SkyCakeLight.3750

Typed up a massive post before realizing it was way too much! I'll try a much shorter version.

If you want to play support in Open World content for either Meta Maps such as Dragon Stand or for smaller-scale bosses such as champions or legendaries, then Support Scourge is by far the best support in my experience. Support in Open World is something I've always been interested in. It's not like how in WoW if I show up on my Mistweaver Monk then no one is going to die due to the sheer amount of healing, cleanses, and the bubble I have.

Support Scourge has barriers, minor HoTs, and unique Downed support. Barriers are worth more than raw healing in Open World. If someone has 14k HP and takes 14k damage in a second (very common), then there isn't anything you can realistically do as a "healer". Pretty much just apply Protection and hope for the best! If you drop an 8k barrier on them though, now they're able to survive that burst damage and work out how to remain alive. You can slap a Regeneration on them and Vampiric Presence will help regain that lost health. They will still manage to die in a lot of cases. On to the most important section!

Downed Support is the biggest boon. Blood Magic has always been one of many things that keep the Necromancer from being balanced. It will give you unique rezzing capabilities. With the right traits, you will cast a Lesser Well of Blood when you rez (extends this ability to the skill Well of Blood), players can siphon health, they won't lose HP while downed, and you can pull people from dangerous positions to you for rezzing. You may not be able to output as much healing as a Firebrand. But, when they inevitably die (they will), then you'll be there to swoop in and get them fighting again!

In my experience of experimenting with this idea over many years and having a point in time where it was all I was concerned with, Scourge wins out over the healing Firebrands, Support Druids, Boon Heralds/Eles, ect. thanks primarily to Blood Magic. You can't keep people from going into a Downed state with how high the burst damage is in a game where glass cannon is the most common build. Might as well support them while they're in that state!

Yes, this is the shorter version. As for instanced content, Support Scourge dies off a bit due to player stacking and lower player count (this supports raw healing better). It still makes a great safety net and can make a run infinitely easier. A lot of people don't like the idea of sacrificing a DPS for the spot though since killing a boss 15 seconds faster is a risk they're often willing to take.

Edit: BUT! To extend more on my point about comparing it to my Mistweaver in WoW. I feel like I have been impactful as a Support Scourge on meta maps. Even more so on bounty runs. I've also ran Support Scourge with great effect on a speed farming Strike mission. However, it's not the same as a dedicated healing role. People will often not even notice you in PUGs. I've gotten a lot more positive feedback supporting in WoW than GW2 due primarily to WoW having dedicated spots for it. In GW2, support often means more than keeping players alive and is something all players provide at least a little bit of.

Not that focusing on healing output isn't useful! It is.

I would really suggest trying to catch Dragonfall when it's a daily map. With full keys, you can get like 70-90 motes from one run + the daily. Doing that combined with Bjora Marches (trading Eternal Ice for other LS4 currency) can fairly quickly get the trinkets you want without doing something completely boring such as picking winterberries. Though, once you run out of collections for backpieces, winterberries or orrian pearls in Siren's Fall are the best bet. I personally prefer collecting pearls over berries.

Strikes give color'd crystals that rotate each week. There is a crystal merchant that will trade the crystals for ascended gear though it does take quite a bit of farming. You can trade crystals for different colors at the same merchant. A slow but consistent method if you're doing the daily strike for gear.

You can also farm Drakkar while doing Bjora Marches. He can drop an ascended weapon. I managed to get one from him. Not reliable, but worth trying to get a kill in while farming Bjora Marches for the chance.

I have noticed a slow but steady incline towards it over the past several years. It's like that with all gaming communities and seems to be the "gamer" attitude in general. A lot of people trying to be "funny" but at the expense of others because they're not actually a funny person themself. Or, people trying to "min/max" activities that don't require it, yet they expect everyone else to optimize the enjoyment out of something. It's become commonplace in all multiplayer games and especially MMOs.

This back so far that it may not even be worth mentioning. But, the difference between GW2 community today and the SWG community pre CU is day and night. Even just comparing GW2's community to pre-HoT is noticeable.

Very few people are going to be interested in watching anything in Guild Wars 2. People tend to prefer watching streams for the streamer and not for what they're playing. I don't usually watch streams, but will sometimes watching the recordings for Sips or Northernlion because I enjoy their commentary. They're fun. Or you can go the Asmongold route and be controversial. But, GW2 is never going to get you viewers that you don't already have. GW2 doesn't have those "hype" moments or anything new to discover.

If you insist on playing GW2, then I would suggest that PvP is your best bet if you're exceptionally good. At least PvP has some variance to it and has room for you do something impressive like win while outnumbered. Anyone can log on right now and do like 95% the game has to offer without much resistance. Like, no one wants to watch someone they don't know (you in this case) fight Drakkar when they've already fought it like 50 times themself. The fight doesn't change. Even streamers that pull like 30k viewers would have a hard time keeping interest in GW2. You could get away with WvW roaming but watching someone join a zerg would be pretty boring since you're just a part of the blob.

Which, isn't a slight at GW2. It shines in other areas. This is also of course all subjective and based on the observations of someone that isn't really big into Twitch. The only stream I watch with some consistency is Digital Extremes because they give a ton of information out on the game they dev and are also fun. Guild Wars 2 could use a community team like Rebecca and Megan from DE that can make an hour long stream both entertaining and informative.

Does Fear Not This Night count? Or, is that too cheesy of an answer? I still get teary eyed from it. So so beautiful. Brings back memories of the first time clearing Arah with my friends. The Zhaitan fight may not have been spectacular. Especially relative to today's higher standards set by Anet. But, it was honestly just a magical moment for me in gaming when we were standing on the airship and Fear Not This Night started playing. I'm starting to tear up just writing this. Ha!

I'm not usually the type to listen to game soundtracks. But, I can click play on any of the music posted in this thread and know it. I do enjoy GW2's OST in general.

They're my favorite thing to do in the game. I like seeing a bunch of people work together to achieve a common goal. Pre-RIBA Silverwastes was a lot of fun for me and some of my most fond memories in the game.

I genuinely don't mean this as an insult. I use ArcDPS myself (still shouldn't be baseline) and do kind of agree with the grinding bit. But! Have you tried playing WoW? From your post, it really seems like a game you'd enjoy more. Many opportunities to exclude people and tailor your PUGs the way you want.

It's kind of strange playing Necro at the moment. I don't see nearly as many as some people make them out to be. But, I've been playing Necro since core and it is my second most played profession. Spent many years being hated by both anet and the community. Now people hate me for thinking I'm just fotm. Can't win!

It's like being a Shaman in WoW.

Black Lion Keys are definitely up there. I haven't spent a lot of money on them. I bought 5 when they were on sale this last time and managed to get Rox's Quiver from it. I don't have a character to use it on, but it can be difficult to nab from the gem store since for whatever reason they like to have a couple items that rarely show up in it. The rest of the keys have been garbage. Including the ones I've gotten from mapping, I still don't have enough scraps to get anything.

Anything I bought that wasn't account bound that honestly should be. Bought two bag expansions for my Mesmer and now I don't even play her. Haven't bought any since! I bought one equipment template. Never again. The equipment template is being put to use. I just felt bad about it.

Nope. After nearly 3.5k hours, I have like 3 ascended sets of armor/weapons/trinkets and currently have 11g on my only account. Legendary is still a pipe dream for me! Give me like another 3k hours and maybe. I do like the idea of an "Legendary Armory" but would have to see how it is in-game. Does make it slightly more appealing.

Large, open world, PvE maps that are more mechanics and/or teamwork driven and less zergy. Potentially with some short down time to allow for chatting. Possibly with multiple (and random) potential outcomes to shake things up just a little bit each time.

Aw, I think "Exotic Panda" is an amazing name. You should rock it, OP!

Not that I disagree with the suggestion. Would be nice!

I think they look awful and wouldn't equip them if I had them. I don't wear anything shiny. They're not only shiny, but just kind of odd as well.

They look fine on other people. But, for my own personal taste, never going to wear them.

Edit: That kind of sounded mean. Not my intention! If you like them then you wear them and have your fancy balls floating around! Willing to bet they look much better on you than they do on me.

I sometimes forget they're even in the game. Never see anyone else talking about them and often don't notice other people's title. They're not like WoW where they become a part of your name.

I love balls. (Not so much the Legendary trinket ones)

I enjoyed Strikes while farming for my Runic Cape. Thought about maybe trying out some raids! Though, I've always been on the fence about them. I think Strikes were meant more for people like that.

But! As someone that has played MMOs for like 20 years, Raiding never made sense to me or had some heavy appeal in the first place. I don't raid simply because I don't want to.

> @"Jables.4659" said:

> > @"SkyCakeLight.3750" said:

>

> > It took five hours of which Strike to get the 100 scraps? Or, was it longer and the five hour session was just when realization came?

> I had initially done the whisper daily and a few others because I had wrongfully believed that the cape scraps were a once daily per strike thing. I had 10 scraps when I realized that you could spam a strike repeatedly and keep getting them. To get the remaining 90, I think it was about 5 hours of the Voice and Claw of the Fallen strike, but I wasn't really keeping track of time (The University I attend extended our spring break by an extra week because of the virus so I have a lot of free time right now).

>

>

Thank you very much! I really want this cape and just started collecting scraps. This is a great help.

> @"Jables.4659" said:

> > The name of the achievement finally made sense after reading this sentence. :)

>

> Lol, I had the same realization during my 5 hour farming session.

>

>

It took five hours of which Strike to get the 100 scraps? Or, was it longer and the five hour session was just when realization came?

The two that I would personally want for Engineer is either an espec based around plagues (alchemy) or construction in the mind of themes. The plague thing is just a tie-in with the storyline from Factions. Maybe some people got interested in the whole idea of a plague and decided to study that idea further. Construction is because Keunig City was awful to navigate and I hope they brought in some experts to fix the place up! I think a chemical-based spec has the potential to shake things up a bit more thematically for Engi. But, I really want an espec that takes the ideas of turrets and amps them up to make them not only useful, but more interact-able and interesting. I don't want them to be turrets for the espec, just in the same vein as them. Maybe something like a super-structure than you can continually build on as the fight progresses using a new resource for the Engineer that is generated in-combat. Also, more explosions for the demolition side of construction!

I normally try to avoid posting thoughts that go directly against others. But, I will say that the idea of a "Golemancer" does not sound like a fun idea to me. Engineer is already too racially influenced and a spec based around golems is very clearly and explicitly Asuran. Way more racially influenced than Scrapper or Holosmith and I would suggest that even those "cross the line". If Engineer gets a pseudo-pet class, then I would hope that either the summons are per-race in animation or pull entirely from Cantha. They could be the spirit constructs from Cantha.

Another idea is to make something akin to World of Warcraft's Glyph system but actually good since WoW's Glyphs are pretty awfully utilized by Blizzard. Make the summons default to Canthan-themed. Then, add a way to skin abilities. In this case, making the summons appeal to other races. This idea could of course extend to other abilities and not all of them have to have individual races in mind. This probably a bit much effort than it's worth. Could be fun!

Those little Scrapper gyros as a mail service and gathering tools would be nice. I tend to prefer non-flashy tools/skins and think those gyros would fit the bill.

Darkrime Delves made me sad. But, in a good way! Even though we already knew what was going to happen and were just seeing the other side of things, my heart still wrenched a bit at the end.

I will say that making Ryland's GS a bundle was a great move. I still used the GS and thought it was a lot of fun. It's a nice option for people that don't want to use it aside from a few story mechanics.

I personally really enjoyed it despite the several bugs I encountered. But! I do agree that it needs a solo option for people that would rather that. Not a "can be solo'd if you're max special uber l337 alpha gamer with a pro chair" kind of solo. But, the same (or relatively the same) pacing as all the other story content in the game.

After making that an option, please add more public story missions with optional solo because I really enjoyed hoping around with a couple of other people and playing with the tank.

Because I like Engineer and want more Engineer.

New elites. Engineer tends to be my favorite fantasy in games. So, I just want more Engineer! I can't think a new class that would appeal to me more than the ones we already have.

World of Warcraft doesn't have housing. I do like player housing in games though and would like to see it.

I'd love to make my own little Charr hangout. It doesn't have to be Wildstar levels of good! But, the more customization the better!