Yasi.9065

You can help yourself out by using exotic magi trinkets+back with plat. doubloons. Its ofc in no way the best build, but it should do until you can replace the exotics with ascended harrier ones.

You loose around 15% boon duration, and a lot of power, but shouldnt reflect negatively on your might uptime. For fury, it might be a bit tight, havent really tried how much boonduration is really necessary for 100% fury uptime on two groups. I just know 95% is enough ^^

Dont know, are there exotic harrier trinkets for karma?

You shouldnt need more than 30% boon duration imo, and that you can get with switching runes and oil.

Sword for torch illu I thought about, but its really a rather close thing... dueling? you mean the < 75% minor trait? Id rather not try that in pugs.

> @masskillerxploit.2165 said:

> srsly raids and fractals can be beaten by bots. Nothing compares to what hardmode was in gw1.

Sorry, but the fact is... in reality quite the reverse is true. Though thats not really something to discuss here.

I stand by my statement, difficulty wise raids are challenging enough and not too challenging. Just a weekly reset of challenge mote rewards would be greatly appreciated, so its worth re-doing them. They are imo quite nicely done.

But I guess the whole "babymode" discussion quelled that, since if we get repeatable challenge motes, rpg'ers are gonna increase their whining for babymode. Im quite sure Anet doesnt want to do that.

I could understand a stance-share soulbeast, but pure condi soulbeast? I just cant see it.

Hm, I cant agree on either statement.

Dungeon rewards are okay, if you have a fixed group to run dungeons with reasonably fast once a day.

The rewards drop below crappy if you have to rely on lfg, or if you run dungeons more than once a day.

But with a good group and cherry picking only the most rewarding dungeon paths once a day, rewards are really quite nice. And its fun.

> @xDudisx.5914 said:

> My bet is that raids will become soon what spvp is today. Used to be really important for anet, but due to the number of players who do it been really small compared to open world it will end up low on the priority list.

At this point, 5 years after release, every "free" content is in the same boat. Be it sPvP, fractals/raids, openworld metas/events, etc. Where there is no money to be made, theres only maintenance being done, with a "goody" thrown in there once or twice a year.

I wouldnt be surprised if Anet isnt really already drafting up ideas for guild wars 3.

> @xDudisx.5914 said:

> Make the gliph give might and fury instead of a a dmg % increase.

Actually, the real reason to take 2 druids still is cc and... fury.

Support renegade cant provide fury, and alacrity is covered by chronos anyway. For AP you can take a dps renegade.

Support herald can provide fury, but not as much dps or cc as druid. Still, its the 1st runner up if you dont want to run 2 druids.

Support tempest can only provide fury if he gets fury from somewhere else, has no really useful unique buff, less cc and less dps than druid, thanks to air overload nerfs.

Support weaver cant bring anything not already covered, except heals.

So really, the problem isnt GoE. The problem is that there's so few sources of aoe fury. And that the new DPS builds have just so few cc.

If they would for example, change warhorn 4 on tempest to always give fury (not just double it back) or change the seriously annoying regen trait on chronos into a fury trait... That would be changes that actually really would help.

Dont get me wrong, but raids/fractals are group content and content for at least semi experienced players, with lowlevel fractals offering a perfect starting point into instanced endcontent in gw2. Its not as if we are talking about lvl50 storyline steps here.

And with the amount of really good guides + the very nicely maintained game wiki at every players fingertips, newcommers have a really nice foundation to start from.

The last balance patch opened up group comp diversity to some extent, and with the amount of builds in the current meta, there should be something for everybody.

The thing is, in group content you always have to compromize. So you want to play holosmith and be a healer? Its just not good for the group. But then, you can still play a dps holosmith or an engineer healer up to some extent. The more challenging the content, the more strict the compromizes. In raids, you will have trouble convincing people to take your engi healer, since it really is the worst of all possible healer builds, bringing the least to the table in terms of extras.

Well, I dont know how it was "supposed" to work, fact is... it didnt ^^ First time I met one, I was baffled as to how someone on a holosmith can actually do even less dps than me on harrier druid, didnt notice any extra healing but the pug group was bad, so I didnt think too much about it.

Next time I encountered one I switched to condi might druid, because no use in running two healers, right? Lets just say, it didnt end well.

And third time I was helping a friend get the last few fractals needed for achievement and played dh... holosmith was healing, according to him, my friend and I didnt get any of that prime healing though.

Now healing holosmiths are on my "avoid at all costs" list, even before bearbow rangers ^^ Id have to see a video of someone healing massively with that build before letting one join.

Its the same as with raids, some people need a dedicated healer on Gorseval, others dont. For fractals I have both. A condi might stack druid (love it so much ^^) and a harrier druid. If the condi variant doesnt work, I switch to harrier and carry with big heals when people fail at mechanics.

My favourite fractals comp btw hasnt changed at all ^^. Druid, Condi War, Berserker Chrono, Weaver, DH. The only difference now... druid stacks might and fury instead of warrior.

I really like the change, I just wish we had more sources for groupwide fury, getting reduced to using tigerpet kinda sucks after having so much utility at my fingers before patch ;)

As for pug fractals... 1 druid is kinda best in slot still, but the warrior isnt anymore. Sure banners are nice, but you can do without, so that means, if you arent speedclearing, 4 dps + 1 harrier druid is a very solid comp now for raids. You can replace that one druid with a healing revenant, or to some extent with a d/wh tempest, but the druid is still the best variant imo. Healing holosmith is NOT a good build, contrary to people trying that in fractals yesterday (met at least 3 of them -.-)

About the quickness alacrity uptime in solo subgroup. I had today around 30-50% uptime on both as a solo harrier druid, whereas the rest had 70%+. So its really not a good idea to put the condi warrior in a separate subgroup. As a harrier druid I can live with that.

Alos, as it was pointed out on reddit, fury is something that has to be considered as well as cc in the new raid comps.

Was doing w1 and w2 today with mostly only one harrier druid in my own little subgroup, and with good chronos, fury uptime with tiger + warhorn was around 95-99% (no fgj). However, on sloth the stunbreaks were missing and on matthias we switched to 2 druids for the heals anyway.

CC wasnt a big problem, chronos brought moa / well for VG, Gorse, Sloth and Matt. In addition we had a mirage/reaper and 2 holosmiths on pretty much every encounter, so its doable. The holosmiths help a lot with the cc.

Ofcourse, its a bit tight, and not much room for errors.

Btw, just because you dont NEED two warriors or two druids anymore, doesnt mean you cant still run that. If you, for example, run with 2 condi warriors - which are still a solid dps choice - you can run with at least 1 fgj without sacrificing too much dps.

Theres other choices as well for covering the fury problem. Heal revenant with condi might stack druid is a solid option imo. Or Harrier druid + d/wh tempest (maybe go for earth/water on matthias, and fire/air on easy bosses). Stances soulbeast gives about as much fury as fgj if I remember correctly, just switch sharpening stone for moa stance.

> @nsleep.7839 said:

> Even if they get better balance and compositions are more varied this doesn't change the fact that the raids currently:

>

> * Aren't rewarding. Most of us are playing raids because it's fun and we probably enjoy the social/community aspect it brings.

> * Aren't challenging enough. Any decent coordinated group will beat all bosses with minutes to spare on enrage timers, dps checks are too lenient and healer pressure isn't even a thing in most encounters.

> * Are very bugged. Fixes, of only a few things that they actually decide to do it, take months and usually a bunch of new weird interactions arise with it.

> * Have a very sparse release schedule. Many raiders I knew are leaving to other games because for them waiting 9+ months between releases has made them really burned with the current content, which takes less than three hours to go through every week. (And considering the previous point, it amazes me how many bugs got through such long intervals.)

>

> I know that some of these things require harsh changes, for example, increasing the skill floor required to raids or lowering the skill ceiling so the encounters could be more fine tuned in terms of balance, and there would be backlashes from the community, but something must be done to addres at least some of these issues with the next release.

Huh? Im missing something. I get around 70-100g per week on my fullclear, usually done in 2-2.5 hours. Thats pretty rewarding I think, not even counting the MS or ascended stuff in that.

Raids are actually pretty nicely done on a difficulty scale. Pugs can finish them, pros can finish them faster. The only gripe I have with it, is that Id like to have the challenge motes be a weekly thing in which you can get an extra LI and maybe some food boxes or other loot. Doesnt even have to be premium loot, just... a tiny bit more than normal boss drops. Maybe a new currency that you can exchange for pretty things?

Raids are actually not THAT bugged. Not in the least to be compared with the state Dungeons are in. Pathfinding is a huge problem on some bosses, but hey... you can work around it and imo its not critical. Dungeons on the other hand you get quite a lot of stalling bugs, which are way more serious than VG not wanting to cross seeker spawn points or MO going sightseeing. Tried Arah last week, and ofc we got stuck with NPC not reacting anymore because we killed mobs too fast. THATS bugged. Raids are okay all in all. Not more bugged than fractals. Well compared to 100CM even less bugged ^^ but lets not include those to keep Ben happy ;)

The release schedule really is a problem. A year between each raid is way too long. A way to counter this problem is to bring in more challenge motes on a weekly reset timer. So if some guilds want to spend 20 hours a week on raids, they can do that by repeating challenge motes.

Make it that a fullclear is mandatory for the repeatable challenge motes loot, and let us spawn the bosses on the cleared wings via said motes.

And suddenly a year between raid releases isnt that long anymore.

That being said, I love raids. Its pretty much the only thing that keeps me in this game. And Im okay with others not liking raids, afterall anet offers very diverse content, which is absolutely great.

But I have to say, reading through this thread (and others regarding new raid meta), the amount of hate and malice non-raid players show towards the so called "elitists" is staggering. If you dont like a certain part of the game, just dont play it. I dont like openworld, I think its boring. Still, Im not going around and belittle or hate on every little openworld content that gets added to the game. I dont go around posting stuff like "I hope living story will be discontinued and it goes down the drain like dungeons", just because I find living story tedious.

> @Veprovina.4876 said:

>[...]

> And envy is not a poor generalization because i never said it's the only reason why people buy skins, only that *this particular aspect of why people buy skins* dissapears when you see everyone as placeholders. Which is true. It's a standard marketing practice among a lot of companies, they won't call it that of course, but you can't deny that, if you see something that appeals to you, you want it. That's how advertising works, that's how anyone sells you clothes, image, various products, and in guild wars 2, it's how arena net sells skins. Not the only way, but a big part of it.

See, the thing is, such an option exists already for gemstore only items, namely instruments. I have player instruments usually muted, doesnt keep people from buying the instruments and playing them.

And Im not comparing apple and cheese with that even. Auditory, player instruments had as much of an impact as mountskins and some gliderskins do visually.

Also, I buy quite a lot of gemstore skins - mostly armors, weapons and gliders, and I did that knowing very well, that some or even most people couldnt see how stylish my character looked (I played quite a bit of PvP and WvW, where most have standard models due to less visual clutter). But who cares anyway. I customize my character for me. And if I want to show off a good look, I post a screenshot.

I dont run around, having to constantly shove my customization down others throats, far from it. So I really cant understand your point, and I honestly think its quite a minority point since in all my hours spent in gw2, I never met someone with that kind of... need for admiration.

Thank you so much for that screenshot, as it illustrates perfectly the problem I have with mount and glider skins. It started getting really bad with the raven glider and now it got to the point where I just... cant take it anymore. :(

Probably still gonna be 2x chrono, 1x condi druid/soulbeast, 1x heal druid. And instead of 2 cps its 1 condi berserker, rest fill up with dps.

Only exception: KC due to power only mechanic and subsequently no condi subgroup.

Condi renegade still cant keep up 100% alacrity, imo, so we are still in nearly the same position with 2x chrono as before patch.

Condi druid/soulbeast only brings sunspirit and glyphs, heal druid brings the other spirits and glyphs. Im pretty sure tiger and warhorn is enough to keep up fury, though other sources sure make it easier on the chronos. You still have 3 cc pets on bosses where necessary, and overall you gain 1 full dps slot, while getting more defense due to stonespirit.

Speedclear probably can run this with 2 condi druids (one of them with traveler runes maybe?)

All in all, power dps are fighting a loosing battle to stay in meta for bosses other than KC. Well except Holosmith, that is. So EA isnt mandatory anymore in each group.

Tbh, Id probably run something like this on every boss except KC, even though its not optimal on VG, Gorse or Sloth either.

Group1: Chrono, Buffdruid, Holosmith, Condi Renegade, Condi Berserker

Group2: Chrono, Condidruid/soulbeast, Fill with nice dps combos, maybe a scourge if you have trouble with sustain or adds

But... I havent tested more than a few builds so far, so this is highly theoretical.

I wasnt really going to post anything, because my interest in mountskins is exactly zero. Except they are giving me eye-cancer so much, Im starting to avoid LA, Aerodrome and openworld squads just so I dont quit the game entirely.

But the direction the gemshop has taken in the last few months is - put mildly - worrisome. Im one of those people that spends around 10 Euro each month on gems to support the game. I could just convert gold to gems instead if I really wanted to, but well... its my way to show appreciation for good graphics.

If theres not a current skin/item I want, then I usually spend that money on black lion keys for the fun of it. Having black lion chest only skins as rare drops was already getting a bit weird, but hey, at least you can reasonably get enough keys to get every 2nd or so of those skins ingame. If you dont have really really bad luck.

And thats just the thing. Putting money and RNG in the same pot makes for disgruntled customers. Always. Its never gonna be satisfying and in the long run, the gemshop will loose out.

Because for every one person that spends the needed RNG frustration and money for the one skin they want... one or more people will just leave the game behind.

It might bring a short influx of money to Anet, but it will be ultimately the death of it. To say it as directly as possible: the mount stuff going on? Thats EA tactics. And how do EA games usually end up? Correct, they are sequeled to death to squeeze the last bit out of them. Id hate to see the last reasonably good mmo go down that way.

So, Dear Anet. If you love your game, dont go down that road.

Un-RNG all skins. Increase gold to gem conversion to incentivize spending money over converting gold to gems. Increase item rewards, decrease cash rewards.

Thats a healthy way to keep the gemshop alive.

Forcing people to buy 29 mountskins they hate just for 1 skin they love, thats just wrong.

Hey :)

I was seeing a LOT of new mountskins today in LA, and on Xera I had - again - someone with that obnoxious pink colored ravenglider blinding me on every leyline passage... thats when I thought:

Cant we PLEASE have the option to display glider and mounts clientside standard model for others?

Like we can limit the amount of charactermodels and then get standardmodels instead of fancy fashion wars?

I really dont have anything against personal choices, and if you like your pink raven glider, then imo... you should be able to enjoy it. And Im okay with people being able to display their legendaries with all the bling, dang and ta-dam.

BUT... the mountskins and gliderskins are getting out of hand. In some raids or openworld squads GW2 starts to resemble a badly colored 90s website instead of the stylish graphics I bought this game for.

> @Kalendraf.9521 said:

> I've been playing since release, and I salvage all blues and greens (weapons & armors), and nearly all yellow/gold (armors), but I'm nowhere near maxing out luck yet.

Ditto, I hit max a few weeks ago. Never rushed it. But now Im starting to REALLY get annoyed by it. Why cant Anet just turn off the luck drops once you hit max when you are max? Cant be THAT difficult to write a script for. Having a useless drop just feels worse than having none at all. Having a drop I cant even VENDOR but have to TRASH, thats just....

Like finding a 10 year old oreo behind your refrigerator.

This is getting REALLY ridiculous and annoying. I mean, seriously. What. The. F...

So, switched maps, event was nearly halfway done already, about 1/3 grad bar done (so I wasnt the first)... I died on purpose after the first target destroyed... and could finish the achievement.

Meaning: Some events just spawn with bugged targets. If you cant destroy a target, abort and try on another map.

Tried for the first time, first target was bugged, every other target worked... but since you need to hit all... no achievement.

No, I didnt die before starting the event or during, I didnt attempt it before - ever, hadnt even seen that event there before - and nobody else was in sight when the event started, so I was the first player to do that event.

Spend over 30min on that meta event from start to finish... for my troubles I got:

1 blue random weapon AND 1 blue unidentified gear.

Like all the PoF metas, just not worth my time.

> @Spiral.3724 said:

> Halloween is my favourite!! I love it more than Wintersday. :D

Im always like that before Halloween starts... and then its over and Wintersday Hype starts :blush: I just love the short wait between those two fun events. Both definitely help me make it through the boring winter days here :smile:

> @Amineo.8951 said:

> Hey, why don't you buff the other professions to be on par with Weaver in term of DPS? Each has 2 Elite specs now so it's not gonna change anything balance wise, it'll make the game more fun and have more variety in fractals and raids. The same goes for Druid and Chrono being top tier support, specs like Scourge, Firebrand (it's supposed to be a support spec btw yet it's DPS atm, mm'kay) and Herald/Renegade needs much more love in that aspect...

>

> I'm just saying this because of the obligatory "2 Chrono, 2 Druids, 2 PS and 4 Weaver" meta coming soon...

Id rather have Anet fix Elementalist RNG party. Make Meteor, Air Overload, DMG Glyphe, Icebow 4 into pulsing AoE with constant dmg. Nice constant dmg, worthy of an elementalist.

And the free'd up server ressources can then be put into making buffs 10man in raids, solving the rest of your problems too.

But alas. Anet so proud of Meteor, never gonna change it. Instead they invent even more ridiculous things like the MeteorImmunityShield, to try to balance RNG outliers.

God, yes, please fix this finally Anet.