green plum.7514

Reaper with Valk gear. You get two very respectable health bars and nearly 100% crit in shroud.

I tried Mirage, Firebrand and Holosmith. Mirage I find very confusing to play, and in the end I don't feel like it brings anything essential to the table. Firebrand I really like, but the profession is so incredibly slow and unwieldy (e.g. mantra losing charges on map change) that its bothersome to play in open world. Holosmith feels to me like much less forgiving Reaper that will explode in your face because you forgot your heat bar.

In the end, there eis no new elite that would really match my play style and that I would find enticing. I find myself playing my Reaper again, simply because its the most straightforward profession I know for casual and story content...

How about reaper? > @Totalkill.8014 said:

> Just to let people know, I have a reaper, Daredevil druid and have complete HOT and PoF main storyline with Reaper.

If you are talking about a straightforward power profession for open world, I think you can hardly do better than Reaper tbh...

So far, I am usually able to burn anything down before it gets me down. Even without any vitality or toughness gear. One problem are certain story steps. But as much as I like Firebrand, I went back to Reaper for open world, simply feels better, more margin for mistakes, and more mobility is always a plus.

What I gather from this thread is that GS #1 has more DPS than the Shroud #1. Why is that? If I do the math, sure, the GS #1 has around 20% more damage (time-normalised). But with +50 critical chance from Death Perception, the Shroud #1 should be ahead, even without ferocity. What am I missing here?

> @Lahmia.2193 said:

> 1. Quickness overrides the speed buff on RO.

Ugh, I hope that is a bug that will be fixed.

> 2. Camping shroud is a dps loss. Auto is crap damage wise and so you only need for 4 5 and 2, when it comes to dps rotation if I recall correctly.

> 3. You will still be doing a tonne of chill on a power reaper and with max might and other buffs, that is actually a nice damage boost (better than the boost from RO).

Thanks for the explanation. I assume this is from group content perspective. What weapons does one use normally? Dagger?

Why is deathly chill best choice for power? I'd think that 15% increase in aa chain damage + 20% bonus to critical damage should result in more damage then the bleed on chill?

I can't comment on Holosmith in group PVE, but from the open world perspective, if feels much like a less forgiving version of Reaper in reverse. Both classes have two stances that you need to juggle and one stance fuels the other one. The heat mechanic is interesting but very unforgiving and forces you to watch the UI all the time, and when you make a mistake (which happens fast), you most likely die. In comparison, Reaper has very similar solo PvE damage, is pretty much unkillable and much easier to play. Holosmith is fun, but stressful, and in the end its gameplay mechanic doesn't seem unique enough.

Are we talking about open world PVE? My reaper uses valkyrie armor and berserker weapons (trinkets are a mix of things) and its pretty much unkillable with very good AOE output. For traits I'm using Spite and Soul Reaping. Utilities are mostly shouts. Of all my characters, I'd say that the reaper is the most forgiving and straightforward for open world.

> @Dragisnaj.2053 said:

> So first of i buy the gme to paly it then you dotn ahve much time cause you had to work and so than you think ok take 2 days vacation to enjoy the game and than you cant play it?

Did ANet in any way push you to take that holiday? Why should they be responsible for choices you make? Their responsibility to you as a customer is to provide the service and if there are any interruptions — to fix those ASAP, and thats exactly what they are doing. They can't be responsible for your choices.

> That would bee the same as i buy a new car drive until home and than it never starts up again so i need to bring the car somehow back to get it repaired??

And what, do you expect them to give you money for the car back? They will either repair the car or replace it. Maybe they'll give you a free rental car for the time, if its a premium dealer. Best thing you can expect in this case is free pickup for your broken car. Though this is usually handled through insurance. You'll lose time either way.

You are really asking for 30 euros value "recompensation" for two odd days of server issues? Are you serious? Just because there was a technical issue (which they are hard on fixing), you are essentially demanding to get the game for free? Sorry friend, but this is totally out of touch with both the common sense and the reality.

The way how this world works is the following: you buy stuff and you have the right that the staff works as advertised. If it doesn't work, you can demand it to be fixed, and if that doesn't happen within a reasonable period of time (which is usually a couple of weeks at LEAST), you can demand a refund. Under certain conditions, you can also demand compensation for losses suffered because of nonfunctional product. Like you know, if the new car you are driving has non-functioning brakes and you end up in a wheelchair. Or because a new computer you bough sets your house on fire. Honestly, grow up.

Problems happen and they are annoying for all involved. Believe me, they are even more annoying for ANet than they are annoying for you. You lose nothing except your patience. ANet actually loses their reputation which translates to potential damages for their business. This is why they are working hard on fix it.

@Ashen: good answer :D

Again, don't get me wrong, I really like how mantras on FB work and I enjoy the charge management they come with. My post is about the need to recharge them every time you change maps or instances. Its a simple quality of life thing. Like yesterday, I died on a story mission because my mantras "suddenly" were not charged even though I charged them a minute earlier...

Thank you for the hard work and the explanation! Please don't let the complains by the self-entitled teenagers discourage you, mistakes/issues happen and your are dealing with them in an exemplary fashion! You have all our support!

> @Sobx.1758 said:

> It's 3:10 right now, we had no patches, no "quick fixes", no emergency updates or anything AND MAGICALLY I CAN NOW GET INTO POF MAPS!!!!!1 Do you still blindly (and stupidly) believe it's a "random unknown bug"? It's obviously not the case. I was right. Meanwhile NA had hardly ANY problems, hows that possible when most people use similar specs with the same build? You really think all those dcs and (WHAT LITERALLY WAS TOLD TO YOU BY THE ERROR MSG) "failed instance creations" are accidents? Let me ask you again, are you stupid?

You sir with your crystal ball have some incredible investigative skills. And some great conspiracy theories.

The point of "unknown bug" is that, you know, it can result in quite unspecified behaviour. And some bugs can't be caught before its too late. Anyone who ever shipped software knows that. No matter how much precautions and tests you do, its still not the real thing. Thats why space rockets explode on start and why MMOs have issues with new content. At least this is not like Diablo's fiasco, where the company simply didn't have enough servers to hold all the players (even though they knew the counts).

It does work. And it is a bit silly. There are few conditions though:

- the renewed justice effect only triggers when you kill an enemy that would give you xp, so it won't work in story instances

- the effect only triggers if ToJ is actually on cooldown, so it doesn't work when you have the tome equipped

It is fun to use in group events on trash mobs though. Equip the tome, spam 1 as quickly as you can, wait for it to close, then it refreshes almost instantly and you are good to go again. Its like the lootstock before the nerf, but flashier :)

> @Scipion.7548 said:

> I think he is serious. Skills have to balanced around strenghts and weakness. When you ask yourself "why mantras have to be prepared", you shouldnt answer as a guardian but like a dev'.

> Personnaly, the weakness i find stupid is not the prep time (it is just a problem for unskilled players) but the short aoe radius that makes mantras very hard to use in a non-organized group.

I was also serious :) Tells something about a forum when a thank you is being interpreted as sarcasm. So far, MithranArkanere's post was spot on and actually explains the mechanics, unlike the previous contributions which I found to be less constructive and frankly, a bit pretentious.

> @MithranArkanere.8957 said:

> So there's a window of opportunity to interrupt them.

Thank you for a relevant and helpful comment! I think this a very good answer to my question.

> @Cryptical.6572 said:

> So mantras preparation suddenly become a problem now while mesmer had them since release and with only two charges and without the final upgrade.

The topic of mantras kind of changed once we got the ammo mechanic, no? Not to mention that Mesmer mantra preparations does more then just prepare the mantra.

My question in this context is very simple. Why don't FB mantra's function more like Jaunt or Spirit weapons? What is the added tactical depth by having to prepare them? Hope its not too hard to understand ;)

> @Cryptical.6572 said:

> It's all about opportunity cost. You are given the ability to use a skill 3 times in a row at the cost of preparation time. Hope it's not that hard to understand.

The cost is not just the preparation time, but also the cooldown. Unless what you are trying to say that one sometimes can't find the time to recharge the matras? Maybe its true for higher-level PvP or PvE, where one would have little downtime between engagements to be spent on preparations...

> @RabbitUp.8294 said:

> FB mantras do the same on paper, but in reality, being instant-casts is wasted, because you have to reposition to hit your allies.

I'm not questioning the fact that mantra radius might need some adjustments. What I am confused about why have preparation in the first place. A good player will simply recast the mantra when the cooldown is off, getting it back up. A not so good player, like me, might forget to prepare mantras. I just don't see any added tactical depth in the preparation mechanic, its just another annoying thing that has to be done. I'd prefer if this was automatised under the ammo mechanics, just that last charge taking longer to recharge.

BTW, Mesmer is different since their mantra preparation has an ability effect. Not so for FB, as far as I can see.

A major annoyance with mantras is that they need to be prepared. I don't really see what this brings to the game mechanics-wise except being a major annoyance (e.g. whence forgets to recharge them before going into a fight). I really like the ammo mechanic and the "significant last charge" idea, since it forces you to make tactical decisions, but why can't the recharge happen automatically? Just let the skill go on longer cooldown after the last charge is used and then come back with three charges as the cooldown ends. The final result will be the same as with optimal play, but with one thing less to pay attention to...

Its weird for me. I enjoyed playing Mirage a lot during the preview events, but today I just can't seem to figure out the pace. Dodging is very awkward for me and I am missing condition removal (which I never had issue with as a vanilla Mesmer in open pve). I can't figure out how to trait for condi removal while not messing up my damage output. I keep getting downed all the time because I expect to move when dodging. Overall, its just very weird...

In my opinion the writing quality actually improved in LS3. As to the story, sure, its bad. Simply because it really tries hard to push this heroic nonsense. I believe that the entire story would be much more believable and natural if the player character would merely a witness to the unfolding events instead of the hero. Then again, I understand that they wanted to use the story to cater to players who don't care that much about the MMO aspect and want to feel special.

I am not really sure whether I agree with this measure or not. As some people pointed out in this thread, the initial stockpiling is partially due to people wanting to collect the materials for their own purpose. But it might also be true that the absolute majority of the playerbase just mindlessly stockpiles all the stuff. I'm guilty of that myself. I have been playing the game since before it was released, but always with large breaks and never "seriously". Over all this time, I got only 30 gold in my wallet. So I was very surprised that gw2efficiency has estimated my bank at multiple hundred gold, due to all the stuff I have stockpiled there.

But while this measure might do some good, it strikes me as a weird bandaid for fixing some more glaring issues with the game design. Right now, band storage is the default, quick option, while listing many items on TP is a bother. Why not switch it around? Make it "easy" for stuff to get onto the marketplace and require an effort on the player's side for stockpiling. Furthermore, integrate crafting with the TP, so that one can buy materials off the market as needed. At the same time, maybe even make the prices adjust automatically, based on supply and demand.

Just a quick related question to the experienced players out here: I am trying to collect some gear for my new Firebrand and could use some advice about stats. I won't run any high-level fractals or raids any time soon (and possibly never), so its mostly about fun. And while I don't want to min-max absolutely, I'd like the gear to make sense. To clarify: we are talking about exotics here.

Because FB mixes power and condition damage, I actually thought about combining Berserker (around 20% of total stat pool), some Seraph (for boon duration) and rest Sinister. Would it make sense? I would like to use Balthazar's runes. Any input welcome.

P.S. Viper's is a bit too expensive for me and also I feel like expertise is not really nessesary...