Mungo Zen.9364

I enjoy the current system in GW2 over other MMO I have played, doesn't mean it is great but, I think it's pretty good. I get the appeal of adding more to an existing system, but it complicates a lot of balancing and player understanding to do so. I would prefer to maintain the current setup but if it were to change I would adjust the Major Traits in each Specialization to have 4 in tier 1, 3 in Tier 2 and 2 in Tier 3. In this theoretical change, I would suggest that the 3 Minor traits help define the Spec and the 2 Major at T3 would build off those Minor traits to create two 'spec defining choices' while the T1 and T2 traits would augment the T3 choices. It is a small tweak outwardly, but it would require a big rework of the traits. However it could/should simplify building for players and balancing for Devs while maintaining a decent number of build options overall.

Choya: the other plant race It has all the right stuff: - no voice acting required, can recycle grunts - minimal skin revision required since they rarely wear much outside of a helmet or box - interesting intro story; are you a happy Choya or not? Those meat based choices are all terrible

I like these ideas as I can see an opportunity for training guilds to run more training groups, allowing newer players to get more reps in this content. By maintaining the existing rewards to a weekly cycle but allow trash/gold drops for repeat clears, it opens up this opportunity by incentivizing repeat clears for veteran raiders but doesn't make them 'required'.

> @"TheThief.8475" said: > > @"Einlanzer.1627" said: > > > @"maddoctor.2738" said: > > > > @"TheThief.8475" said: > > > > I remember when I used to play my first beloved thief in 2013 and **I had already all 5 weapons skills at level 2**! : wasn't it so much more fun than now? > > > > > > No. Because when you got more weapons later on you have to "Grind" again to unlock their skills. With the current system once you unlock the skills, they are unlocked on every weapon you try ever after. There is nothing more annoying than getting a brand new weapon and having no skills to use. They made unlocking the skills of your first weapon slower, but they did speed up the unlock process for multiple weapons considerably. > > > > Hard disagree. Unlocking the skills on a per weapon basis was actually more fun. It didn't take very long, and it taught you how to use them properly. > > I do agree, but looks like veterans are not open to this change-that is anyway not meant for veterans but for new players- (it shouldn't affect their experience) Anyone creating and leveling a new character will have the same experience of unlocking weapon and utility skills as they level. Even if you are a veteran player, if you roll a profession you haven't played before, you do get the same experience. I am okay with the current weapon skill unlock system and do not think it needs to change in any way (but I do feel there is room for change and improvement overall, just not a need). As you level up you are being given a variety of different unlocks at each level for the first 20-30 levels and players do need time to investigate and use them. For GW2 this system does help new players with learning not just the weapon skills but it gives players time to explore the UI and other facets of core gameplay. I believe the intent is by having the player return to the various UI elements many times as they level, the player will grow accustomed to how the various interfaces work. While I have enjoyed games with weapon leveling systems that asked you to use the weapon in combat to gain skills or levels of ability, I generally have found them to be short grinds with little benefit to the over all game. What I would enjoy (not necessarily in GW2) is a system where you need to do a series of short quests to acquire and learn a new weapon, thereby creating a built in training scenario for how the weapon works (think "slay 30 beasts", "use special ability 5 times on a target" etc). I would think that, if you wanted to improve the new player experience, that tying more of the experiences to guided quests would be a strong start. Think of quests to use CC to Break 5 Bars or Dodge 10 attacks. We don't have enough guided experiences masked as quests that ask the new players to use skills or even investigate what skills do.

Go for the Sylvari if only to try something totally new to you. You might find the stories and lore of the Sylvari to your interest and enjoyment. I’d also suggest that the skin tones are less a concern for the fashion side. I have both banana and blackberry skin tones on my primary characters and a wide array of armor and dyes look great on them. I find bright reds to be the most challenging to build a look around but have also had success with greens, blues and other earth tones.

The gathering tools gain the bonus ability via a glyph socketed into the item. These glyphs can also be bought on the trading post. There is no single best glyph as it really depends on what you want or need. For example, the glyph providing bonus Leather will be strong value, but you may prefer bonus Cloth, Wood or Ore Glyphs depending on your needs. As such I would suggest buying whatever the cheapest tools are when you are ready, knowing you can always buy and move around the glyph based bonuses. There are some very good and current videos on YouTube helping explain these Glyphs and providing you with detailed info on what might be best for you.

> @"Lonami.2987" said: > > @"maddoctor.2738" said: > > > @"Lonami.2987" said: > > > Legendary gear has all existing stats, present and future, that functionality remains intact. In fact, if you're using multiple stats, getting legendary gear instead of ascended would be far more convenient (and in some cases, possibly cheaper as well). > > > > Given how cheap (especially when running a lot of "endgame" content) Ascended gear is, how do you suppose Legendary gear will become cheaper than using this system? > > Let's make an example, Chuka and Champawat costs 2239 gold to make (using gw2efficiency data, which calculates if it's better to craft or buy from TP automatically, I assume the cheapest possible path) > > > > > * Heirloom equipment works exactly as legendary equipment, but stat selection is limited to stats you've previously unlocked. > > > > Let's see how much gold you'd need to unlock every possible stat combination that is available with crafting (prices rounded up): > > Zojja: 48g > > Keeper: 48g > > Stonecleaver: 47g > > Chorben: 45g > > Steelstar: 48g > > Coalforge: 46g > > Soros: 48g > > Beigarth: 47g > > Angchu: 46g > > Ventari: 49g > > Leftpaw: 46g > > Tonn: 49g > > Zingtl: 46g > > Zehtuka 47g > > Tixx: 48g > > Verata: 48g > > Occam: 49g > > Grizzlemouth: 46g > > Mathilde: 46g > > Giftbringer: 47g > > Tizlak: 49g > > Svaard: 48g > > Laranthir: 48g > > Ossa: 48g > > Ruka: 49g > > The Twins: 45g > > Yassith: 48g > > Nadijeh: 47g > > Pahua: 54g > > Maklain: 51g > > Nerashi: 45g > > Theodosus: 47g > > Hronk: 46g > > Ebonmane: 49g > > Wupwup: 49g > > > > As you can see, all different Ascended Shortbow types, except Maklain, cost under 50g. Even if we take every stat at 50g, we have 35 stat combinations, giving us a cost of 1750g to have a Heirloom Short Bow that has all the stats, and convinience of the Legendary Short Bow. > > > > I know you said "The prices and costs can vary" but for the sake of argument, let's use your own suggested prices > > > > > * Purchase an Armory Storage Kit from [Miyani](https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Miyani). Storage kits have 20 uses, and a fixed cost of 20 gold plus 200 transmutation charges. > > > > 20 gold for 20 uses? In the example above, that's 2 Armory Storage Kits, bringing the cost to 1790g. And 400 Transmutation Charges. At worst you can buy 400 Transmutation Charges directly from the gem store for 2400 gems. You need 34g per 100 gems, so that's 816g, bringing the total to 2606 gold, which is more than the Legendary weapon. However, the price is if you get every single stat (there are 35 of them) AND you have zero transmutation charges available. > > > > Also: > > > * [Transmutation Charges](https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Transmutation_Charge) have been removed from the gem store. Additional charges can now be purchased from Miyani in exchange of [spirit Shards](https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Spirit_Shard). > > > > This essentially keeps the total price of the Heirloom Short Bow at less than 1800g (and with inflated values due to rounding) compared to a legendary weapon that costs almost 2300g. And remember this is for every single stat combination, players that need 5 or 10 of them (out of the 35 total) will pay significantly less. > > Meaning, your prices are way way too generous. > > The prices/model I gave are in no way final, but still, pretty good analysis. I don't want it to be too expensive, since in the end, the goal of the armory is to let you swap ascended and legendary equipment easily, without having to swap characters and use the bank to transfer your gear. You don't get any "new" thing, you just get an easier way to use what you already own. > > Also, I'd say the legendary skin compensates the gold difference. Plus, you don't get just the existing stats, but any future stats as well. > > The prices I followed are based on getting a complete build stored. So, 6 armor pieces, 6 runes, 2-4 weapon slots, 4 sigils, 1 back item, 5 jewelry. Leaving infusions and underwater equipment out, that would be a total of 24-26 (let's round it to 25) items to store. > > At 1 gold and 10 transmutation charges per use, each build would cost 25 gold and 250 transmutation charges; maybe a bit too cheap. Assuming we have all 9 professions, plus 3 builds per profession, that's a total of 27 builds. Let's say 50% of the items are shared (many builds use berserker stats), so let's leave it at 15 complete builds. > > The estimated final cost for storing the gear from all your builds would be 375 gold plus 3750 transmutation charges. I originally made the Armory Storage Kit have 10 uses instead of 20 (so the final cost would double, 750g plus 7500tg), but I feel like making the system affordable is positive for the game as a whole, specially when you have so many players running around on gear below exotic rarity. > > I have two bank tabs full of ascended chests, so yeah, this system might be pretty cheap for veterans like me, but that's not the point, the armory should be something everyone can use, even new players who will be crafting their ascended armor from scratch; and that's not exactly cheap either. > > Still, I'm open to rising the prices to double or beyond, but I don't think it should be more expensive than the legendary alternatives. > > > @"maddoctor.2738" said: > > > * Heirloom armor, weapons, and back items include a new exclusive skin upon unlock, which can only be obtained by using the armory system. > > > > The second unique aspect of the Legendary items, their skin, is going to be challenged here? That would obviously depend on how good these skins are going to be, and even then it's a very subjective decision, but still this exclusive look, if it's any good, will make Heirloom weapons even better than they already are. > > > > Nothing sparklier than your average Black Lion Claim Ticket weapon skin, it's just an incentive to use the system. > > Also, it works as a compensation as well, so you don't feel like storing ascended is a waste of money. If you later decide to store a legendary, at least you got a skin for storing ascended before it. Alternatively, we could force players to store at least 3 ascended pieces before being able to store the legendary piece, and just use generic ascended skins for the heirloom versions. That could be an interesting way to increase the storage price without asking for raw gold. > > > @"maddoctor.2738" said: > > Finally we have this part > > > Any ascended or legendary equipment piece can be stored inside the Armory. Once stored, it can't be taken out. Stored equipment will appear directly inside the equipment tab, taking no inventory space. > > > > So 35 inventory items taking no space at all? Either in the bank or any character's inventory? That's huge on its own as the maximum a bag slot can contain is 32 (less than the needed 35) and it requires 400 gems to unlock, bringing us to other important savings compared to using the legendary weapon. > > Bag space stopped being relevant with the introduction of shared inventory slots and unidentified gear. Also, I'd wager the number of players carrying inventories full of gear for every specific situation is pretty low. Most players won't even notice the inventory size difference. > > > @"Mungo Zen.9364" said: > > > @"Lonami.2987" said: > > > > @"Mungo Zen.9364" said: > > While a system could be sorted out to balance this, it would likely make Ascended gear prohibitively costly. For example I can farm Ascended gear from Living World Seasons to attain say, multiple Ascended backpacks far faster than the Legendary counterpart. Instead of having to farm PvP/WvW and Instanced PvE content I can casually run around an open map farming a set currency. This ease of access means that a player can pick the stats they know they will use, farm that and do so at a fraction the investment of a Legendary. > > > > As you stated, Legendaries do get all stats which is a bonus for sure but, there are 52 (I think I counted right) stat combo for armor/weapon it appears, how many of those would the average player need or want? If given the system you presented, how many stat sets do you think players will farm for? 3? 5? 10? And once invested in your system, would a player be more likely to put more Ascended gear into it, or break from it and start farming Legendaries? There are many Ascended items that can be farmed with no Tradeskills, no Instances, no Competitive Modes, no Collections, no Quests.... > > > > To avoid this trap and to keep Legendaries relevant, the cost to either attain Ascended gear would have to increase or the cost to use your proposed system would need to be relatively high to not detract from Legendaries investment. All things that could be sorted out for sure, but given that Legendary already fulfills this purpose (or will with the Legendary armory) why have Ascended do the same at a potentially increased cost? > > > > As a player, I used to be a hardcore MinMaxer, someone who put the minimum required into the game to get the maximum effect. That part of me loves your suggestion as it would bypass the need to ever look at Legendary items. The time investment, having to suck it up and figure out PvP and WvW, the crafting mats and quests, all gone and forgotten. Your system would make it easier for me to ignore giant chunks of game content in the pursuit of Legendaries. I have no shame in exploiting what I perceive as gaps or weaknesses in game systems (not cheating just, taking advantage of what is presented) and your system presents a gap between Legendaries and Ascended I could drive a truck through. > > Well, we could reduce crafting costs for ascended armor, but then highly increase the storage costs. The end cost would be the same for crafted ascended equipment, but get more expensive for loot and vendor options. > > Still, I see no problem at gear becoming more accessible. GW2 was never meant to have gear treadmills, hell, back at release legendaries were just skins, and ascended gear didn't even exist, exotic being the best rarity. > > > @"Yuffi.2430" said: > > I appreciate you spent a lot of time designing your new system, and it is good to share ideas. > > However, at present the only differences between Ascended and Legendary items is that Legendary items look better (opinions may vary) and can change stats (which is useful). Your armory system reduces this to Legendary items have a different skin. So what's the point of having them at all? > > It's not hard to get ascended items, and these are already the highest stats you can get. Currently the only disadvantage for ascended items is if you want to have several different stat options on one character, where multiple sets take up space in your inventory/bank. Even then, it's much cheaper to buy more storage for this than to make a Legendary set. > > **Most people only make legendary weapons for the skin, don't they?** Stat selection was only added years after release. > > > @"Cleopatra.4068" said: > > Legendary equipment was originally supposed to be a prestige item. It had the same stats and utility as exotic armor. All the additional perks of legendary armor were added later. I don’t really care if it gets devalued or not. > > > > I like this idea. > > Same thing happened when the wardrobe was introduced, lot of people went mad since now you could reskin any weapon as legendary, making their weapons loss all their value and whatnot. > > Then legendary weapons proceeded to spike in price anyway, **since 99% of the people only cares about the skin.** Ahh the lols You say Legendary items are primarily desired for the skins, suggesting Legendary items have no other value. Yet, you want to have Ascended gear able to Stat Swap and Gear Share, something that is unique to Legendary items. I'll go out on a limb here to suggest that Stat Swapping and Gear Sharing (when it arrives) might be another, albeit _tiny_, reason that players work towards Legendary items.

> @"Lonami.2987" said: > > @"Mungo Zen.9364" said: > > It feels like the Heirloom system you detailed above will devalue Legendary gear. Part of the draw of the Armory is that it will provide _more_ value for Legendary gearing, potentially driving more players to invest their time and gold into farming and crafting Legendary gear. The gear sharing option of Legendary Armory has already inspired many players to start their first Legendary or work towards adding more to their collection. > > > > By pairing that same advantage with Ascended gear, you make Ascended more valuable to attain as well. If a player can cherry pick the stats they want by crafting Ascended gear and using your Heirloom system, then why would they ever move towards crafting Legendary items? > > The only thing this system does is saving you the hassle to moving accountbound gear between characters. > > The value of legendary gear is that it has all the existing stats, present and future. I don't think it needs anything else. I think you are devaluing the system you presented in the OP. It does a lot more than just easing the hassle of moving account bound gear. That is the concern being raised, is that it is very strong compared to what Legendary is providing. So strong that it makes Legendaries potentially worse in the long run. Why? The cost (gold/time/mats) to attain a Legendary item is far greater than that to attain an Ascended item. While a system could be sorted out to balance this, it would likely make Ascended gear prohibitively costly. For example I can farm Ascended gear from Living World Seasons to attain say, multiple Ascended backpacks far faster than the Legendary counterpart. Instead of having to farm PvP/WvW and Instanced PvE content I can casually run around an open map farming a set currency. This ease of access means that a player can pick the stats they know they will use, farm that and do so at a fraction the investment of a Legendary. As you stated, Legendaries do get all stats which is a bonus for sure but, there are 52 (I think I counted right) stat combo for armor/weapon it appears, how many of those would the average player need or want? If given the system you presented, how many stat sets do you think players will farm for? 3? 5? 10? And once invested in your system, would a player be more likely to put more Ascended gear into it, or break from it and start farming Legendaries? There are many Ascended items that can be farmed with no Tradeskills, no Instances, no Competitive Modes, no Collections, no Quests.... To avoid this trap and to keep Legendaries relevant, the cost to either attain Ascended gear would have to increase or the cost to use your proposed system would need to be relatively high to not detract from Legendaries investment. All things that could be sorted out for sure, but given that Legendary already fulfills this purpose (or will with the Legendary armory) why have Ascended do the same at a potentially increased cost? As a player, I used to be a hardcore MinMaxer, someone who put the minimum required into the game to get the maximum effect. That part of me loves your suggestion as it would bypass the need to ever look at Legendary items. The time investment, having to suck it up and figure out PvP and WvW, the crafting mats and quests, all gone and forgotten. Your system would make it easier for me to ignore giant chunks of game content in the pursuit of Legendaries. I have no shame in exploiting what I perceive as gaps or weaknesses in game systems (not cheating just, taking advantage of what is presented) and your system presents a gap between Legendaries and Ascended I could drive a truck through. Edit Seems we were all responding to you at the same time...with similar responses....

> @"Veprovina.4876" said: > > @"Kondor.2904" said: > > > @"Veprovina.4876" said: > > > > @"Touchme.1097" said: > > > > If you don't have the Crystal Champion mastery all done I suggest you start the skyscale first, it's the poor people's choice because it's cheaper in gold then the Griffon but it's more grindy. The Griffon can be faster than a Skyscale in some situations and it can dive at an incredibly fast speed and you can mount on a Griffon while falling from a cliff or while gliding but it takes longer than a Skyscale to master. > > > > > > Why does that matter for the Griffon? I have 2/4 of that mastery trained. > > > > > > And thank you all for your input. I will consider getting skyscale as well. > > > But, since the griffon only requires gold and a collection (no gathering), i can probably work on both simultaniously. Cause skyscale will take way more time to get than griffon, and as i do griffon collections, i can do some skyscale gathering as well. Still need to get to that story part to unlock the collection for skyscale in the first place. So griffon might be done sooner. > > > > I would say those masteries affect griffon to much lesser degree than skyscale. But imo the vigor one and the leap masteries are essential for skyscale, it's a completely different experience when you are not able to use 4 dashes, instantly regain altitude or use the dash-boosted leap to quickly mount off. Griffon is pretty much the same experience with or without them (being a bit more pleasant with, of course), but skyscale is not skyscale without them. I actually suspect that might be the reason some people dislike skyscale, they don't have those masteries or don't use them. > > > @"Dawdler.8521" said: > > Between the two a fully mastered skyscale is a mount you use 99% of the time and the other 1% is a griffon on that very specific route from point A to point B on a very specific boss meta on a very specific map where you *could* use the skyscale, you'll just arrive a little later. > > Interesting. So it seems most people feel like Skyscale is the way. :smile: > Well, it couldn't hurt to start it, i'm doing that story now anyway, i might as well start collecting stuff for it. :smile: > > Thank you! I tend to think the question is "Do I get Griffon _before or after_ Skyscale?" The answer is Yes. While many blow up Skyscale to be the be 'the best' mount, I far prefer Griffon in many situations, but both are equally useful when used properly. The suggestion I didn't see here was to use Bjora Marches (Icebrood Saga Chapter 2 and 3) to help farm for your Skyscale. Eternal Ice can be converted into the currency for Skyscale at a faster rate than farming Season 4 maps, the gold generation is pretty decent at the same time as farming the Eternal Ice. Whichever mount you get first, it will make getting the second one easier!

I started as a Necro Chill Reaper main around HoT. My backup at the time was Ranger Druid. After leaving the game for a couple of years I came back and Mesmer Chrono has become my main. I still use Necro as my secondary character, primarily for Fractals but also story completion and OW stuffs. Revenant if I ever WvW, Elementalist if I want something different. Necro is really the hardest hitting character I have, definitely more of the srsbsns toon. A lot of fun but, Mesmer is just right for my play style.

It feels like the Heirloom system you detailed above will devalue Legendary gear. Part of the draw of the Armory is that it will provide _more_ value for Legendary gearing, potentially driving more players to invest their time and gold into farming and crafting Legendary gear. The gear sharing option of Legendary Armory has already inspired many players to start their first Legendary or work towards adding more to their collection. By pairing that same advantage with Ascended gear, you make Ascended more valuable to attain as well. If a player can cherry pick the stats they want by crafting Ascended gear and using your Heirloom system, then why would they ever move towards crafting Legendary items?

I would probably engage more in PvP and WvW if I didn't have to relearn my class skills and traits when changing game modes. When I have engaged with PvP or WvW it is on a profession I don't play in PvE to help keep it simple. I can't say the learning curve is as steep going from PvP to PvE when compared to going from PvE to PvP, but taking my WvW only toon into Open World also has had it's challenges/learning experiences. This isn't unique to this game, most games with competitive split between PvP and PvE have the same issue. I master a profession in one game mode to become a total noob in the other. PvP and WvW throw a lot of stuff at you before you consider that the professions traits and skills change as well. I would prefer to see more PvP or WvW centric traits and skills as separate options to PvE centric traits and skills. This way when changing game modes you are looking to change your build to the skills and traits preferred for that mode, not reuse existing but functionally different skills and traits. Wow there appears to be 800+ split skills in this game?!?!?! https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Category:Split_skills

So far I haven't bothered to go back into DRM having finished what was required for the story progress and event. If I decide I care to grind out the CM and AP then I will take the time to make my own Private group with friends and guildies, but there is no incentive to spend my time doing so. What reason or incentive is there for using the Public options when joining DRM? Who is served by this haphazard mash of solo and grouped pseudo party instanced content? What is the intended experience for these players in this content?

For myself it isn't about the incentives of loot or rewards, it is about how different the game modes are in relation to your character skills and traits. In PvP and WvW the skills are different than PvE, and in some cases vastly different (hello Mes 1 dodge as a glaring example). I appreciate that different game modes will require different builds, but if the skills and traits worked the same in every game mode it would encourage exploration between modes. Put another way, from my perspective you need to know all the professions twice, once for PvE and once for everything else, as the differences appear to be that significant.

> @"moony.5780" said: > > @"kharmin.7683" said: > > Those who choose to ignore my request will continue to do so anyway. > And how to make them stop that they dont ruin the game for others? > You don't, you accept that some players/people are going to do their own thing. However, I say this believing that the issues presented in this thread are not as widespread as claimed. I do my dailies, I go to these low level areas, and I see plenty of events that are not over instantly. I see players asking others to auto attack and slow DPS, to not use their mounts, and generally, it is effective enough. Perhaps you should focus your energy on smaller groups of players and promote healthy game play and interactions one party or squad at a time.

> @"Crackmonster.2790" said: > > @"kharmin.7683" said: > > > @"Crackmonster.2790" said: > > > > @"Ashantara.8731" said: > > > > As you can see, opinions vary broadly. There is no right or wrong answer to your question. > > > > > > > > The easiest profession is always the one you have the most practice in playing. > > > > > > So you are saying all classes are equally difficult in their own way? Well, yes, that is what you are saying but that could never be true - and how does it help OP? It's like when someone asks what is the best class -and someone answers its the class that you enjoy playing the most. - it's not answering the question. > > That's because the original premise is flawed in that it is entirely subjective. > > > Necro from my experience is quite very very easy for high power, nothing much complicated. Most classes are actually very hard to play right at the higher levels. > > Which is your opinion. Doesn't necessarily make your answer to the OP right or wrong. That's what we're getting at. > > > > Okay then, in your world where there are not a lot of basic classes and a lot much harder, requiring faster reactions, more complex and more punishing and requiring much deeper knowledge of other classes to be successful. In that world yea anything is "just like your opinion man". > > Too bad that world is not reality. > > For pve for example many of the rankings on snowcrows are quite accurate and they usually give a note about how easy it is to do alright but also how hard it is to play well. > > > @"Mungo Zen.9364" said: > > Sometimes the question asked isn't answered directly as the question itself is not a 'good' question. The question "What is the 'best' or 'easiest' class" does not have an objective answer in this game. > > > > That's his question to ask, not you to decide if he should be okay to ask this or if its a wrong perspective. > > There are many shades of grey as earlier posts showed, but just plain saying its just like your opinion man about anything is misleading. > > Look, the thing is. When you are asking this question you are looking for information, when you google best classes or good classes or favorite classes in any game etc as you get into a game, to get a clue what classes make sense - then you will realize every time someone posts this it's just an empty response like a filler. A well intentioned filler, we can call it a spiritual filler to be nice, but ultimately it's just something to read past as it adds none of the information you are looking for. It's actually offtopic that logically conceals itself as being on topic but is really not. Unless you magically catch the guy who needs that answer even though it was not what he was looking for. > The question "What is the easiest profession to play" does not have a single correct answer, it has many. In this thread we see Mesmer, Necro and Revenant promoted as easiest, and if you dig into these forums, you will see all 9 profs being promoted as easiest. Having played with all 9 profs and all 18 e-Specs I can make an argument for each Profession to be the _easiest_. In as much as stating a specific profession is easiest, it should also be okay to promote that _any_ profession is easy to play as well. I feel for the OP, I hope they figured out what they were going to do with the lvl 80 boost as their thread has been somewhat hijacked. @"Orpheus.7891" If you still need assistance, can you perhaps provide more details as to what type of gameplay you enjoy, what other games you have played etc. The more info there is to go on the better the response you will get.

> @"Tseison.4659" said: > > @"HotDelirium.7984" said: > > > > > > > > But again, i wouldn't want that if it means further imbalance to the mesmer and further future nerfs that might eventually happen because of this. Because then anet nerfs one thing that affects all others that never needed nerfs in the first place due to how closely everything on mesmer is tied to the shatters and illusion generation. > > > > I guess internal software could make it generate other things in their stead like instead of clones and phantasms gain 10 stacks of might/gain 1,000 health etc. but that does lead to balancing issues for other traits. > > I updated my post but I'll mention here as to what I wrote just to bump the thread again. Basically, my thoughts in balancing are to merge shatter traits into the shatters themselves, which will free up a lot of traits to be filled with something else. Which I think would be great because it’ll give the class a chance to get unique and better traits that can be focused on the Mesmer itself or their utility skills and less on the shatter mechanic. I've gone through the entire list of shatter traits and it's very distasteful how there are so many of them, but it's 99.9% doable to have them simply "come with" the shatter(s). > > At first I was thinking maybe the next E-Spec would follow the same route as the Soul Beast and we'd get some form of stat buffs but I don't think they'd recycle something like that since it's nothing new. Perhaps I am looking at this from a significantly different angle than you. Shatters are the core mechanic for Mesmer, just as Virtues are for Guardians, Adrenaline for Warriors etc. These profession specific mechanics all have multiple Core traits associated with them, some just as underwhelming as Mesmer's worst, some arguably better than Mesmer's best.. So one argument for or against this would include "if Mesmers Prof Mechanics are baked in, all classes should have similar treatment." Most professions appear to have 4-6 Core traits that affect the Prof Mechanic. I believe that while you could bake all these traits into the prof mechanic, it doesn't actually improve anything unless there is something created to fill the void. So what do you suggest we replace these traits with? Is it Mesmer specific or does it apply to all professions?

> @"Super Hayes.6890" said: > I have seen season packs for sale on my kid's accounts before. The price was adjusted for episodes they already had. Correct Below link is to LWS3 on wiki. Scroll down and you can see where it has been on sale at a reduced cost. Appears to be every few months one or all LWS go on sale. https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Living_World_Season_3_Complete_Pack You can see it has been marked down as much as 30-40% at different times.

> @"Crackmonster.2790" said: > > @"Ashantara.8731" said: > > As you can see, opinions vary broadly. There is no right or wrong answer to your question. > > > > The easiest profession is always the one you have the most practice in playing. > > So you are saying all classes are equally difficult in their own way? Well, yes, that is what you are saying but that could never be true - and how does it help OP? It's like when someone asks what is the best class -and someone answers its the class that you enjoy playing the most. - it's not answering the question. > Sometimes the question asked isn't answered directly as the question itself is not a 'good' question. The question "What is the 'best' or 'easiest' class" does not have an objective answer in this game. A better response to the OP is "What do you like" as it starts the conversation towards "What is the easiest class _for me!_" Judging by the majority of responses on these forums to questions similar to the OP, it generally ends up with responders suggesting the player take time and enjoy the game. To try several professions, to explore what they enjoy, and focus on that, rather than trying to answer "What is easiest". There unfortunately is not a single right answer to the OP question (actually, this is quite fortunate, it means we have great variety) .

What need does your suggestion fulfill? If we rule out Ascended and Legendary gear, and assume any gear being traded would not have Runes, Sigils, Infusions or Enhancements in them, nor will the Skin be transferred. That leaves Exotics and lower. You mentioned a cost for making this change, what would the cost threshold be? I ask as it is pretty easy to just send someone a few gold to buy gear, which is what I do when helping new friends out. Alternately I help them grind out some Karma and go get the exotic karma armor from Orr. So what problem does your suggestion resolve? What QoL improvement does this provide the player?

There area a lot of little things that could be very interesting to me. As a competitive noob in both PvP and WvW I would like to see the gap between skills/traits removed or at least tightened up. Part of the reason I don't engage in these competitive modes is due to the differences in skills and expected outcomes. Mirage with one dodge is the easiest example but there are a lot of differences in every profession. With this being an expac and a rebalance coming with assumed new Elites, this would be a good time to do a holistic pass and bring PvE closer to PvP/WvW.

After the last 2 releases (or was that 1 release in 2 parts...) there hasn't been enough to be excited by, I am not expecting anything. Considering how badly the launch of Truce went, anything can be better, but even then I don't put that expectation on Anet. What would be nice is if the content and rewards are good enough to be replayable to get the achievements, something I couldn't be bothered to do so far. If Anet treats this content like fluff before the expac then as a player, I will also treat it like fluff.

I wonder how many Gifts of Exploration are rotting in players banks? I don't suggest being able to sell single GoE but perhaps a way to convert them into a currency that can be traded/sold and used to buy GoE might be interesting. IE: Players has some GoE, trades them for Shard of Exploration and puts those on the TP and can generate some gold from this. Another player, buys Shards of Exploration to combine/trade into one Gift of Exploration. In the above example I fully expect GoE value to drop from the black market value of 500g, and in turn Legendary would also take a drop in price. This could be mitigated by adjusting the number of Shards required to make one Gift. I would suggest starting around 30 Shards = 1 Gift to reduce the likelihood of GoE being overly devalued. This means 15 players complete World Exploration and sell all collected Shards to fund 1 Legendary. Perhaps that number looks better at 50-1 or even 100-1. Either way, there could be a way to take those rotting GoE, have players able to turn them into cash and other players then able to buy the GoE without doing the actual work.

Am I incorrect in recalling that _buffing_ players in an event helps towards event inclusion? I am not, I just tested it. I took my staff Ele into an event (Troublemakers in Amnoon) and **only** used my heals. Confirmed no dmg dealt in log, and got Bronze inclusion. This is a tact I use in any zerg or whatnot, is to always be buffing/healing players to help increase my inclusion. That you do not need to target and hit the enemy but instead buff players is helpful. The cases where I miss an event is usually being unable to buff friendlies or target an enemy (usually in the final seconds of an event). As a follow up, just did Choya Pinata, got Gold inclusion with a total of 3 regen healing and no DPS by spamming heals and protection.

Instead of asking ‘is it worth it?’ perhaps ‘do you need it?’ There are a number of collections that require you to craft specific items. Usually weapon or armor but sometimes unique items. Usually these require 400 or 500 level crafting (but not always). Leveling crafting can be very easy using one of the above guides. You can use some Experience boosters to speed up the process and reduce the cost as well. However, you can avoid crafting and the associated collections completely and not miss much if anything from the game.