Chapter 1: Truce—November 17 >! >! December 2020 >! Wintersday >! >! January 2021 >! Chapter 2: Power >! >! February 2021 >! Lunar New Year >! >! March 2021 >! Chapter 3: Balance >! >! April 2021 >! Super Adventure Festival >! >! May 2021 >! Chapter 4: Judgment On top of that wiki users try to update https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Upcoming_changes_and_features

> @"Astralporing.1957" said: > > @"Bingus.4236" said: > > I've been using Strikes to get ascended armour. For the actual time I spend playing, seems very time efficient. > It's still worse than just farming gold directly and crafting the item, though. > Depends on the stat and whether you have fulgurite for the 4 stat items and whether you are just doing daily strikes and taking your time or grinding Voice+Claw. Trailblazer is still cheaper from strikes I believe for any armor pieces other than chest/leg as the insignia is around 20g alone even if you stat swap. When the pearls for minstrel armor were a few gold each it was true for minstrel armor as well. This doesn't even include stats that are notoriously timegated (Diviner's aka Steelstar's) or where the recipes cost more than the crafting cost at times (Harrier's aka Zehtuka's) such that you would need to stat swap from a cheap non ectoplasm stat such as Rabid , Magi, Soldier's or Dire. (Prices with daily cooldowns) ## Chestpiece Trailblazer chestpiece (light armor) = 70-77g Trailblazer chestpiece (medium armor) = 67-75g Minstrel's chestpiece (medium armor) = 56-59g Berserker's chestpiece (medium armor) = 55-58g Harrier chestpiece (medium armor) = 54-57g Diviner chestpiece (medium armor) = 53-57g Minstrel's chestpiece (light armor) = 52-57g Berserker's chestpiece (light armor) = 51-55g Minstrel's chestpiece (heavy armor) = 47-51g Harrier or Diviner chestpiece (heavy armor) = 45-49g **Strikes = 15 gold + 400 prophet shards for chest armor** with a valuation of Stabilized Prophet Crystal = 20 prophet shards at around 2 gold profit that means it is a bit cheaper for trailblazer chest armor (total ~55g) ## Legpiece Trailblazer legpiece (medium armor) = 65-72g Trailblazer legpiece (light armor) = 61-69g Berserker's legpiece (medium armor) = 50-52g Harrier legpiece (medium armor) = 49-52g Diviner legpiece (medium armor) = 48-51g Berserker's legpiece (light armor) = 46-50g , similar for Minstrel's Minstrel's legpiece (heavy armor) = 44-47g Berserker's legpiece (heavy armor) = 42-46g Harrier or Diviner legpiece (heavy armor) = 42-45g **Strikes = 10 gold + 275 prophet shards for leg armor** with a valuation of Stabilized Prophet Crystal = 20 prophet shards at around 2 gold profit that means it is a bit cheaper for trailblazer leg armor (total ~38g) ## Headgear Trailblazer headgear (medium armor) = 56-63g Trailblazer headgear (light armor) = 56-63g Trailblazer headgear (heavy armor) = 55-62g Minstrel's headgear (medium / light armor) = 42-45g Berserker's headgear (medium / light armor) = 41-44g Minstrel's headgear (heavy armor) = 40-43g Berserker's headgear (heavy armor) = 39-42g Diviner headgear (medium armor) = 39-42g Diviner headgear (heavy armor) = 38-41g **Strikes = 7.5 gold + 175 prophet shards for headgear** with a valuation of Stabilized Prophet Crystal = 20 prophet shards at around 2 gold profit that means trailblazer headgear is substantially _cheaper by about two times_ (total ~25g) ## Boots / Gloves / Shoulders Trailblazer boots (medium armor)= 62-69g Trailblazer boots (light armor) = 60-67g Trailblazer boots (heavy armor) = 54-60g Minstrel's boots (medium armor) = 47-50g Berserker's boots (medium armor) = 47-49g Minstrel's boots (light armor) = 46-49g Harrier boots (medium armor) = 46-48g Diviner boots (medium armor) = 45-48g Berserker's boots (light armor) = 45-48g Minstrel's boots (heavy armor) = 39-42g Berserker's boots (heavy armor) = 38-41g Diviner boots (heavy armor) = 37-40g Trailblazer gloves (medium armor) = 57-64g Trailblazer gloves (light armor) = 56-63g Trailblazer gloves (heavy armor) = 54-61g Minstrel's gloves (medium armor) = 43-46g Berserker's gloves (medium armor) = 42-44g Berserker's gloves (light armor) = 41-44g Harrier gloves (medium armor) = 41-44g Diviner gloves (medium armor) = 40-43g Diviner gloves (heavy armor) = 37-40g **Strikes = 5 gold + 150 prophet shards for boots/gloves/shoulders** with a valuation of Stabilized Prophet Crystal = 20 prophet shards at around 2 gold profit that means trailblazer pieces are substantially _cheaper by about two to three times_ (total ~20g) ## Strike "profit" https://fast.farming-community.eu/instances/strikes Repeatable gold/hour per fast farming is supposedly 27g with a good group on Voice+Claw regardless of if you opt for the armor ## TL;DR The best "bang for buck" is to get boots , gloves, and headgear boxes.

Three things: 1. There is recruitment for a **WVW** dev , but likely most people on here that complain constantly are not even remotely qualified. I'd say WvW is the most unique part and a wasted asset on their part but at the same time the server demands are most likely higher. The New World hype for example proved to be a failure before it even launched. If Arenanet can deliver on Alliances or a better form of team balancing it would probably be a highlight to new players. As a former GW1 player , I would say that this upcoming EOD expansion could be their GW1 Factions competitive focused expansion. 2. The esports thing for **PVP** was a failed endeavor and there has been reports that most of the ladder is match manipulating in some fashion whether queue dodging, queuing offhours with a top 50 duo Q , etc. At the bottom, rampant ragequitting and botting. Monthly Automated tournaments are better in this regard but suffer somewhat due to this ; unranked matchmaking could still use work but the stakes are low so it is not an utmost priority. Having equalized stats and instant readiness via amulets (even if you just made the character 10 minutes ago) is healthier for an esport-type competitive game --- I'd disagree on having "more PVP modes" as they would likely need to be in rotation. The uptake on stronghold is rather low once people finished the achievements there ; deathmatch has its own balancing issues. More PvP modes fragments an already dwindling playerbase in that mode. 3. The **PVE** living story formula works for their business model, like it or not. It is far more profitable to churn out living story than to push out instanced content that a small minority of players per use. People that play heavily only when living story episodes come out and then remain dormant provide less strain on their server infrastructure which is on AWS. AWS charges based on activity and this is a sub-free game. --- There's also a lack of equality in many MMOs in terms of aesthetic and options, GW2 does rather well in this regard with a few exceptions (starter light armor :# ). --- Some other observations: The skills engine and the entire skill system seemingly was designed with 5 players in mind so we have skill scaling issues both in WvW and in PVE maps. To top it off , raids and strikes basically show the difference between 5 man content (story instances, fractals, DRMs) and the 10 man buffs factor. Even though it is twice the players the time to form a group is exponentially higher as well unless it is something extremely easy and a daily (see Shiverpeak Pass). I would also add that the lack of vertical progression that keeps players on an even footing gear-wise is healthier than a constant level and gear grind , even more so for PVP game modes. I was one of the people that was against ascended when it first came out in this game, actually. BDO preys on players in this fashion , the grass is _not_ greener on the other side unless you want to treat a game as if it is a job. By far the most popular games regardless of genre are those that require less time commitment to be relevant even if player mastery (as opposed to arbitrary things such as exp) is not attained (see FPS, MOBAs, RTS, action games, racing games, etc ... even games that aren't exclusively digital such as chess). The biggest obstacle to the improvement of WvW from the technical side is multi-threading the engine and overall engine performance (including network side) with 50+ players in one area.

Depends on if the interrupt does appreciable damage on its own, how easy it is to land (a key point), what type of interrupt is used, and what type of skill is interrupted. 3 initiative is enough for another Heartseeker after all , and also enough for another Weakening Charge or Cluster Bomb. I don't think hook strike , choking gas , and head shot should be treated the same as pistol whip for example. I would warn against crediting interrupts on weapon auto attacks for example. Do you remember revenants' Punishing Sweep before it turned into a healing type skill? "Sweep your staff at your foe. Gain access to Debilitating Slam if your foe is using a skill when struck." Even in thieves' own arsenal there's a precedent to chained skills such as Palm Strike and Uppercut. Your proposal seems more like it would be a new trait to be honest.

> @"MatyrGustav.6210" said: > One thing you're missing . You're basing your argument off of what we have as current specs. I hope you do realize your argument should be based off the other 8 upcoming EOD specs, since as we know out of the 9 new upcoming EOD specs we will recieve more support Especs. What that further means is the support specs that you listed in your post will most likely not receive another support spec, which means most likely the classes that currently do not have a support Espec has a very high chance to get one. "Points to Thief" . > > And yes, i see Thief being the most unique healer or support if they get a Support Espec, and stealth is far from useless in Pve since you can pop stealth just to use the out of Stealth strike. > > Your argument is coming from a place that shows you're missing points of view of the game and/or just Thief Unless new boons are made, it is irrelevant and existing content will remain unchanged for the most part. I've seen so many **speculative** threads it is ridiculous. Also all elite specs are supposed to have a tradeoff. It is highly _unlikely_ aegis will be given to thieves and the same goes for alacrity and maybe even protection. Unless the alacrity is outright overpowered in relation to chrono or renegade (whether it is ease of application, required boon duration, range, etc) , it is not going to replace either. If it is stronger than both specs (i.e. massive amounts of role compression) then the quickness and/or damage output (especially any burst / spike damage) will likely need to be kept in check, see chronos post nerf. In your proposal your suggested buff is "increase healing potency" which is unlikely to gain traction in that even firebrands run axe typically over mace. It is far better to have a condi based spec which gives up extended stealth durations for example (the tradeoff being lower stealth duration). There's been cases in which holos are brought solely for Pinpoint Distribution , a buff to condi damage. Likewise any spec that relies on conditions on allies is also going to have significant problems because the amount of situations that would be strong is low and in those cases people would opt for the 5s cooldown (PVE) condition to boon of scourge or scrapper / tempest clears (see WvW). Tying the main (auto) damage plus second attack skill (typically the lowest initiative) to torment is also an exercise in futility , see condi scourges in most situations as well as condi revs. I'd much rather it be poison in some form both due to theme and the deadly arts traitline synergies. Also short of backstab, stealth attacks aren't that amazing for PVE because you need to consume resources in order to attain stealth whether it is utility skills or initiative. Backstab coefficient from behind / flanking: 2.4 Backstab coefficient from front: 1.2 Tactical strike coefficient: 1.0 Hook Strike coefficient : 0.65 Even if there's new support specs there is going to be massive inertia against them because the majority of the playerbase will _not_ have been doing instanced content and the majority of those that are not doing raids will not have legendary armor to equip any new specs immediately. For example, how would your proposed spec fare in Sunqua Peak , Cairn, Twin Largos, or other places where thieves aren't particularly wanted currently? A condi spec would work there ; a minor change to trickery (or even a new trait in the new spec that gives quickness via venoms which are mostly condi or CC related) could make such a spec be a viable alternative to condi boon chrono or condi quickbrand. If it doesn't excel in a situation where thieves are not a highly demanded pick, then it probably isn't going to change the current state of affairs.

Heals don't work in shroud, which is why scourge is generally preferred by people that are healing you.