Hannelore.8153

> @"The Greyhawk.9107" said: > Not likely. The All effectively restricts the possible number of EDs that would have existed during the Rite to only Six, and none of those six have a corresponding Power Set that would match the Great Dwarf's power over Stone. The closest we could get would be Primordus, which is not only a stretch power set wise but also completely counter to the Rite's purpose, and Kralk, which still doesn't line up. Branded don't just change into crystal they get reshaped into abominations. Dwarves just turned to stone, their shapes didn't change. ***SPOILERS FOR ICEBROOD SAGA*** The Stone Summit tried to resist the ritual using Primordus' power and ended up transformed anyway, and corrupted on top of that. So while Dwarves may not be dragon minions, Primordus might have their knowledge, including how the ritual works. Its been shown that corrupted beings reveal all to their new masters, so he likely knows everything the dwarves knew.

Until servers are locked out and then matched against each other by a fixed population, spawn camping will continue. Its just a product of stacking and blobbing, like many other things.

Its not a per-player glitch, my guild did this dungeon recently and every player in the party just saw blobs.

I hope its different than guild halls in that we don't have to pay 100g to craft a plant decoration.

Support Thief is literally the last spec I'm waiting for. The big problem right now is while they can heal, cleanse, buff, and stealth allies, for some reason all those builds are exclusive to each other and can't be used together as a pocket healer like on other classes. For example, to heal allies effectively you need a whole bar of Venom skills, which then don't even use your own Healing Power unlike the leeching skills of Necro and Renegade which use the caster's heal scaling. And that leaves very little room for stealth abilities for quick & safe revives, or Cantrips for Might stacking, etc. Or utilities that need to be taken for cleansing due to the lack of access to Light fields for generic cleanses. You also can't readily take projectile hate at the same time either, despite Thief having some of the best skills for it. I tried very hard to make an effective support build, but there just wasn't any way to bring everything together like I could on Chrono, Druid, Firebrand, Scrapper, or Tempest. So while Thief has excellent support capabilities, until the various aspects of it can be used together simultaneously they'll never be an effective support class, just provide the occasional stealth ress or such, and that's unfortunate. But Thief has always been this way, I think. The master of one or two aspects of their builds, and lacking versatility everywhere.

The biggest reason Druid isn't used its because its just not very good at mobility. Yes, Firebrand, Scrapper and even Tempest are better supports, but if you look at what makes them better supports its not specific boons like Stability but that all their skills can be cast while moving, have low cast times overall and are difficult to interrupt, and often affect enemies in some negative way too. Imagine Firebrand without Quickness, Scrapper without Superspeed, then throw in long, often rooting skill casts. Druid is good on concept, but this is an action game where you roll over things. If Druid could realistically keep up with a group while still having all their support abilities viable, they'd still be taken by groups despite the deficiencies. Just take a look at Healbreaker, which I main. It's all about mobility in WvW.

Power is commonly known as Attack, Damage or Strength Damage(%) is a hidden stat that increases your physical damage exponentially, derived only from your build Toughness has no equivalent in most games but its basically armor points as a stat; damage reduction Vitality is commonly known as Health, Life, Constitution, or just Vitality Precision is commonly known as Accuracy, Dexterity or Critical Hit Chance Ferocity is commonly known as Critical Hit Damage, though many games don't allow you to increase it like you can here Condition Damage is commonly known as Damage Over Time Condition Duration (Expertise) is the duration of debuffs *and damaging conditions*, so it affects Damage Over Time as well Healing Power is Healing Over Time, but here it affects self-heals too, not just on allies Healing(%) is a hidden stat that increases your healing linearly to allies, derived only from your build Boon Duration (Concentration) is the duration of buffs including *Regeneration*, so it affects Healing Over Time as well Life Steal is a special mechanic affected by both Power and Healing Power

I don't understand the game's fascination with extremely grindy objectives lately.. I hope we get some meatier content near the end of the episode, but at this point its become like a long-running anime where you have to play through unrewarding filler while you wait months inbetween the actual content being released. (That said, I do like DRMs and I'm glad we're getting alot of them instead of just a few before they get abandoned.) But what I feel the most nostalgic over is how they used to constantly update the game with QoL features.

Burn Guard hasn't changed much in any of its Core, DH or FB variants. You can also do all three on the same gearset and with only separate build templates, since the only premise behind it is to use 100% Burning Duration from Balthazar(pure condi) or Flame Legion(Power backing condi e.g Grieving stats) runes, the Sigil of Smoldering, Radiant Fire(Torch) trait and 15% duration food, then taking Permeating Wrath. There's minor tweaks you can do like sacrificing to get higher raw burning damage, or Spirit Weapon burning, etc. But they all more or less operate on the same principles of exploiting max Burning Duration combined with Permeating Wrath. Its still popular in competitive modes because it can be used with tanky condi-only gear like Dire. Not much Expertise needed. Trapper DH is mostly unchanged in PvE, but the competitive variant now uses Trapper runes for stealth play. Because of the DPS loss from the mostly unused Condition Damage/Duration stats on the runes, you need to take full Marauder's gear. Its possible to also use them with burning builds that use Renewed Justice, and the other Virtue/Spear of Justice traits. You can also do quasi-burn-trapper DH using some Expertise on gear to still hit 100% Burning Duration, like with Bringer's stats. If you can't decide then this is probably the best route to go, but its not as good at either role. Just average.

The best thing they could do for turrets is just attach them to the Engineer, like Wells work now. So you'd be running around and the little Rocket Turret on your back would be firing rockets at some poor ambient deer just trying to eat some grass. The difference between Gyros and Turrets is Gyros would be pulsing fields while Turrets would be attack vectors. While we're at it, do the same thing with Ventari's tablet on Revenant.

I wouldn't rely too much on the DSD bringing revamped underwater combat. Its certainly possible but alot of players are afraid the devs will take the same cheap route other games have, where the "deep sea" maps are just land maps with an ocean as the skybox, so you're "underwater" in a shielded city or something. We won't know until it hits, though.

For Warrior at least Warbanner, Signet of Rage and Headbutt (for instant Berserk Mode) all have a solid role. I don't think Elite skills on any class are very good outside of a few exceptions. Most of them are just regular skills with very high cooldowns, and have been in need of revamps for many years. Players only take them because the slot can't be used for anything else. Not to mention that on the Core specialisations, Elites are missing for many skill types entirely (e.g Well for Necro). Alot of healing skills are in the same situation, and are only taken because players have no choice.

> @"Dadnir.5038" said: > > @"Trevor Boyer.6524" said: > > Performance of Thief is bad after 8 init shortbow 5. > > > > Honestly that change needs to be reverted. > > If the performance is bad after shortbow#5 nerf, then reverting this change would be a mistake. The level of performance of a profession shouldn't depend on a single weapon skill. > > I'm not saying that thief don't need some nice buffs, but thief certainly don't need to depend on a single skill either. Reverting the shortbow nerf will only lead thiefs to return to it's initial state where player couldn't fathom a thief build without a shortbow. The problem is, this is all Thief builds in general, not just Shortbow. Due to poor class design they have a low diversity for skill use, even if you try to do something completely different you still end up taking mostly the same skills. Compare this to classes which can take *radically* different builds into battle and still succeed.

It only triggers when summoning a Sand Shade (F1) which is considered Shroud Skill 1.

Thief is the worst. Its both too good and too bad at many things, so it feels awful to play sometimes. It essentially needs some sandpaper taken to it to smooth out all the rough edges and make it more balanced and viable in any situation.

First, gear your character with full exotics. I don't recommend Berserker's for new players, they should never start with meta builds because if they keep dying they'll get frustrated and leave the game. Instead try a mix of Assassin's and Soldier's (or Berserker+Soldier for better damage if your class has artificial means to increase its critical hit rate, beyond just the Fury boon). If you like condition builds you can also do something like Carrion/Rabid. You'll want to start learning the game with about 20k health and 2.5k armor. In time you'll want to drop this to about 15k health and 2.5k armor, and then eventually down to 2.2k armor. Any less and you risk being one-shot. Its easier to learn with a class like Warrior or Necro, which start with high base defenses, and later more fragile like Ele or Thief. Marauder's is also a very good newbie-friendly set, since it has good survivability and damage, but its harder to get. Always use runes, sigils and food that share similar stats and have good synergy. If you can't afford to always use the lv80 food, then just use the lv60-75 food instead, but make sure you always have it equipped. Second, run dungeons. Do all story dungeons, then do all the explorables. You should be able to comfortably handle story mode on all dungeons with just one other player, and on some classes you should even be able to solo them, given enough time. The difficulty of Arah explorable with a full party is about the same that you'll face in the expansions. Fractals are also good for training. T1-T2 fractals for 2-3 players, T3-T4 for 4-5 players is about the right challenge, I think. Third, remember that you can have two full sets of equipment and three full builds. This means you can play a single character in two completely different ways and with multiple sets of tweaks accessible by a single keypress. As I said earlier, don't use meta builds. You need to learn the game before you can use a proper build, or you'll just play it badly. Instead, take an existing build and then tweak it until it works for you, and fits your playing style. Then go from there. Switch to meta or near-meta builds only once you have the skill to play them in the future. And most importantly, try not to listen too much to advice from long-term players. Its good advice but people are not one-size-fits-all, and its going to take you time to figure out what your goals are. What you want out of the game.

Reaper is always going to underperform because of how much of a safety buffer they have compared to other classes. The only way Reaper could have equal DPS would be if Shroud was removed entirely. I wouldn't expect this to ever change. Defense is built into the class mechanic, so DPS will always be lower.

Its easier to keep Quickness uptime on Firebrand, but you lose access to Alacrity. Its mostly just dumping Mantras, and they basically give every boon except Alac on a near-permanent basis, even 25 Might and Fury with Staff + Meditation traits. Chronomancer in comparison needs a much more complex setup but can maintain both permanent Alacrity and Quickness with some Protection and a few other boons, they do this by using tricks like Continnum Split, Mimic and Signet of Inspiration. (For example, with Continnum Split and Mimic, you can cast Well of Recall three times, and Time Warp twice.) In most cases Firebrand has better boons and heals and easier gameplay, but can't support as many players at once. This becomes an issue in raids and Strike Missions, which is why classes like Chrono and Druid or even Tempest are taken instead. Even the Elite skills on Guardian are only five targets, so you see them much more in 5man content like dungeons, Fractals, and more recently in DRMs. If you're only concerned with personal DPS, this isn't usually an issue, however.

> @"Threather.9354" said: > Everyone seems to be on easy mode. Sitting in objectives, only tagging up on primetime, avoiding enemy objectives. > > Yes we know the balance heavily favors the defender in fights, especially pug ones, but lets just have a good old smackdown, won't we? And commanders with experience, tag up if you see enemy blob! > > Kindly explain to me, what do you actually accomplish in winning such an easy fight? The game mode has never favored defenders and favors them even less now. The only defensive advantage a team has is small scale fights around objectives that can take advantage of the free stats and guards, but with blobs it doesn't matter. A proper zerg can flip a fully upgraded T3 objective like its nothing, without any chance of retaliation. When you see a successful defense, its because some of the players were smart and flipped the camps and put down supply traps so the enemy couldn't keep building siege, as that's what prevents objectives from being taken, and aids in them being retaken. The whole meta shifting towards blobs camping fully upgraded objectives like a safe zone has nothing to do with them actually being safe. Even a few PUGs can treb down a castle wall and attack the gate. But if the enemy has a number's advantage taking it will be impossible, and that's not defense--that's just playing the zerg game. It'd go just as well in open field as it would behind a fortification. You want them to come out and fight but you'd just end up getting steamrolled anyway. The game favors blobbing and has for a long time due to many nerfs to what small groups can do against any kind of offense, regardless of coordination. And if anything, attackers have the defensive advantage on enemy lands. An upgraded keep is alot more defensible when its your enemy's keep, because they can't mobilise an effective offense without a waypoint or supplies. Well they can, if they try really hard. But its far from easy.

He only goes back to fighting if you get under the shield which causes the boss's grenades to be reflected back at him and break his bar. If his bar isn't broken in this manner, it has the potential to bug out entirely.

They did really good with it for a while, then they started introducing the problem again. For example, many objects in LS4 don't take conditions. I think its due to copying & pasting from Central Tyrian objects, but its still heavily inconsistent. Even in IceBrood Saga its a toss-up on whether an object will take conditions or not.

> @"Blood Red Arachnid.2493" said: > Also remember that most of us here are adults. With adulthood comes varying levels of sobriety, as well as the ever-growing-in-legality leaf. Sometimes I"ll see stuff like a player trying to attack our own supply yaks with cleave, and I think "maybe they've had too many". Also was linked to a server recently that always had a baked Comm. Some really weird battles there.

> @"len.7809" said: > They are not gonna do much about it, wvw is not what most of the players play. So it doesn't have that much weight comparing to pve. > I remember that the dev which name I should not tag, (because I will get a message from the moderator) said that there will be balance every x weeks or something? Where is he now? > They basically have gave us up, and all focusing on new expansion and or new living world episode... "New Living World Episode" :p No, not really. Honestly they don't seem to do.. anything, at this point. I sure hope the expansion is good.

> @"Khisanth.2948" said: > because GW2 has the dubious honor of attracting the worst types of players, not people who are simply bad but willfully bad and proud of the fact that they are bad and they will criticize anyone who tries to help others improve > > combined with the apathetic players who are just there because they happen to be at the same place at the same time as the event and you have a recipe for a pretty bad time > > > @"rrusse.7058" said: > > There is a very wide spectrum of skill and knowledge some players have in this game. I believe Arenanet themselves have said the difference in damage output alone can be as great as 10x. Yet Arenanet is forced to develop content that is doable for players that fall into the lowest common denominator, but interesting and challenging enough for experts. > > That's a tall order when you consider that, and the fact that a game like this has veterans that may stop playing, new people coming in for the first time, people that are casual, people that play daily, people that just do content 'x', 'y' or 'z'. > > > > That's why content even from 2012, or 2015 can still fail. > > On the one hand that quote is from long ago and there has been many patches. > On the other hand someone can bring what they thought was a DPS build but manage to only barely out damage the heal druid. Its a video game, not a job. People play it to escape the stresses of real life and not relive them in a virtual format.

Target caps should be doubled on offensive skills which would literally half the "spread" of damage in zergs. By doing that and leaving the number of targets for support skills at five after the recent changes, it'd give smaller groups the advantage. The problem with building a game around using siege for zergbusting is they can just build a balli and destroy it in 5sec, and a zerg will always have an advantage at building siege due to increasing builders, blueprints and supplies, so players need to be capable of their own "siege warfare". I've seen this done in other RvR games and it does work. In the early days we somewhat had this with skills like Meteor Shower, but hard nerfs ruined those tactics.