Hannelore.8153

The problem comes down to: How much do you rely on your party. When you can guarantee stuff like, always having Fury, or the enemy always having a certain condition on them, it completely changes the build. Because of this, I STRONGLY recommend you carry two builds in your separate equipment tabs; one for soloing, where you can maintain your own uptimes, and one for groups. For example, Pack or Strength rune is often optimal solo, while Scholar is always optimal in competent groups. (The solo builds are also more useful for competitive modes, and sometimes Fractals as well.) Also, try not to be too focused on maxing out your crit rate. Not all builds can take proper advantage of it; you need to really watch your Ferocity modifiers to do so. On most Power-weighted builds, 60% (80% with Fury) is sufficient. The only time you need to crit crap is when doing raids, and maybe for certain Strike Missions with particularly stubborn DPS checks. If cutting back retains most of the efficiency, there's little reason to increase it to begin with. This is called a soft cap.

Its because Quickness and Alacrity are the only two boons that truly matter. Everything else is useful, yes, like Aegis, Protection and even Retaliation, but overall your party's performance will depend on those two boons along with Might and Fury. One problem is we have no viable tanking mechanics. Another is many boons are DPS-centric. Nerfing Quickness would help, but it'd still be a required component of any fight even if it provided only 5% extra attack speed. The game has always been lopsided towards pure DPS setups with a single full support or hybrid support player to carry the entire party, maybe two in raids due to the increased player count but that's about it. And the devs are unlikely to change this because they don't know how to make content that's not a DPS check anymore, and that's rather unfortunate. Hint: Underground Facility is a good example of versatile mechanics. Deepstone is another good example. A bad example would be Siren's Reef, which may as well be called One Thousand Years of Bosses.

I'd rather it be changed to the system some other games use, where: - Equipping armor increases your overall armor points, like it does now, but.. - Armor points behave similar to health points, can be lost from getting downed or defeated (no losing rune effects, etc, just defense), and.. - Armor could be restored (slowly) by skills from supportive players, and.. - Armor wouldn't auto-regen out of combat like health does, so repair anvils would still serve a purpose. It would also allow in-combat effects like breaking your opponents armor with a hammer, to create semi-permanent changes on the battlefield, which would make a huge difference during fights in competitive modes. Think of how much it would balance downstate if rallied players retained some penalties. (Obviously, Toughness wouldn't be affected, so players would always retain at least some defense if they're built for it.)

The main problem is that the game lacks a sharpening filter, so some of the textures can look quite soupy. The solution is to use a shader enhancer, although I wish they'd just add a sharpening filter directly to the game. You're never going to get high resolution textures in an MMO, the data set is already nearly 50GB.

> @"Linken.6345" said: > > @"CerealNumber.9348" said: > > Consumables can be for anything else including the CC ones, like instruments/potions/transformation potions/chairs/etc > > Why not use the novelity buttons? The novelty UI is one of the most useless things in the game. Just.. such a poor design overall.

> @"maddoctor.2738" said: > Kourna has an unfinished meta event. The Moon Fortress (Gandara) was so underwhelming too, invisible walls everywhere, boring enemies (nothing new), indeed one of the worst maps of Season 4 (the worst?) > > Jahai itself is not a bad map. The incursions are unique, the blending of different areas with the mists is also unique, the map itself is varied. We also got a new world boss in Death Branded Shatterer although it's weird that unlike other meta events, the pre-events for Shatterer aren't needed to progress. Weird but good imo, looking at the mess of Drakar where they combined pre and boss in one timer. The only underwhelming (or perhaps a better word is overhyped) part of Jahai is the Sunspear Sanctuary. At least we got Eye of the North, which is what Sunspear Sanctuary should've been like. Which parts of the map do you find unfinished???? > > Combining them isn't really an option as they exist on different episodes and they'd need a massive rework. The way living world maps work is that they separate, so certain ideas and mechanics can work. For example, if they are combined, why would we see brandstorms and rifts only in the Jahai part and not Kourna? Icebrood Saga delivers single maps spread across two episodes. Unlocking either episode unlocks the map itself. That's why I suggested this now because they have the technology and Kourna and Jahai are an obvious fit for it.

The servers appear to be completely down right now.

***SPOILERS FOR ICEBROOD SAGA*** As you can tell by her not being included in a major role at any point this season, her story is over. From now on she'll just be doing Elder Dragony things, especially considering that its going to take decades, if not centuries, to repair all the damage. I imagine End of Dragons will center around other potentially ascendant dragons.

Alot of EU players already play competitive modes on NA and vice versa, in order to play with friends. Ping times were better for EU/OCX players when the servers were on the other side of the country, but AWS has them as far away as possible because they prioritise servicing US-based clients, which is why AWS is bad for games.

I'm ambidextrous and press the key or click the skill depending on which hand is free (left or right). There's many reasons players click skills including: - Bad keyboard without good key feedback - Compact keyboard, especially laptop keyboards without even F# keys - Having small hands, or too large a keyboard - Being faster with their mouse hand - Generic mouse with only a few buttons - Struggling to press other keys than WASD while moving around - Various issues with arthritis or RSI, including limited movement from joints Please stop harassing players for how they play. If they didn't tell you about it, you probably wouldn't even notice, because even those who play exclusively using the keyboard and mousebinds make mistakes. I recommend learning what ableism is and why its so harmful. "You can do it because I can" isn't how life works.

Use gw2efficiency to check your characters, its likely you made a mistake somewhere.

A super fun thing to do is to take multiple Mesmers and repeatedly pull a group of players in different directions.

You get the right to play Icebrood Saga, you don't automatically get Icebrood Saga itself. What it means is you can buy it for in-game gold instead of real money, and login every so often to get all future episodes for free. You can play the current episode of Icebrood Saga as well as the next one when it drops in a few months, and so on. But if you want to play past content like the previous episodes of the older Living World seasons that took place between expansions, you have to either farm gold (not very difficult) or buy them with real money if you're the type of person who doesn't have alot of time to spare.

Elementalist, but mastering all its playing styles takes years, and you need multiple equipment tabs since low base stats means there's no "one size fits all" gear set; even Celestial or combinations of it with other stats isn't sufficient for all situations.

> @"Dawdler.8521" said: > ##Improvements and Updates > * Skyscale no longer grabs onto objects - flying into something instantly kill the player instead. At least be a little generous, it would first display a message saying turn back or be killed, which lasts for 1sec.

All outgoing Blind conditions also inflict Confusion, from any source. The interrupt just blinds the target. For competitive play you need to take some stealth. You can do this on condi builds by using Axe/Torch, (#4 stealths), the +Expertise signet, and maybe Desparate Decoy instead of Duelist's Dicipline if you don't use Pistol off-hand. If you're still struggling then also add in Decoy (the actual skill). The idea is simple, you load your enemy down with conditions and then disappear and let them tick away a bit before ambushing them again. Any skills they spam trying to hit you while in stealth will further damage them from Confusion. Remember to always open up an ambush with a CC like F3. You'll have more success running something like Dire or Trailblazer and foregoing Power damage and %damage bonuses entirely. Its very difficult to pull of Power/Condition Damage hybrid builds in competitive modes because they're glassy. If you really want to try to do both then you can use something like Celestial stats. Remember that you can port 5k units away using portal for 60sec, which is useful if you're losing a fight.

> @"Veprovina.4876" said: > > @"Hannelore.8153" said: > > Raids are even worse, the whole concept of Enrage Timers is essentially all or nothing. > > > > Judging the game by content that was intentionally made for powercreep isn't particularly wise. We're talking about encounters that were designed to fail if you don't come at them with an "all-in" approach, and that's not a good benchmark. > > Do you think that, if they removed enrage timers and you had all the time you want (per week) to finish a boss that there would be more build variety in Raids/overall? > And would more builds be accepted into Raids with less "toxicity" debate surrounded by it? I believe so, yes, because in MMOs there's always been players who prefer to "tank & spank". Even in GW2, in the era of dungeons, it was common to see stuff like guilds clearing Arah with five Cleric's Guardians, just to ensure they're always successful. There's always going to be players who prefer 100% guarantee with low stress over higher risk and reward. Its a middleground between casual and hardcore players. That is to say, players who like to complete hardcore content in a casual manner. Although its rare in Guild Wars in the last few years since we've moved closer and closer to encounters being entirely DPS checks.

I've done alot of testing recently and it seems you only need about 2k/sec sustained DPS to clear enemies comfortably in open-world. The same damage is effective against enemy players in WvW unless they're specifically built for bunkering (sustain). Clearing a dungeon with that DPS (per player) is even slightly faster than it seems designed for, with a full party at least. This is also about the DPS you see from players in PvP outside of bursts, with a few exceptions. It seems to be about the average DPS output of a character with only a single damage stat (Soldier's, Dire's, etc.), and almost all the game seems to be balanced around this, which means that almost every stat combo is viable in any content including competitive. This is of course excepting the support builds like Nomad's, which were meant to be carried by other players in exchange for heals. Stat combos like Berserker are just more efficient damage-wise; in anything but basic PvE they always made you a liability because if you don't dodge or manage your blocks and other defenses properly, its easy to go down. Thus associated with skill. So what's the deal with Fractals and raids? Its simple, the enemies are built differently. They're built to literally be tanks. They were mostly created with the powercreep in mind as new encounters were designed over the years, so they feel horrible if you aren't pulling in 5k/sec from your whole group minimum, and you really need at least a few players doing 10k+ sustained to not feel like you're playing in molasses. This is with permanent Quickness, 25 Might, Fury etc, on T3/T4 Fractals mind you. Raids are even worse, the whole concept of Enrage Timers is essentially all or nothing. Judging the game by content that was intentionally made for powercreep isn't particularly wise. We're talking about encounters that were designed to fail if you don't come at them with an "all-in" approach, and that's not a good benchmark.

I think you're a bit optimistic if you think they read the forum. Most balancing decisions seem to happen in regards to either metrics or talks with players on other mediums, which in the past was mainly Reddit, although I hear that's become scarce too.

> @"DeanBB.4268" said: > How about everyone glows like the sun? Oh, wait... > > You do realize Anet hasn't done an April Fools since the great airplane scandal of '15, right? You are better off speculating what the humorous (and sometimes painful) patch notes will be. They did Chairs of the World the year before last, and the cat sightings last year.

I don't think any changes to Reveal are necessary in PvP, except maybe giving more classes access to it. In WvW however something desparately needs to be done about permastealth Deadeye troll roamers whose only purpose is to follow the group for two hours and do nothing else until they eventually get bored and log off. Its not even a playing style, its just weird. Obsessive, even. And at this point I think its harming WvW uptake by newer players, since this is one of the first things they experience after coming to the game mode without a huge zerg. But Core Thief and Daredevil are okay, so I'm not sure touching Reveal is the solution.

You can get Mastery Points from alot of other places including replaying story for achievements or continuing to other maps for a small time. You only need the Springer to continue the story, not to explore deeper into Elona. There's alot of extra MPs in the game and you'll have many leftover even after you max everything. A helpful player (Mesmer or Thief) can teleport you directly to MPs that you can't get yet due to lacking a mount. Some achievements that award MPs are also done in open-world, usually with the cooperation of other players. An example of a few you can do are "Lost Lore of Crystal Oasis", "Lost Pilgrims" and "Reins of The Raptor". But you WILL have to do story acheivements to get enough MPs, the game is intentionally designed this way. Click on past chapters in your Story Journal and select "Replay this Chapter" then you can re-enter at the starting location to try again for achievs. Your Achievments panel shows a purple MP icon next to those which award a Mastery Point. As for this specific MP, you have to memorise where he will be and throw the item past him. This is known as "leading your opponent" and is a common tactic in FPS games, due to reflexes and network lag, etc. Having permanent Swiftness on your character also helps, as does using the Action Camera toggle key, which allows you to aim directly at a location without placing targetting circles. Its important not to panic and throw the item too early and miss entirely, which resets your progress.

For April Fools maybe we'll finally get WvW Alliances.

I have a feeling they're a precursor to reintroducing the rest of LS1, and won't be present beyond IBS except for that.

> @"Dixa.6017" said: > > @"Antycypator.9874" said: > > So, are you looking for a good scrapper build? Then try jaggernaut/flamethrower scrapper. It's easy. All it takes is berserker eq and flamethrower on your utility skills. Engi has good trait synergy. > > Something like [this.](http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PeQAIlRwaYdMIWJOuLftfA-zRIYRUwfGRoA6VCo4B-e) > > > > Just use flamethrower and maybe sometimes hammer 2 and 5. > > does that build barrier the way hammer auto attack does? that's what im looking to do, face tank like a lot of the youtube guides All sources of outgoing damage build barrier on Scrapper.