chronometria.3708

The problem with Piken is commander cowardice. There was a time when piken made a point of seeking a challenge and fighting the stronger target. These days, Piken commanders give up after the first loss and prefer to farm the easy targets instead. The days of actually working for a worthy victory are gone on the server and now its just popularity based on who gives the best points farm.

> @"Kheldorn.5123" said:

> I mean if we can just craft Claw of Khan Ur, riding branded (aka hostile) mounts is to be expected.

>

> Just remember this kids when anyone ever uses immersion as argument about anything. GW2 has no immersion.

Then we need to be worried about this, as the current and perhaps only selling point of the game right now is its story episodes.

> @"Rubberduckgillespie.9854" said:

> Wasn't Glint technically a branded creature?

She was a dragon lieutenant - a greater minion with its own intelligence and some degree of free will, like the pale tree. Aureen is in a similar situation and I would have no problems with a rideable aureen. The problem is that these are just generic branded animals, rather than being named things with their own story as Aureen is (and even aureen is apparently barely controllable).

If they did a quest for these animals, or made some sort of magic collar item ....or anything, then we could all be a lot more comfortable, but as it is, its like the idea of the branded and the elder dragon of crystal have just been made a lot less impressive and that damages the game experience as a whole. If we are getting these mounts at all, it should be once the Dragon is dead, or subdued.

I`m not happy with them, but not due to looks. I just don't feel its right that we are riding branded. It isn't in any way safe or sensible, or even, surely possible. There has to be some sort of line where the story should affect the in game items and I feel this crosses them pretty severely. Just being close to a branded creature for that long should make everyone in the vicinity sick - they are like a walking mass of radioactive crystal that most folk would smash to bits as soon as they saw it.

At least we killed Balthazar before we "salvaged" his mechanical minions - same with all the other villains in the game when we start getting their armour and kit (eg scarlet)....but we now seem to be in the situation where we are looting our foe before having even overcome them and that sets a new precedent of immersion disregard that leaves me with an uncomfortable feeling I haven't had in my years of enjoying Tyria and its battles.

They actually look worse than the carnival weapons - they are like, a poor mans clown theme. Surely they should match the legendary backpack and be mean, steel, sharp, fiery sort of things. Those would also appeal to players outside the gametype too as they would look like awesome charr-tastic death choppers.

The idea of extending the duration of fire effects seems appealing to me. With a 100 percent burn duration, those extra seconds could really do wonders for sustained and chunky damage.

> @Asur.9178 said:

> Anything happening with full potential deadeye?...or is the current deadeye the full potential deadeye?

>

> Is it currently in its final form?...or is it not even its final form?

I must second that motion for updates on the Deadeye. As it stands, the elite spec is widely regarded as useless in every game mode. Several good suggestions on rebalance have been made on the forums and there was huge disappointment when the recent balance patch, if anything, was only cosmetic or actually negative for the profession.

If another balance patch takes place with no major improvements or reworks on things like malice generation or kneel, then the deadeye may as well be outright removed from the game, as that's the impact it is realistically having on any play areas. That's a real shame, as its a much desired, thematically strong concept that many people created characters for.

Faren is actually our version of Bruce Wayne. He appears to be rich, useless fop but in fact is very likely the character who sends us all those secret messages in the story and who saves the world from the shadows.

Well, in WvW firebrand is useful for pretty much everything. Spellbreaker is useful for bubbles and that's about it. Nuff said really.

Jackals are also good for hostile areas - when you have to cross a location packed with combat and monsters, then the jackals sand jumps will often prove much safer than using the raptor for the journey.

The spvp population must be pretty thin at the moment. I have been playing low gold and see the same names every other game and sometimes in consecutive games.

The way the classes are built means that even good players suffer when they play raids - I mean, in the latest "recommended classes" list on reddit, they referred to the warrior build as "banner-slave", for example. There are people stuck in certain classes and horrible playstyles and they would dearly love to try or play another class but the raid mechanics and their guilds will not let them. Raids have become an exercise not in enjoyable, challenging gaming, but in soulless perfection, where your own friends will disown you if you are choosing fun over efficiency.

I ran into one of these burst mesmers in Spvp the other day. I don't usually see them there, probably due to the amulets available or food or somesuch, but there he was. He was a good player too, which made it all the worse, though if I got my reflect off in time he instantly killed himself.

Basically, it was a coin toss who died and when he realised I could reflect he came in stealth so I had no way to put up active defences. Burst mesmers make deadeyes and thieves look sad in comparison and yet have so many other tools to sustain the fight if the initial assault doesn't land (thieves tend to retreat to reset such attacks).

Very tired of Kasmeers whining that I didn't side with the sunspears over who should protect Amnoon City.

I was sorely tempted to buy that 9600 but two things put me off. The first was that it did not come with a title or other thing to show I`d gone bananas with the money. The second was that the gem store wouldn't let me buy that many gems at once - the largest gem amount being 8000. It felt rather uncomfortable to have to make two transactions instead of just the one - anet literally broke the bank and this was something I could feel.

What I am probably going to do is get a ten mount bundle with real money and then buy occasional mounts with in game gem conversion. That should give me enough mounts to play around with and not be too huge that it feels painful.

From what I have seen, the ones released are the least popular weapon types. I`d be very surprised if we had longbow or greatsword and we will probably see some nonsense like warhorn or focus. I can still hope though!

It is the effects of a distant battle. In WvW its possible to "see" where a battle is going on by these. Their direction is correct but they are way too close. So, if everyone was fighting to the north east, then these would appear on the nearest surface to my north east.

Red was always balanced by having two distant towers and two that were super close....this change certainly means we should see some alteration of the other towers to compensate.

I am considering getting the full mount pack, but its a hard choice. Its a huge amount of money and, while I could afford it, its still enough to make me pause. What really got me, however, was that I cant actually buy that many gems in a single transaction - the gemstore only goes up to 8000, so I`d have to get an 8000 and a 1600. That in itself feels bad - anet is literally breaking its own bank in making a gem cost that's too large to actually purchase outright.

I could be swayed if there was something else in that bundle. Even a daft title to show people I went out and went all silly with money (Mount Connoisseur or something). In MechWarrior online they sold stupidly overpriced golden "robots" and even today those are spoken about with mixture of horror/reverence. As it is though, getting the full pack gives me choice, but it doesn't give me anything over someone who got lucky and paid very little for the mounts they are using.

The pack, oddly, isn't even the status purchase as that goes to the reforged warhound. Why not give that mount to those who get the pack, or something similar like a fancy backpiece?

If I am going to pay 102 pounds sterling all at once - which is effectively like buying 4 path of fire accounts - then there should be something else. Alternatively, sell the pack for 8000 gems, which is the largest single amount of gems that can be purchased on the store. Even that is still a great deal of money.

All I know is that my deadeye struggles to capture an unbuffed camp. I`m likely taking the ascended set I made for it and moving it over to a holosmith build of some sort. They seem to get endless megalasers super blast things without having to kneel in place like a lemon.

I am tempted by the full 30 pack, but the discount just isn't worth it. Not to mention that if I do buy it, that's 102 pounds sterling and I cant even buy 9600 gems without 2 purchases from the gemstore....it doesn't go up to an amount that high in a single purchase. That's just mind boggling.

I am ok with it being blockable - what deadeye needs is more piercing. Seeing it bounce off a pet or unintended target is what kills it for me. As a ranger I can spame my piercing longbow all over the place and know its going to hit both the target and deal lots of damage to anything that happens to wander in the way as well. This is a great benefit in zergy wvw situations or where there are many mobs.

I am still bitter over buying lots of dye packs and getting none of the exclusive dyes whatsoever and only dyes worth, at best, a silver piece.

Poor deadeye. Mesmer does it such much better.

I am not hugely surprised that weaver has been dropped. Its a lot of complexity for not much return. Lets hope it sees some meaningful buffs in the balance patch. (and don't even get me started on the traits and abilities that require a weaver to use only a single element).