TamX.1870

> @"breno.5423" said:

> > @"TamX.1870" said:

> > > @"breno.5423" said:

> > Remove ranked, and replace that part with premade tournaments

>

> So what about soloq dudes?

Soloq goes either to unranked, or to deathmatch.

> @"deltaconnected.4058" said:

> Depends on what you consider "the right thing" to be. What if 10 seconds later your team get's hit by a massive CoR which ends up costing the game? All of a sudden "the right thing" was not to use your block to prevent a teammates death and instead to let them die and hold the point yourself and block the CoR.

This is true, of course. I didn't say that measuring right values would be easy, I said that measuring only DPS or HPS gives you false evaluations at certain things. Classes that can protect other people would benefit to see when their blocks worked, and how much dmg ppl took without blocks(*). That way you would later see that giving a block to certain attack - assuming that it was impossible to revive the knocked-off person - were wrongly timed because bit later the team would take damage to wipe half of the group. You would learn, and next time you might decide to leave the knocked-off person without aegis, because you'd expect a big hit in the near future.

(*) In the previous game I was playing, I was indeed implementing such kind of measurement to the tool: we didn't have all the data, but we approximated the efficiency of blocks and partial blocks based on the damage made by hits without them.

> No matter how you look at it every single action can be gauged as both "you did good" and "you did bad" at the same time because of the infinite and computationally impossible amount of futures available. As a tool developer I just hope that you know that what you're asking for is well outside the realm of what is possible.

Well, I slightly disagree. I agree with you about that meters should only show results that are based on real data, but it does not mean that they couldn't show the data in such manner that benefits you as a player. For example, to your example, lets think a meter that can show a time line when you delivered aegis to people, and how much damage the team was taking. It would show you in this particular case that the aegis you gave to person to prevent her/him to be knocked out led to situation where shortly after that half of your team was wiped. I really don't see such tracking to be impossible to implement. But yes, in general, I agree with you, not all things you do to make your team to success are easy to measure.

EDIT: Just an example. I am using ArcDPS. Last few days in WvW roaming on my ranger I have tried to learn to use Smokescale smoke field not to blast it for stealth, but to use it to blind people. I would really appreciate to have a tool to tell me what attack I blinded. Just an example.

> @"Obtena.7952" said:

> We all know when we miss a dodge or eat that massive hit ... I don't need a meter for that.

Yes, but maybe your guard would really benefit to know that you eat that massive hit to be able to give you aegis next time. I mean this seriously: in difficult situations it is quite hard to follow all the members of your team, but if there would be a measuremet for guardians to tell when massive hits were taken, it could improve individual guards timings for aegis. Many of you, and me, too, occasionally, are taking measurement tools as a way to find scapegoats for failures, but I think they are more valuable for you as a player to understand better what you can do.

Without meters, I feel like being a blind man in a dark room. I personally really want to know if it is better as a ranger to use maul when its ready instead of autoattacking (it is, at least to certain point), or should I take a sigil/rune for bleeding or burning on necro / fb. I want to know how often sigil of water really procs on my druid to know if it is better or worse than sigil of blood to generate CA, and I want to know how much vampiric presence really healed my team on a necro to be able to evaluate its value.

> @"Quenrich.8471" said:

> Loot boxes are exploitative, after all. I'll be happier once all of EU finally adopts these regulations, as seems unavoidable.

I fully agree. RNG based business tends to be unethic and lead to all kinds of cheats, if it is not regulated.

> @"breno.5423" said:

> I don't even know why unranked exist, its completely useless.

Unranked is good, it is a place for you to try out different classes and builds. It does not usually give you much to team work, but in the other hand, neither does the current ranked. Remove ranked, and replace that part with premade tournaments: make it so that unranked guides you toward premades. For "ranked pvp", make it deathmatch, so that your success is entirely on your hands, not in the hands of randomly chosen teams.

> @"Obtena.7952" said:

> it's the team that wins, so measuring any individuals' performance is unnecessary.

This.

This is the thing so many real life organizations falsely fall and fail, and I have criticized it for many years. This same thing is one of the primary reasons to cause toxicity in ranked PvP (just to remind you, there is no DPS meters available for ranked PvP).

Still, as a member of a team, you will benefit measures that tell where you can improve yourself. I want those measurement tools, not the tools to "find" a false scapegoat when you fail as a team.

> @"deltaconnected.4058" said:

> Some things just can't be measured. Take for example a well-timed aegis that prevented someone from getting knocked off a cap point or off a platform. Recording that "player X's aegis blocked an attack for teammate Y" is simple, but because you can't see a future that didn't happen you can't predict if that attack would've knocked them off or if they would've dodged or if they would've used a skill to grant themselves stability.

I know this. It does not prevent me to hope measurement tools to tell me - and the others - when I did the right thing, or improve my game play if I didn't do the right thing (didnt cast aegis to prevent my teammate to be knocked off from platform). Most of the people are reasonable anyways, and they don't look only DPS meters to evaluate "goodness" of a player, but they also judge it with personal, subjective insights. IMO it would just not hurt, if measurement tools would catch those things, too.

> @"deadpool.7036" said:

> I mean, what you're suggesting is a MASSIVE calculation. Where a any given current meter is (sumOfSomething() / timeElapsed)... Your presenting that everything be broken down: I mean, I could try to break down some of the math... But it wouldn't even cover half of it....

I know it. I said that meters are basically good and useful, and I just hoped them to measure other things but just plain DPS or HPS.

> And how would you track effective mobility towards objectives, or whether or not the player took the right course TO an objective. Maybe avoiding a fight with someone helped win the game by giving a capture instead. You can't even out some of that in a "meter". The meter is a long-term tool. 3 months later you can tell yourself "by doing xyz, I was able to do more of this or that", or, my groups have consistently done more damage because I keep my group boons up longer.

I know, I know. For me, DPS/HPS measure tools are just rough approximations about my progress. I know they are limited, but they still give me valuable information. I would hope meters to be improved. I don't wish them to be removed from the game, because if that is done, any judgement about your game playing will be purely subjective, and that opens - IMO - too much room for personal toxicity in more demanded content.

EDIT: In the previous game I was playing, I was developing the measurement tool for that game, and included few not-that-obvious measurements to that tool. They are not applicable in this game, thought, but in general, I think that surprisingly many things can be measured, and measuring things just makes you better, as you know what made the difference.

> @"bigo.9037" said:

> gameplay wise I think DE is very boring tbh. you stay in stealth all the time, attack briefly, then stealth again. you use the same combos over and over again.

I wouldn't say it is boring, but maybe just bit limited. Like pointed in this thread several times, soulbeast ranger offers higher variety in game playing against different classes in different situations, being not that vulnerable to any kind of response, while DE game play is circling much more around the initial burst and trying to escape if the target didnt die.

And I like to point out that if you can nullify your opponents key skills just by manouvering (that is, without using any of your cooldowns, saving them to much better situations), you will anyways win the combat no matter of the class. No matter if you play warrior or thief, mesmer or guard. And any class in PvP will need both gap closers and distance makers, no matter if they deal their damage in melee or ranged.

@"deadpool.7036 ", I'm not sure you caught the point I was saying. Meters in general are fine, they are absolutely fantastic tools to get you better. I'd just want those meters to measure right things, the things that matter. Not just DPS, not just HPS, but to get you an idea how you performed in general, how much harder the instance would been if you would not do the right things (or how much easier it would have been if you'd be doing the right things). Same with PvP: I have criticized a lot the way PvP works at the moment, and how the metrics it shows at the end of the fight does not really tell anything relevant for you to improve your game play. Metrics that can't be used to improve your performance are useless. Metrics that you can use to make you better are absolutely fantastic tools.

@"Cynn.1659", while I dont like DPS to be the only measured unit in this game, I think that the opposite - not being able to measure anything - is much more prone to toxicity. It is then just entirely up to subjective perspectives, which we see very well in ranked PvP. Measures can be really good, they just need to measure right things.

I am all about things, meters and analysis that can make you to play better. The current DPS meter (ArcDPS) is IMO a bit limited to that purpose. The more you know about your successes and failures, the more it improves you in terms of game playing, understanding its mechanics, and being helpful to your game playing mates. Sure you can use it as a tool to troll people, justify kicks and such, but all in all, if a meter can show you where you should improve, it will put ppl on the right track.

This game at the moment favors heavily DPS, and that is something I dont like that much. If a meter could show what would be the outcome without you as a support, you'd not need those subjective evaluations made by team leaders based only about your DPS rating and your personality. You know, most of the meters can only show something like HPS, but they can't show how people were saved from certain death with well timed heals/protection, or how you worked to not even come to such situation.

Ranger (core & soulbeast) is overall more like a hybrid, and it deals usually most of the damage at melee distance - depends bit of a build, but anyways, most often ranger wields longbow not because of damage, but because of the utility it gives - knockback, stealth and such. Deadeye thief can be build for high burst ranged damage, but in general this game favors melee damage dealing, and you can assume to get nerfs to classes that are very powerful with ranged damage.

> @"Brendan.1309" said:

> My playstyle is all about kiting and maneuverability, I want to play the profession that can stay far out of reach, get out of cc (stuns, slows, etc), ambush then move on.

In fact, all classes need kiting and maneuverability in this game. It will be hard times to keep out of reach with any class, and people who out-maneuver you, will usually win you no matter what class they are playing. I can think maybe two classes at PvP/WvW side that *dont want to be at melee distance* (in opposite to try to keep range), and they are deadeye rifle thief builds, and many mesmer builds. Most other classes and builds work great at melee, too, and many of them even prefer close distance.

EDIT: To be bit more clear. Most classes do most of their damage at melee range, but they still have skills to get distance, and gap closers to get near. You use those for your advantage, take distance when other side is stronger at melee (because of buffs, debuffs and skill cooldowns), and gap the distance when you are ready for melee and the other part is not. Rifle deadeye builds can be very vulnerable to this kind of playing, assuming that the other part knows what they are going. Mesmer builds are in general pretty annoying to fight against, but if you are caught at melee distance and your escape skills happen to be at cooldown, you are taken down pretty easily. Most other classes are not that trivial, you need to choose the distance to fight based on your class and the opponent class and the situation, moving in / pulling in and moving out / pushing out according to the situation.

> @"Linken.6345" said:

> Im fine with you and people who think its awful with the gem shop to pay a sub to play gw2 and get to use what ever in said gem shop( all being account locked and no gifting ofcourse, so no thinking of opening millions of black lion chest and sell the skins =) ) aslong as I dont have too.

> Then when you stop paying your account is locked, like games as wow etc.

I didn't get your point, really... Subscription and RNG lootboxes are def not mutually exclusive, you can have both in the same game. What is my point, is that if you pay, you should know what you get. Think a game with monthly subscription, so that if you pay your monthly fee, you have 20% chances to get it. If you didn't get it that in the RNG roll, you could try again to pay, and hope for the best.

RNG lootboxes - in form that they *may* contain things you can't acquire in any other way - are definitely not the only way to make money with the content you have created, and definitely not the most ethic one.

I don't have the years of perspective to this game, nor am I that experienced player, so you can read this comment from that perspective. I second @"Moira Shalaar.5620 ", @"Catchyfx.5768", @"Amerikajinn.4635" and others about the current status of necro. After PoF, at first it used to be ridiculously powerful in PvP and WvW, nowadays it is just very strong. Necro is quite powerful to all PvE content, too. I find saying "necro is only good for bad groups" bit overexaggerating, it is - based on my current experience - better to say that it is good to have one with the group to fix occasional mistakes - necro can def be the dividing line between successful completion and wipe and starting it all over again. Necros rezzing power is totally out of this world, which you will heavily appreciate if some of your group's support players happen to die due to some unpredicted mistake (cat jumped on keyboard or similar).

On the other hand I definitely understand people complaining that necro does not have that clear spots in highly optimized PvE runs. But that can be said vast majority of classes and their builds. For fractals, you have only 5 spots, so even in most ideal situation, there would be 4 classes that are considered bad choices, because they'd prolong the completition by 30 secs or so. You know, it is different to talk about minimum required DPS, it is different to talk about needed DPS to bypass mechanics, and it is different to talk about most optimal compositions. For raids, the situation would be ideally so that every class has its spot there, but that is something I can't ever hope to happen - for that, I'd like to think as @"Nimon.7840" says it, that different compositions are optimal for different encounters, and thus you'd have roles for all classes from wide perspective.

I haven't yet touched those highly optimized runs & groups. But what I think will be my approach, is that I don't think if some class belongs to the optimal setup or not, but choose to make those runs with classes & builds that are in meta at that given moment. That is what I did in the game I played before GW2 - I had a bunch of geared toons to be selected to runs based on what other classes were available. Meta changes, and so does compositions and builds. Currently, meta favors power damage, but it was not too long ago when condi was the key at least at PvP/WvW side. Sticking only in one class or even in one build would be IMO too risky, eventually your class & build will not be in meta and you are struggling to get a position in optimized runs.

I hope that OP can get the information necessary from these posts. The final answer really depends on your thoughts and plans, pick your answer from people who you think you share the same ideas of fun & successful playing.

> @"Danikat.8537" said:

> It would be nice if all the random drops were tradable. ... And yes, I'd be fine with only being able to gift it to someone else and then its bound to their account so they can't sell it.

Yes, I fully agree with this. It is annoying to get something I see valuable to some other players, but not being able to sell/donate for good.

As ArcDPS has already done this, it really can't be impossible (I think it lacks saving ranger pets, that should definitely be done). It should be integrated to the game, and to all game modes. PvP and WvW build "saving" should be removed, and replaced with this integrated build save/recall option. I really hate, that when I switch between PvE, PvP and WvW, the trait changes, but weapons and gears (WvW) do not: so the entire game mode specific "recall" thing is useless, when changing between modes you still need to use ArcDPS to make the real switch.

I really hope this feature comes sooner than later.

> @"Illconceived Was Na.9781" said:

> It's one thing to say that RNG boxes in video games are inappropriate. It's quite another thing to say that they are comparable to roulette or lottos or blackjack and should be regulated the same way.

I know what you mean. @"sigur.9453" already summarized pretty much everything I liked to say, so that I have not much to add. RNG lotteries with real money and pay-to-win monetization are bit different thing. In pay-to-win game you know where your money go, even that I don't usually like such way to grab the money from your pockets. RNG lootboxes and slot machines are not a problem for majority of people, but there are people who gets obsessed. I find it bit disturbing to get money by abusing such disabilities, even more because most people are vulnerable to such abusement occasionally: you desperately want something (like mount skin or something) and your only options are RNG lootboxes, how much money are you willing to loose to all those unwanted pieces before giving up? The more you have put money in, the harder it is to give up. IMO, such way to monetize a game is unethical anyways, even if it is not illegal.

Like sigur said, asking game industry for these subjects is probably not the best thing to do. Having not any kind of regulations doesn't IMO lead to any good solutions, we would just get much more games which try to hook gamblers to get their money. Best thing would be that we as players would not fall in the lootboxes and game industry would give up offering them, but that is sadly high hope.

I would like them to introduce "basic" mount, a mount that has no other special abilities than to carry you through the landscape. No leaps, no super-high jumps or superspeed, just raptor-matching speed to go over distances. This kind of mount could come in various forms (animated skeletons) and skins:

> @"Pax.3548" said:

> The mount I would like.......... its actually the horse. Yep, a common, simple, normal horse.

I would like to have such on some of my toons. Just a simple horse you summon to take you from point A to point B, without any special abilities. Could come in vast variety of skins later, *wink wink* Anet, wouldn't that be a good opportunity to monetize the development?

> @"Oenanthe.6549" said:

> I may be a bit odd and boring, but I would love a Dolyak for a mount, particularly the big fluffy ones they have in the Shiverpeaks.

I would love to have Dolyak mount on (at least one) Norn toons. Could be just a skin for horse-like mount, but still. They'd already have animated Dolyak there, those pack Dolyaks in WvW could be turned to Dolyak mount?

A wolf - big one - could be another mount/skin I could think having.

> @"Cragga the Eighty Third.6015" said:

> I would like golems.

Some sort of mech/exoskeleton mount could fit to some toons, definitely :) Maybe best to Asura toons, the mech-like mount for Norn or Charr would be colossal :open_mouth: Give race-specific "basic" mounts? Golem/mech for asura, Dolyak for Norn(*), horse for Humans, charr-machine-style motorbike to Charr, and something to Sylvari(**)?

EDIT: (*) Maybe wolf, too? How about Bear mount? A war bear mount? (**) Some of the mordrem creatures tamed? Fern hound?

EDIT2: A magic carpet mount? That is, just take the regular existing magic carpet, and make it mount with raptor-equivalent speed. A broom mount for witch-type toons?

I decided to make a new post for this, so that these things are not lost in the text mass. My suggestion to choose a class as a newcomer is: choose a class that can be traited to have enough sustain so that the build is forgiving at the beginning. Choose a class that can provide some support for low level fractals. From my experience, higher tier fractal groups with more experienced players take surprisingly small amounts of damage (compared how much more damage higher tier mobs do compared to lower tiers) and don't need full fledged healers all the time: it is the low tier groups who are struggling and can appreciate some sustain.

I used to tailor PvP / WvW roaming builds for my classes, but nowadays there is open world section in the metabattle (https://metabattle.com/wiki/Open_World). But as a newcomer, you need to understand that not all of those builds are that forgiving: build can get high rating because it has great potential, but to get that potential you need experience.

For this post, I picked few open world core builds that I could think are newcomer-friendly and can be modified for higher sustain (for "facetanking") at the beginning:

1) Core Guardian: https://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Guardian_-_Radiant_Greatsword - Although this build is good, it is not necessarily that newbie-friendly, as stated out in the comments, it does not have good sustained heals so you rely on avoiding damage and that needs experience. You can get more defensive build at first with Honor and/or Valor, and using mace, shield and/or focus. There were so called "Symbolic" PvP bunker builds, but sadly they are not in metabattle anymore and I can't get any reference to give an idea how to trait it. Maybe the only drawback with Guardian is that it has not that good options for ranged DPS, which you time to time appreciate if you can't reach mobs by foot easily.

2) Core Ranger: [https://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Ranger_-_Longbow_Beastmastery](https://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Ranger_-_Longbow_Beastmastery "https://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Ranger_-_Longbow_Beastmastery") - again, just like with Guardians, core builds are even top tier open world builds. This particular build has lots of damage potential, but you can start with Wilderness Survival and Nature's Magic traitlines to get some sustain to help at the beginning. As an example, this is survival PvP build for core ranger: https://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Ranger_-_Power_Survival. You can start as so called bearbow ranger usually considered as a newbie setup (it is popular newcomer choice for a reason!), just remember that if you go to fractals with such builds, people may be looking you strangely ;)

Comments about the build: _"One of the most popular new player builds, and for good reason. This build is easy to pick up, doesn't require any expansions, and can easily whittle down difficult champion enemies from range ... Could pretty much solo anything ... Can also be improved with Soulbeast once at max level if you have PoF."_

3) Core Necromancer: [https://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Necromancer_-_Power_Minion_Master](https://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Necromancer_-_Power_Minion_Master "https://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Necromancer_-_Power_Minion_Master") - even that Scourge (PoF) and Reaper (HoT) builds dominate the Necromancer builds, core builds are still decent (or more than decent). Necromancer is very durable class to play. It is usually played as melee DPS, but can be traited to have support with Blood Magic traits, especially if you use PoF Scourge builds.

Good thing with these classes is, that you can run them nicely without any expansion, but if you happen to like the game and buy one, all these three have pretty nice specializations from expansions.

> @"Karaash.1037" said:

> Hello! Name is Karaash! I started GW2 a few months ago but as soon as I got it running pc died. Now I'm back and I'm having a hard time deciding a profession to play first. I come from games like WoW always beign a tank or healer and wanted to know the profession that fits that place :) Not really into PVP but I would like to explore it eventually. I'm not really into meta I just want to have fun :D

I have bit similar background, and I also like to play tank & healer roles in group content in the previous WoW-like game. But GW2 is different. Time to time it has been painful to unlearn all the aspects from my previous game, to think things differently, and some times I have missed the game I used to play. As I am still playing GW2 tells you that even that the process can occasionally be bit painful, it pays off.

First things first. First, when you start, you play mainly so called "Open World PvE", and in that game mode, you use more or less a self-sufficient builds, no matter of the profession. Because of the fighting mechanism, at first you are most probably liking more "sustained", defensive builds, and drift towards higher damaging builds as you get more experience. Most professions give you tools for this.

Fractals (5-man relatively small instances) are probably the first group content you start to play. The big difference to WoW-like games is that there is no (strict) tank, healer, ranged DPS and melee DPS roles to fulfill. Instead, all classes needs to put out DPS, but so called "support" roles are allowed to dish out less DPS than others. Support means you support your team's DPS by applying DPS boosts to your team mates. But, you can also provide them heals and protection, too, and you can have good CC. Unlike in WoW-like games, in this game it is much more important to avoid damage entirely, than to try to mitigate it.

You need to understand, that even that many classes can fulfill those support roles, in practise people will only expect the so called meta (most effective tactics available) builds to carry that role. So, even if you could tank raids with many different classes & builds, people only choose chrono (atm) to do that. My personal advice is to forget that: you need first lots experience from raids before being able to tank them on chrono, so it is best to choose something else first - make that chrono tank later, if you still want to do that.

Last thing is that there is 9 professions, but all these professions have 3 specializations: so called core (free), HoT (Heart of Thrones expansion) and PoF (Path of Fire expansion). That is, if you don't have certain expansion, you can't play that certain specialization. So, at first, you may want to start with such profession, which have decent core builds for your purposes. But keep in mind those expansion specializations, for many classes they really change the game (e.g. Ranger becomes a support with Druid specialization).

My suggestions for a class to start to play would be Ranger, Necromancer and/or Guardian. Ranger is a good allaround ranged/melee DPS class to go, especially if you have HoT for Druid - PoF Soulbeast specialization is good, too. Later you may find it a bit boring class, but at that time you can play something else (and then later come back to Ranger with totally different and more fun approachs). Necromancer is also durable and versatile class to go, and currently it is slowly but steadily becoming my "workhorse" instead of Ranger. Guardian is a good allaround pick, too, it has good sustain to start with in form of blocks and some heals.

Even if you start with one of those three classes, I suggest you to try out other classes later. When you get experience from classes and fights (and have unlearned enough your previous game), you most probably will find some other class more tempting and fun to play. There is no bad class in the game at the moment, but not all classes have viable builds for all roles, and some classes / specs / roles need lots more dedication to be effective than others. Hope this helps you!

> @"Illconceived Was Na.9781" said:

> The people that can change this are in Brussels, not Seattle. But I wouldn't expect them to revisit this any time soon. Neither regulators nor politicians like to admit that they made a hasty decision and failed to recognize all the consequences or see all the nuances of new laws or regulations.

Although not a Belgian, I don't think it was hasty decision. I'm basically hoping to have bit similar in my home country. Why? Because I really think that if you put money to something that plays RNG with you is gambling, being it blackjack or roulette table, a slot machine or a loot box. The different story is what kind of regulations should these gambling companies fulfill to keep their business.

To OP: In this game, as a newcomer, first things people start to teach you both in sPvP and WvW is how to avoid and escape fights. Mobility is not thought as a mean to get upper hand in the fight, but a way to reset the fight and cooldowns. For me, it sounds really odd. Is it so that the fight itself is not good enough to be enjoyable as a game content? OK, anyways, if someone like to enjoy the fight itself, does not want to escape it in hope for reinforcements and certain win, in some controlled form, why can't they? Maybe they are trying to learn the tactics to win the battles, instead of just avoid and escape all the fights?

> @"Aza.2105" said:

> The reason for all the toxic behavior is because the game mode. Its designed for coordinated gameplay with voice communications. Instead everyone experiences it with randoms and no voice com. In fact, you might even get randoms who don't speak English at all. Conquest should be AT only. Solo/Duo Q should get a mode that requires less communication and that is actually fun to play.

> @"ReaverKane.7598" said:

> IF ranked was deathmatch, or even stronghold (stronghold is easy to solo carry), then i'd give it a pass, although it's really nonsensical to claim that team-based games are less competitive when played with teams. But Conquest? Conquest is 70% coordination 30% individual prowess, the worse individual players in the world can beat the most mechanically talented ones easily, as long as that first team is much better coordinated. How many times have matches been won by teams with a fraction of the other team's kills, simply because of out-rotating and playing for the objectives?

I fully agree with these. If ranked PvP would be deathmatch, the story would be totally different. But when the competitive game mode is up to coordination, you are teamed with randoms, your chances to make a difference as an individual are limited, and it is the game mode that you need to take to get rewards, that creates fertile ground for toxicity.

All PvP games are toxic to certain limits. One of the differences to those in GW2 is that in this game it is your own team members that are toxic, not the opponent: in many other games, it is your opponents who throw insults on you when you win them.

I also agree with some posters here saying that ranked is anything but "fun to play, fun to play against". I can't say that I enjoy it anymore, and thus I have played it just occasionally, to remind me why I don't like to play that game mode.

EDIT:

> @"Zawn.9647" said:

> Classes that applies torment+confusion where the counter play is to stand still and not cast anything to not die (sounds cool huh?)

Yeah, true. I have also myself wondered these two condis, just because the counter act to them is - to do nothing :o At PvE land they might, just might still sound reasonable, but in PvP land they are pretty strange effects. In lesser extent I have also wondered boons like quickness and alacrity, as this kind of uncontrolled manipulation of skill cooldowns and execution speeds is a good source to create unbalanced effects.

> @"Fatguts.9206" said:

> > @"TheAgedGnome.7520" said:

> > Could Axe/B FB be an acceptable alternative to Sw/B? I'm finding Axe is quite good on my FB for up-close and personal melee.

>

> As much as i like the Axe as a alternative the mobility of the Sword is fantastic, and any dps variance that i have noticed is not worth the sacrifice. However, i have been wondering about my choice of secondary weapon(the Hammer) and have not been utilising this to its fullest, barely at all in fact. so there may be benefit in simply having the axe and shield as the secondary choice. i may have to give this a go. thx for the input. :D

I have been playing around with different weapon choices on my FB (for OW). The current state of this evolution is that I mainly use axe + torch, and have mace + shield/focus or staff as secondary. Axe + torch with condi dmg gears is just too good combo to be ignored on FB, no matter how I tried. I have used also axe + shield as secondary set (that is, swapping between off-hand torch and shield), but in the end I found that if I need to go defensive (play time to get something off cooldown), mace + shield/focus or staff makes better combo than axe.

As I played DH previously, I have tried to fit sword in the build, just because - as you say - the mobility is great. So far I haven't been able to mix that in, and I admit that the lack of mobility is one of the drawbacks in my FB variants.

Bit off-topic:

> @"Obtena.7952" said:

> It's sounds ideal but I would avoid the idea of group defensive capabilities on open world PVE content. Most people around you don't play and make builds that rely on others to carry them so that aspect of your build becomes a weak point, especially if you are solo.

This is true, of course, but I still tend to prefer hybrid support classes - mainly druid and blood sage scourge variants - for OW content. For me, it just feels better, if I can keep people up in the fight, than try to squeeze the fight times to their bare minimums. There is luckily vast amounts of people taking responsibility for that, so there's some room there for me playing less optimal backup builds if not everything goes as planned.

14 - Remove air breathers entirely. Air breathers are anyways just copies of our head gear, they can't be much other for many reasons. In any case, if you like to improve underwater performance, you need to have separate underwater gear & build set for your toon, because of the limited number of weapons you can use. So remove that annoying little head piece entirely, or replace it with full underwater gear & trait set.

It wouldn't hurt that you would also get rid from underwater weapons, too, and tailor regular weapon set skills for underwater combat: if this is not possible, at least give us some more options for underwater weapon skills so that we could choose the weapon based on our armor + trinket stats (that is, power or condi dmg and so on).

If that is not possible, at least give us invisible airbreather skin (for all weights), or add a checkbox to airbreather to turn it invisible like helmet.

Necro, guard and ranger are professions. Scourge, Firebrand and Druid are basically builds for those professions. There are 3 build slots where you can pick one out of 7 choices, so you have 7x6x5 possibilities. For every slot, you can have three traits, which have three options, so you have 3x3x3 choices. Overall, every profession has 7x6x5x3x3x3 = 5670 different build options. You can't assume that every one of these perform equally: similarly you can't assume that every single elite spec performs equally.

I would vote for having specialized roles in PvE group content. If everyone are just all on their own doing DPS, the mechanics feel more like a having a bunch of bandits raiding the place. If you can have assigned roles in encounters, it starts to require some organization in the group, and tailor your characters to fit the rest of the team. This organization can't require too much coordination in fractals, but with raids you could expect people to have some practise, communications and ways to decide the roles the team members are fulfilling.

Personally, I would not tie professions and their specs to PvE roles. That would cause really hard balancing issues at PvP/WvW side. I could encourage role specialization at PvP side, too, of course, but for special PvE mechanics I would implement as encounter specific "props" or "buffs/debuffs" you can have team members to take. This way the needs for the PvE encounter would not break things at PvP side.