Gorani.7205

While some Cata build is probably still is very good in sPvP, the amount of individual skill & execution speed, rotation awareness, exact timing + being the class with the worst armour+health pool option and no easy "get away mechanics" like stealth to disengage, my vote goes to Elementalist, because I am under the impression other professions require less aspects to utilise "the strongest build" very efficiently.

The purpose of building towers, castles and keeps is to get an advantage in a conflict in a certain location and control the area around it. The stat buffs via claiming you might refer to as an equalizer are a patch ANet gave to fortified structures because of bad map design that is now removed, but not replaced by better map design or better defense opportunities. I mean you don't need only buff siege in a defensive context, but also where that siege can be put. But that would mean fundamentally working on making "geometry" and "asset" changes to the Borderlands and EBG. Making walls higher, adding crenelations/merlons/hoardings so you can't be pulled off that easily from below, adding some mechanic to protect players using Oils and Canons from the many people below, adding some new raised platforms to build some Ballistae there that can actually shoot down. But how big are the chances of ANet devs working on those instead of "ring patches" is there really?

Then I we need participation for repairing walls between 0-50% back, so that holding the wall isn't a scenario were you lose participation while being active in the defense. And we need stationary siege that actually can hit attacking siege (canon placements are either a death trap or/and shoots at spots where attacking siege isn't placed), will do damage to attackers (AC being a wet noodle projector), can shoots downwards (looking at you ballistae) or in case of walls actually help defenders (that are not carpet bombed by AoE from below and pulled off the wall, while they don't even have a LoS to attack themselves). More realistic would be a few people holding a castle for a long time, while dozens are outside and have a very hard time getting in (because people directly next to the walls could easily be attacked by defenders from above, who are perfectly covered via crenelations and hoardings).

Get one of the Charr Legion Staffs for you flag fantasy? https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Gallery_of_staves#/media/File:Blood_Legion_Staff.jpg

I LIKE how MY characters look (if you mean: how I dressed them up over the years - with very little changes once I settled for a look). I sometimes DISLIKE how OTHER characters look and would like to pay 1000+ gems to get an option to turn off all hideous gem store and skin harassment of colours, shapes and particles I have to endure looking at on other characters. 😉

Or just fix the "cornerstone" in the game's cornerstone mode that is WvW (and other bugs, exploits and map hacks - not even talking about a new map etc.) and not a silly April's Fool side project of one of ANet's programmers that is liked by many players for the 8-bit nostalgia, but not part of what should be the core of the game. (sorry for the rant)

The smaller rings (as far as I can see from the few screenshots - I am at a no-access to the game spot right now) seem to cater the trend of appealing to the "low game intelligence bracket". Attackers, who want to flip the camp can now pretty much fight defenders in the mid range (900) category of skills, with much less (not counting gathering nodes) items to obstruct their LoS. Defenders, coming from the outside of the ring have spots reduced where they can use for cover (e.g. the left and right side of the depot hut in Alpine Lake camp) forcing the flippers to move from the middle of the ring. The attacker can now stand in the middle and stay there, even if defenders have split up to two opposite sides (which usually reduces the synergy between them). As an attacker you now need less tricks to successfully conquer the camp or be smart about you attack.

This is pure comedy gold.

Enter Urban Battleground Fractal and go right after the tent. Kill all the Veteran Ascalonians that spawn endlessly coming from the "woods". They die on first hit and do not get killed by a condi (which makes the achievement not count). Works with all new weapons that are struggling, like Engi shortbow etc.

Defending players don't get T3 stuff through good gameplay though, they get things to higher tiers due to a) dominance in numbers that keep enemies out numerically or b) due to off-hour build ups, where in the late night ours dollies are going in, because nobody kills them and "unless you got Canadians", nobody plays in the middle of the night (because of RL, jobs, family and sanity). Flipping a T3 takes perhaps 10 minutes, building it up will take multiple hours. Attackers certainly have an advantage that is nurtured by ANet's decisions.

Said no to the "Powder Keg as described above" for the following reasons: 90% of all tower/keep attacks are either trebbing from a remote location from one structure to another to wear it down slowly, a blob assault with several rams or golems at a gate or several next to the wall catas. Being able to place Powder Kegs next the gate to stop defenders from repairing is done with the knock back of the rams anyway. Oils and Canons are death traps for defenders and throwing a Powder Keg against rams and wall catas does even do less than the new "unwanted Siege disruptor". I don't seen the Powder Keg with the stats listed above filling any niche that isn't already covered. Attackers don't need a new tool for attacking, defenders need existing tools to be stronger (to overcome design flaws, like Canon placement, Ballista line of sight etc.) I would love to see a new trick to sabotage a dolly, like "poisoning" the supply, so when it gets delivered, it will remove twice the its value from the depot. Putting that in the way of double dollies or speedy dollies that sustain T2/T3 structures could prime the structure for an attack, with the depot emptied. Or what about throwing a "bribe" at NPCs, so you could make them non-hostile, to sneak past sentries or set up siege without the NPCs auto attacking it or yourself during the building of the blueprint. I would find those options more interesting than the Powder Keg, but I appreciate Grimms thought process about making WvW more interesting.

This. No need to rephrase the truth in my own words.

1. Do https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Triumphant_Armor_Reward_Track six times, to unlock the six pieces of medium armour if you haven't got them already unlocked. 2. https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Mistforged_Triumphant_Hero's_armor is the shiny one you want. 3. https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Triumphant_Hero's_Brigandine you already got (ascended medium chest piece) you can turn into a legendary piece, but it will not be the shiny variant. Seeing it that way, you have "wasted" resources there. 4. Shiny variant will cost more Skirmish Tickets (gated) and Memories of Battle (can be bought with pure gold) 5. Mystic Forge process (https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Legendary_armor#WvW_armor_set) is the same. You need the "Gifts" six times. 6. The cost of "going shiny" over "turn ascended into a legendary" will be about 2.5k more Skirmish Tickets and 3k more Memories

Explaining my thoughts 1.) Ballistae do OK damage vs. other siege, but they have a problem hitting "wall hugger catas"; Therefore ACs should do more damage and perhaps Canons and Mortar burning fields (which are a way to bypass too many bubbles). 2.) Cata scatter shot needs to do vastly more damage vs. players and ACs need way more damage too. Canons should get a 20% increase and an evaluation on whether that is enough or not. 3.) Canon #3 needs its CD reduced to 10 sec, so you can build up some pressure with #3 /#1 /#2 /#1 combos; Ballista #3 needs to have its CD halved and #4 needs to have its CD halved, when it bounces to hit three or more targets. I also think that it does no reliably dismount players from warclaws, perhaps because of the interaction with Aegis (?)

Nobody asked for that change. Old version: Sneak up on 10 people that have put two catas close together => disabled the catas, you buy the wall sometime (and in case of e.g. a Thief, you run to get more supply and disable again) Now: => catas keep shooting and unless you have a stationary siege in place that can reach the cata, you won't have a big enough change to use the 66% more damage buff, because the ten people are carpet bombing the wall with AoE as long as the effect is up.