Jack Angelfoot.2697

I know that this is final and the group is already committed to imposing these changes. But I would think and hope that the input of the community should have some sort of weight. I hope the balance team reviews the comments. We know you guys are trying. We know you have a hard job. But this is the first patch where I have seen basically a 100% dissatisfaction with the direction chosen. I do understand that most comments will always be critical, but usually the balance is 3-2 in favor of critical responses. Not 99-1. This patch will do little more than cause massive problems for most of the classes effected. I would recommend canceling the patch until after a rework. On the whole, this is going to massively damage the game. It will also render some professions nearly useless in the endgame. I do not think that is your intent.

Note: It is very easy to backtrack, but the portal connecting New Kaineng to Seitung is in the water. Use a skimmer or a skiff.

Finish the story through Arborstone with one character. Then use the Arborstone portal device to portal your alts directly there. Then simply walk into the city and from there backtrack to Seitung.

There is nothing engaging or exciting about node gathering. If that is all fishing is, there are going to be a lot of disappointed players out there.

The design concept and animations, are beautiful. I was very, very excited to get a mobile version of Guardian! I also noted that it did not perform as I had hoped. Note: I tried to use as many Willbender skills as I figured could be reasonable in my builds, because I wanted to test the class as a whole. I also always had the sword offhand as one weapon swap, so that I could test it too. I have not tested Willbender as a set of traits only, kitted out with an otherwise-vanilla build. Nor am I planning to do that. PVE The Willbender does almost no damage. I tested various builds in PvP, PvE open world, and against the Raid Testing Golem. I average about 10k against a stationary target (yes, I was using the base Maurader's gear at the time, but I can get 15-18k easy on most classes in exotic Maurader's gear). One way I test builds is to try to solo the Forged Foothold area North of Destiny's Gorge in the Crystal Oasis. When I ran Willbender there, I found I could close on enemies quickly, but if I agroed more than one or two at a time, I was dead. Since this area is designed to test a build's capacity at killing lots of tough, mobile enemies in groups, it was undoable. I died before I could even clear the base area every time. One thing that I noted is that for an interrupt/cc class, I never get to land my skills, I am the one always interrupted. It did not matter what I tried to do (damage, CC, escape, heal) it was always too slow. (This carried on into PvP.) After not being able to do basic expansion content, I concluded that the Willbender must not be a PvE spec. PVP I went to PvP and played some rounds with a few build variations. I knew the damage was low, so I tried to put together a highly mobile stunlock build, figuring I could play it almost like a thief. Unfortunately, Willbender's CC is still too slow and clunky for PvP. I could not 1v1 anyone, it did not matter about the CC, I did not have enough damage to finish anyone. Bizarrely, it felt like my damage increased while downed. Sword off-hand basically does not deal damage. Sword main hand does not do enough to compensate. No other main-hand weapon deals more damage than sword or goes well with the offhand sword. Also, since greatsword is already mobile, Willbender adds very little to using greatsword. Instead, using Willbender with greatsword seems to reduce its potential damage. Using Willbender with hammer makes it more mobile, but that still does not make up for the long wind-ups for all the hammer skills. Thus, I cannot think of any weapon sets that are truly useful with Willbender. Sword/Sword deals no damage. Greatsword deals significantly less damage than with Firebrand, Dragonhunter, or Vanilla. Hammer is not fixed by the spec. Scepter and Mace do not gain anything from the mobility. I also found that, for whatever reason, my odds of landing my CCs was very low. The radius on my elite (Heaven's Palm) seemed minuscule and the wind up time made it so that in all my times using it I think I only caught a single enemy once. The other CCs seemed to rarely land. When they did, I would feel accomplished for a minute, but--given that I could not do any damage even with a full-on attack--I would only be able to celebrate for a second before they recovered and killed me. I got interrupted while trying to heal numerous times, which always ended with my death. This heal is broken. You need to be attack for it to work, but if interrupted by that attack, you loose it. Basically, the heal is not usable in PvP. Also note, the heal is not useful in PvE. There are better and faster heals and the attacks are not coming in as fast. So the heal skill really has no niche. Don't use in PvP or PvE. I tried helping the group at the middle, intending to stun lock enemies to give my team the advantage. But all my stuns were either easily avoided or too short to matter. Plus, since I was kitted out for max damage (which was still low), I had little sustain. So I would die almost instantly leaving my group at -1. Changing tactics, I tried to cap open points, much the same way a thief would. Why not use the mobility to my advantage, eh? Regrettably, although Willbender can do this better than a classic Guard, I was no match for the speed of thieves or mesmers on the other team doing the same. And, when a thief or mesmer caught me, I was dead. If I ran into a bunker guard, I was dead. So that did not work either. Ultimately, I was a liability on every team I joined. I could not come up with a play style as a Willbender that would contribute to my team. My CC was too limited to be relevant. My damage was nonexistent. My mobility was good, but less than the other teams' thieves or mesmers. Conclusion I believe this class specialization design has some good potential. I am still excited to try the final product. But it needs a niche. It needs an area where it can shine. Jump in and do heavy damage then jump out? Sounds great. Jump in and stun lock an enemy well enough that mediocre damage can burn them down? That would work, too. Jump in and stun or condi spike an area and get out before they can all react? That would work as well. But jumping in to do nothing but die gets old. Especially when I cannot figure out how to do more than that in PvE or PvP. The Willbender needs to be able to do something and do it well. Right now it can swiftly get to a fight, but cannot contribute at all once it is there. I have seen reviews indicate that this spec shines with clumps of low-health stationary enemies. But those are only found in core Tyria. I sincerely doubt that is going to be the design plan for Cantha. Until it is rebalanced, it does not appear that Willbender is viable in any game mode. Random observations: Best Willbender CC: Shield 5. I know that sounds weird, but that was the only CC that I would consistently land in PvP. A close second is the Roiling Light/Quick Retribution, a stunbreak that, when used, swaps to a CC attack. I landed that a few times. Best main hand: Sword Best off hand: Probably shield. Sword off hand does not bring anything to the table right now. The heal skill is broken. It is a long cast that requires you to be attacked to do a full heal. But it has no interrupt protection or evade. Thus, if you are interrupted by that attack, it does not heal you. In PvP, using it is a dead sentence. You will be interrupted and die as you stand around trying to get attacked while healing. In PvE you are not attacked enough to make it useful. Willbender has no traits or synergy to make a good conditions build. (There will be no "Willburner.") Thus, the Rushing Justice virtue and the Whirling Light skill are not very useful for damage. I did use Whirling Light in PvE, but it was completely underwhelming. Willbender Flames appears to have little value in PvP or PvE. With all my substantial criticism, I still think that Willbender is an excellent design concept for a specialization class. When it is properly tuned, I expect it will be a fun and exciting specialization to play!

Been seeing lots of people kill off groups in bunches using this exploit. Not cool.

OP is right. Condi Dragon Hunter was the only reliable guardian DPS build on even footing with the top builds from Tempest, Scourge (technically, a well-played Scourge was still much stronger), and Holosmith. Condi DH is now 100% dead. A 50% damage reduction would kill meta DPS build except for Condi Scourge at this point. Now, Guards can run vanilla support (which is much weaker than a Scourge, Engie, Druid, or either Ele variant. Alternatively, we can run power and be outclassed in all areas by Reapers, Holos, Mesmers and Wars. Some garbage variation will stay meta because Guard is the most played class in the game. But the build will be garbage until there is a full rebalance. If you can play other classes in PvP, jump now. Guards are dead.

Working again.

My wife wants to buy a set of wings today with the sale. But the gem purchasing is completely down. (North America)You go to the Buy Gems button and get a blank brown window. Anyone else having this issue?

As someone with many alt characters, I find this ridiculously annoying.

Alas, alas.All things fun must end at last.The spooky treats and Labyrinth maze,Will disappear for many days. Tonight's the last time to climb the clock,To open the doors with one hard knock,Ere the Mad King's gone for another year,And gone is both our fun and fear. When he returns will Dragons End?Will things have changed for our Mad friend?Naught we can do but wave farewell.And send a few last undead back to hell. Goodbye, good night,To you mad moon.Goodbye, good night,Winter comes soon. Goodbye, good night,The morrow brings the morn. Goodbye, good night,To Mad King Thorn.

For all the loyal players who have been asking for this since the very beginning, this announcement is an incredible disappointment. The community has been begging for this feature. We've said we would even pay for the feature. (Notably, I never once heard a player say they would pay for numerous separate slots for each individual character to have basic templates functions, let alone pay a second time for several equipment templates. We were all expecting an accountwide single payment m) The community came up with a third party solution to fill the hole. But you have announced something that appears to be so ridiculously expensive that it will not be usable by veterans who have lots of alternate characters. By the implied structure, I will have to get a new set of build and a new set of equipment templates every single time I want to level up an alt (on a slot that I already purchased). I have been with this game a very long time. Since the very beginning. I've been waiting for build templates the ENTIRE time. Now that you are finally releasing them in a fashion that will prevent me from using them. I'm crushed. I wish you had never gotten my hopes up. Here's the question: What can you do to fix it? OR Are old veterans like me merely expendable?

Instances seem to be working for me again. Ty.

I am back in... Will check on the rest.

Same thing is happening to me. Got kicked from storyline. Then it would not continue storyline. And now it won't let me login. This is not cool.